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JSP Introduction

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology that allows developers to embed Java code in HTML pages using special tags. JSP pages combine HTML/XHTML, XML elements, and embedded JSP actions and commands. This allows pages to dynamically collect user input, access databases, and generate customized pages. JSP offers advantages over other technologies like CGI and ASP by allowing dynamic elements to be embedded directly in pages for improved performance. The JSP container handles requests for JSP pages by compiling them into servlets, which generate the HTML response.

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33 views4 pages

JSP Introduction

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology that allows developers to embed Java code in HTML pages using special tags. JSP pages combine HTML/XHTML, XML elements, and embedded JSP actions and commands. This allows pages to dynamically collect user input, access databases, and generate customized pages. JSP offers advantages over other technologies like CGI and ASP by allowing dynamic elements to be embedded directly in pages for improved performance. The JSP container handles requests for JSP pages by compiling them into servlets, which generate the HTML response.

Uploaded by

Study Man
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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JSP - Overview

What is JavaServer Pages?


JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology for developing Webpages that supports
dynamic content. This helps developers insert java code in HTML pages by making
use of special JSP tags, most of which start with <% and end with %>.
A JavaServer Pages component is a type of Java servlet that is designed to fulfill the
role of a user interface for a Java web application. Web developers write JSPs as
text files that combine HTML or XHTML code, XML elements, and embedded JSP
actions and commands.
Using JSP, you can collect input from users through Webpage forms, present
records from a database or another source, and create Webpages dynamically.
JSP tags can be used for a variety of purposes, such as retrieving information from a
database or registering user preferences, accessing JavaBeans components,
passing control between pages, and sharing information between requests, pages
etc.

Why Use JSP?


JavaServer Pages often serve the same purpose as programs implemented using
the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). But JSP offers several advantages in
comparison with the CGI.
 Performance is significantly better because JSP allows embedding Dynamic
Elements in HTML Pages itself instead of having separate CGI files.
 JSP are always compiled before they are processed by the server unlike
CGI/Perl which requires the server to load an interpreter and the target script
each time the page is requested.
 JavaServer Pages are built on top of the Java Servlets API, so like Servlets,
JSP also has access to all the powerful Enterprise Java APIs, including JDBC,
JNDI, EJB, JAXP, etc.
 JSP pages can be used in combination with servlets that handle the business
logic, the model supported by Java servlet template engines.

Finally, JSP is an integral part of Java EE, a complete platform for enterprise class
applications. This means that JSP can play a part in the simplest applications to the
most complex and demanding.
Advantages of JSP
Following table lists out the other advantages of using JSP over other technologies −
vs. Active Server Pages (ASP)
The advantages of JSP are twofold. First, the dynamic part is written in Java, not
Visual Basic or other MS specific language, so it is more powerful and easier to use.
Second, it is portable to other operating systems and non-Microsoft Web servers.
vs. Pure Servlets
It is more convenient to write (and to modify!) regular HTML than to have plenty of
println statements that generate the HTML.
vs. Server-Side Includes (SSI)
SSI is really only intended for simple inclusions, not for "real" programs that use form
data, make database connections, and the like.
vs. JavaScript
JavaScript can generate HTML dynamically on the client but can hardly interact with
the web server to perform complex tasks like database access and image
processing etc.
vs. Static HTML
Regular HTML, of course, cannot contain dynamic information.
JSP - Architecture
The web server needs a JSP engine, i.e, a container to process JSP pages. The
JSP container is responsible for intercepting requests for JSP pages. This tutorial
makes use of Apache which has built-in JSP container to support JSP pages
development.
A JSP container works with the Web server to provide the runtime environment and
other services a JSP needs. It knows how to understand the special elements that
are part of JSPs.
Following diagram shows the position of JSP container and JSP files in a Web
application.
JSP Processing
The following steps explain how the web server creates the Webpage using JSP −
 As with a normal page, your browser sends an HTTP request to the web
server.
 The web server recognizes that the HTTP request is for a JSP page and
forwards it to a JSP engine. This is done by using the URL or JSP page which
ends with .jsp instead of .html.
 The JSP engine loads the JSP page from disk and converts it into a servlet
content. This conversion is very simple in which all template text is converted
to println( ) statements and all JSP elements are converted to Java code. This
code implements the corresponding dynamic behavior of the page.
 The JSP engine compiles the servlet into an executable class and forwards
the original request to a servlet engine.
 A part of the web server called the servlet engine loads the Servlet class and
executes it. During execution, the servlet produces an output in HTML format.
The output is furthur passed on to the web server by the servlet engine inside
an HTTP response.
 The web server forwards the HTTP response to your browser in terms of static
HTML content.
 Finally, the web browser handles the dynamically-generated HTML page
inside the HTTP response exactly as if it were a static page.

All the above mentioned steps can be seen in the following diagram −

Typically, the JSP engine checks to see whether a servlet for a JSP file already
exists and whether the modification date on the JSP is older than the servlet. If the
JSP is older than its generated servlet, the JSP container assumes that the JSP
hasn't changed and that the generated servlet still matches the JSP's contents. This
makes the process more efficient than with the other scripting languages (such as
PHP) and therefore faster.
So in a way, a JSP page is really just another way to write a servlet without having to
be a Java programming wiz. Except for the translation phase, a JSP page is handled
exactly like a regular servlet.

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