Introduction to JSP

What are Java Server Pages?

JSP stands for Java Server Pages, and it is a dynamic web development technology. It uses JSP tags to insert Java code into HTML web pages. Tags usually start with <% and end with %>.

JSP is a type of Java servlet, mainly used to implement the user interface part of Java web applications. Web developers write JSP by combining HTML code, XHTML code, XML elements, and embedding JSP operations and commands.

JSP obtains user input data through web forms, accesses databases and other data sources, and then dynamically creates web pages.

JSP tags have multiple functions, such as accessing databases, recording user selection information, accessing JavaBeans components, and can also pass control information and share information between different web pages.

Why use JSP?

JSP programs have similar functions to CGI programs, but compared to CGI programs, JSP programs have the following advantages:

• Performance is superior because JSP can directly embed elements in HTML web pages dynamically without needing to reference a separate CGI file.

• The server calls a pre-compiled JSP file, unlike CGI./Like Perl, it must first load the interpreter and the target script.

• Based on the Java Servlet API, JSP has a variety of powerful enterprise-level Java APIs, including JDBC, JNDI, EJB, JAXP, and so on.

• JSP pages can be used together with Servlets that handle business logic, and this pattern is supported by the Java servlet template engine.

Finally, JSP is an indispensable part of Java EE and a complete enterprise-level application platform. This means that JSP can implement the most complex applications in the simplest way.

Advantages of JSP

The following lists other benefits of using JSP:

• Compared to ASP: JSP has two major advantages. First, the dynamic part is written in Java, not in VB or other MS-specific languages, so it is more powerful and easier to use. The second point is that JSP is easy to port to non-MS platforms.

• Compared to pure Servlet: JSP can easily write or modify HTML web pages without facing a large number of println statements.

• Compared to SSI: SSI cannot use form data, cannot establish database links.

• Compared to JavaScript: Although JavaScript can dynamically generate HTML on the client side, it is difficult to interact with the server, so it cannot provide complex services such as database access and image processing, etc.

• Compared to static HTML: Static HTML does not contain dynamic information.

Target Audience

This tutorial is designed for beginners to help them understand the basic functions of Java Server Pages (JSP) to develop web applications. After completing this tutorial, you will find that you have a moderate level of professional knowledge in using JSP, from which you can enter a higher level.

What's next?

We will guide you step by step to set up the JSP runtime environment, which requires a certain level of Java knowledge.

If you haven't learned Java yet, you can first learn the one we provide for youJava Tutorial.