Learning About JSPs

An introduction into JSP or Java Server Pages

What is JSP?

Java Server Pages or JSP is an extension of servlets.

It is a server-side scripting language.

JSP helps in the creation of webpages that have dynamic content. Such as;

•          User inputs through forms on a webpage
•       Websites with pages that share information
•          Loading information through a database
•          Sending email from a webpage

It is a similar to ASP or PHP.

The files are written as text files with a “.jsp” extension.

It is written as a combination of HTML and Java;

·         The HTML handles the overall look of the webpage

·         Java handles the logic

JSP code is written in the following manner;

 <% 

Java Code
     %>

This is contained within a document with HTML tags as well and saved as a .jsp file.

JSP can also include JavaScript and CSS.

 

Understand the Architecture of JSP

In order to process JSP, the web server requires two things;

• JSP Container
• Servlet Engine

JSP container is what provides the run-time environment for the JSPs and understands the Java concepts.

The servlet engine loads the class and executes it.

Let us further investigate how this works;

In the end, following the process, the JSP code converts the dynamic web page into what seems like a static web page to send to the client.