As previously defined, a view is a representation of data that exists in and is generated by an application. Views are the primary points of interaction that a user has with an application built with the MVC pattern. The view layer may utilize different technologies to render information to a user. Spring supports a number of view options. These view options are also referred to as templates. Template support in a Spring application is provided by a template engine. Simply put, a template engine enables the utilization of static template files with the view layer of an application. A template engine may also be referred to as a template library. The following template libraries are available for use with Spring:
- Thymeleaf
- JSP/JSTL
- Freemaker
- Tiles
- Velocity
This list is by no means intended to be exhaustive. There are a number of other template libraries...
