Set Tiles put-attribute from within Spring controller?

[sbirnie]

Until now I've used JSP for my views. I'm converting over to Tiles, but I have a question before I move any further. I have my tiles set up and working, but I'm seeing a possible painful issue.

Here's my example:

<definition name="baseLayout" template="/WEB-INF/layouts/baseLayout.jsp">
    <put-attribute name="header" value="/WEB-INF/layouts/header.jsp" />
    <put-attribute name="menu" value="/WEB-INF/layouts/menu.jsp" />
    <put-attribute name="content" value="" />
    <put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/layouts/footer.jsp" />
</definition>

The way I am understanding Tiles, I need to create separate definition for every page that needs to replace "content". Then in my Spring Controller method I return the definition name to display that page.

<definition name="students.edit" extends="baseLayout">
    <put-attribute name="content" value="/WEB-INF/views/students/edit.jsp" />
</definition>

<definition name="students.list" extends="baseLayout">
    <put-attribute name="content" value="/WEB-INF/views/students/list.jsp" />
</definition>

<definition name="students.view" extends="baseLayout">
    <put-attribute name="content" value="/WEB-INF/views/students/view.jsp" />
</definition>

<definition name="course.edit" extends="baseLayout">
    <put-attribute name="content" value="/WEB-INF/views/courses/edit.jsp" />
</definition>

<definition name="courses.list" extends="baseLayout">
    <put-attribute name="content" value="/WEB-INF/views/courses/list.jsp" />
</definition>

<definition name="courses.view" extends="baseLayout">
    <put-attribute name="content" value="/WEB-INF/views/courses/view.jsp" />
</definition>
...

If I have 100's of pages, that's 100's of definitions. That definition file is going to get huge. Is there any way to set the put-attribute "content" from within a Spring Controller method?

something like

    SomeAwesomeTilesClass.setAttribute("content", "/WEB-INF/views/courses/view.jsp");
    return "baseLayout";

[asambol]

The solution to your problem is using Tiles wildcards: http://forum.springsource.org/showth...with-wildcards