Summary

Directives instruct the container on how to work with JSPs. The page directive affects the construction and operation of JSPs. It includes options that are attribute-value pairs that define attributes or behavior for a JSP. Generally, there are many page directives. However, each option usually appears only once per page. The import attribute is notable in that it may appear as many times as necessary.

The include directive permits the JSP author to compose JSPs from several files.

Finally, the taglib directive declares that a JSP is using a library of custom tags. It defines the location of the tag library and the prefix that is used within a JSP to uniquely identify tags that are associated with the library.