These are the basic tags, almost like a language

Tag Name	Description
_default	Definition of the set of properties that all tags expose
assert	Log an error or success report depending on a test
catch	Catch an exception
collate-results	Collate a subsection of results.
else	Run children if test is not true
for-each	Run children over all items of a collection
if	Run children if test is true
log	Write a message to the log
loop	Execute the child tags a number of times
property	Define or set a property
report	Report a message to the output file
run-test	Run a named set of tests
test	Define a test
throw	Throw an exception
try	A block of code that can have exceptions trapped

Every tag in the system implements these properties, although they may not be used or indeed useful in every situation

Attribute Name	Description
id	An identifier used to find a tag, either for calling sub tags or breaking control back to a previous tag
name	A name object that is used simply for naming a section of tags.

A simple error/success reporting tag.

test is evaluated to a boolean. If the value is false, a report is generated with message and type. If the value is true, then a report is generated with count type.

Attribute Name	Description
continue	If set to true, execution of tags in the current context will continue even if the test==false. Otherwise throw an AssertionException. [default value: false]
count	Report type name that is incremented when test==true
message	Message that will be output when the test==false
test	Boolean test expression [Required]
type	Report type to be used for message if test==false. [default value: error]

See the try tag for usage information

Attribute Name	Description
type	Type of the class to be caught [Required]

Collate a subsection of results. At the tag end, will display the count of all results encountered in this subsection

Attribute Name	Description

See the if tag

Attribute Name	Description

Run the children x number of times where x is the number of items in the specified collection. Place the item from the collection & the index of the item into properties

Attribute Name	Description
collection	Expression which should evaluate to a Collection, Iterator or array. [Required]
index	Name of property to which the index of the item is written. [default value: index]
property	Name of property to which the item from the collection is stored. [default value: item]

Example

<if test="${foo>1}">
    <log message="the test was true"/>
    ....
</if><else>
    <log message="the test was false"/>
    ....
</else>

Attribute Name	Description
test	The boolean test value [Required]

This is used to display debugging or progress messages, and is not output to the results

Attribute Name	Description
level	The level of the message. Possible values: FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG. [default value: INFO]
message	The message to be written out [Required]

Not a proper replacement for a java 'for' loop, the values in here are static and the loop will execute at least one.

Example:

  <loop property="i" begin="0" end="10">
	   <log message="Inside loop, i=${i}"/>
  </loop>

Attribute Name	Description
property	Name of the property created holding the index value [Required]
begin	First value in the rang [Required]
end	Last value in the range. The range is inclusive [Required]

This tag creates or reassigns properties. Properties are always created on the parent tag, thus being exposed for the rest of the siblings in this child list.

Note that either one of 'define' or 'set' must be used.

Attribute Name	Description
booleanValue	The value to be set or defined, whose type will be Boolean.
define	The name of a new property to be created.
doubleValue	The value to be set or defined, whose type will be Double.
intValue	The value to be set or defined, whose type will be Integer.
longValue	The value to be set or defined, whose type will be Long.
set	The name of a pre-existing property to have it's value changed
value	The value to be set or defined, whose type will be of the type returned by the expression evaluator.

Report a message to the output file.

Attribute Name	Description
message	The message
type	The type of the report. [default value: info]

The test named in the property 'id' is looked up in the global scope of test id's and executed

Attribute Name	Description
id	The id of the test to run [Required]

Doesn't actually do anything other than execute it's children, but a handy name to use when defining callable tests, by using it's 'id' property.

Attribute Name	Description
id	An identifier used to find a tag, either for calling sub tags or breaking control back to a previous tag

Throw an exception, which can be caught by a try..catch block.

Attribute Name	Description
message	Message to appear in the exception [Required]
type	Type of the exception. If the type name does not contain a '.', then "java.lang." is prepended to the string. [Required]

A try tag should be used in conjunction with one or more catch tags like this:

<try>
    ....
    .... Some tags which might throw an exception
    ....
    <catch type="NullPointerException">
        <log message="caught a NPE. Exception details: ${exception}" />
        <log message="Caught in NullPointerException block. it was ${exception}" />
        <log message="Underlying exception was ${_exception}" />
        <log message="Underlying exception class was ${_exception.class}" />
    </catch>
    <catch type="Exception">
        <log message="caught another exception"/>
    </catch>
</try>	

The exception type specified in the catch exception is a Java Exception type name. If not '.'s are found in that name then "java.lang." is automatically attached to the start of the string

The order of the catch statements is important, as in Java code. The first catch tag that matches the exception type is executed only, so place catches for your most derived types first.

In the scope of a catch block, two properties are defined, exception and _exception. These both refer to the caught exception. The exception property refers to the exception wrapper which contains the tag call stack (not the Java call stack). The _exception property refers to the underlying Java exception.

See also the throw tag.

Attribute Name	Description