JSP

tutorial

Written by the team at Visualbuilder.com

Last Updated : May 18, 2001

Online version available at http://visualbuilder.com/

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This is a tutorial to help a developer understand what is meant by
JavaServer Pages. The reader will learn the main concepts, setup
the JSP environment on their computer and write a few JSP
programs.

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Introduction to JSP
JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology based on the Java language and enables
the development of dynamic web sites. JSP was developed by Sun Microsystems
to allow server side development. JSP files are HTML files with special Tags
containing Java source code that provide the dynamic content.

The following shows the Typical Web server, different clients connecting via the
Internet to a Web server. In this example, the Web server is running on Unix and
is the very popular Apache Web server.

Typical Web Web

Client
server server

Mac OS

INTERNET

Linux

Unix
(Apache Web server)
Windows 98

First static web pages were displayed. Typically these were people’s first
experience with making web pages so consisted of My Home Page sites and
company marketing information. Afterwards Perl and C were languages used on
the web server to provide dynamic content. Soon most languages including
Visualbasic, Delphi, C++ and Java could be used to write applications that
provided dynamic content using data from text files or database requests. These
were known as CGI server side applications. ASP was developed by Microsoft to
allow HTML developers to easily provide dynamic content supported as standard
by Microsoft’s free Web Server, Internet Information Server (IIS). JSP is the
equivalent from Sun Microsystems, a comparison of ASP and JSP will be
presented in the following section.

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The following diagram shows a web server that supports JSP files. Notice that the
web server also is connected to a database.

Typical Web server Web

Client
supporting JSP server

Mac OS

INTERNET
DATABASE

Linux JSP
Servlet
Engine Oracle
JSP files Database
stored here ! Unix
(Apache Web server)
Windows 98

JSP source code runs on the web server in the JSP Servlet Engine. The JSP
Servlet engine dynamically generates the HTML and sends the HTML output to the
client’s web browser.

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Why use JSP?

JSP is easy to learn and allows developers to quickly produce web sites and
applications in an open and standard way. JSP is based on Java, an object-
oriented language. JSP offers a robust platform for web development.

Main reasons to use JSP:

1. Multi platform
2. Component reuse by using Javabeans and EJB.
3. Advantages of Java.

You can take one JSP file and move it to another platform, web server or JSP
Servlet engine.

Moving JSP file from one

platform to another.

Web server Web server

(Microsoft - IIS) (Apache)

Moving JSP files

JSP JSP
Servlet Servlet
Engine Engine

Microsoft
This means NTnever locked into one vendor or platform. Unix
you are
(JSP Servlet Engine - JRUN) (JSP Servlet Engine - Tomcat)

HTML and graphics displayed on the web browser are classed as the presentation
layer. The Java code (JSP) on the server is classed as the implementation.
By having a separation of presentation and implementation, web designers work
only on the presentation and Java developers concentrate on implementing the
application.

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JSP compared to ASP

JSP and ASP are fairly similar in the functionality that they provide. JSP may have
slightly higher learning curve. Both allow embedded code in an HTML page,
session variables and database access and manipulation. Whereas ASP is mostly
found on Microsoft platforms i.e. NT, JSP can operate on any platform that
conforms to the J2EE specification. JSP allow component reuse by using
Javabeans and EJBs. ASP provides the use of COM / ActiveX controls.

JSP compared to Servlets

A Servlet is a Java class that provides special server side service. It is hard work
to write HTML code in Servlets. In Servlets you need to have lots of println
statements to generate HTML.

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JSP architecture
JSPs are built on top of SUN’s servlet technology. JSPs are essential an HTML
page with special JSP tags embedded. These JSP tags can contain Java code. The
JSP file extension is .jsp rather than .htm or .html. The JSP engine parses the .jsp
and creates a Java servlet source file. It then compiles the source file into a class
file, this is done the first time and this why the JSP is probably slower the first
time it is accessed. Any time after this the special compiled servlet is executed
and is therefore returns faster.

Web Server

Web Browser JSP

1. Web browser Request 2. JSP request sent to Web server File

3. Send to JSP Servlet Engine

9. HTML sent to browser

JSP Servlet Engine

4. Parse JSP file

INTERNET 5. Generate Servlet

source code

6. Compile Servlet
source code into
class.

8. HTML (Servlet output)

7. Instantiate Servlet.

Steps required for a JSP request:

1. The user goes to a web site made using JSP. The user goes to a JSP page
(ending with .jsp). The web browser makes the request via the Internet.
2. The JSP request gets sent to the Web server.
3. The Web server recognises that the file required is special (.jsp), therefore
passes the JSP file to the JSP Servlet Engine.
4. If the JSP file has been called the first time, the JSP file is parsed,
otherwise go to step 7.
5. The next step is to generate a special Servlet from the JSP file. All the
HTML required is converted to println statements.
6. The Servlet source code is compiled into a class.
7. The Servlet is instantiated, calling the init and service methods.
8. HTML from the Servlet output is sent via the Internet.
9. HTML results are displayed on the user’s web browser.

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Setting up a JSP environment
Before setting up the JSP environment, you must make sure you have the JDK.

Download JDK 1.3 from the following URL:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/

For Windows, the complete download is about 30 MB.

Run through the setup.

One of the main problems new Java developers have is setting the PATH and
CLASSPATH.
For Windows 95/98/ME you edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the new PATH and
CLASSPATH settings and reboot your machine.
For Windows NT/2000 you edit the environment settings.

Both of these changes are described in the Java installation instructions.

Download the JSP environment

You can download JSP environments from the web.

http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/download.html

The preferred option is to download the J2EE Reference Implementation, Tomcat

(approximately 3MB). Tomcat is a free open source JSP and Servlet engine,
developed by Apache. Instructions to download Tomcat are given below.

For Tomcat setup

To download Tomcat (current version 3.2.1), go to the following URL:

http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat/release/v3.2.1/bin/

Download your chosen compressed file, for example on Windows you would
download the zip file – 3.0 MB:
http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat/release/v3.2.1/bin/jakarta-
tomcat-3.2.1.zip

Unzip the file into a directory and set an environment variable TOMCAT_HOME to
your main Tomcat directory:

For example,

set TOMCAT_HOME=c:\tomcat

To start the server change to the tomcat\bin directory and type:

startup

Open a web browser and in the address box type:

http://localhost:8080/ - this displays the example page.

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Place any new JSP files in the “webapps” directory under your installed Tomcat
directory.

For example, to run “myfirst.jsp” file, copy the file into the “webapps/ROOT”
directory and then open a browser to the address:

http://localhost:8080/myfirst.jsp

This will show you the executed JSP file.

CONGRATULATIONS - YOUR JSP and SERVLET ENVIRONMENT IS NOW

SETUP!

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Creating your first JSP page
<html>
<head>
<title>My first JSP page
</title>
</head>
<body>
<%@ page language=”java” %>

<% System.out.println(“Hello World”); %>

</body>
</html>

Type the code above into a text file. Name the file helloworld.jsp.
Place this in the correct directory on your JSP web server and call it via your
browser.

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Using JSP tags
There are four main tags:

1. Declaration tag
2. Expression tag
3. Directive Tag
4. Scriptlet tag
5. Action tag

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Declaration tag ( <%! %> )
This tag allows the developer to declare variables or methods.

Before the declaration you must have <%!

At the end of the declaration, the developer must have %>

Code placed in this tag must end in a semicolon ( ; ).

Declarations do not generate output so are used with JSP expressions or

scriptlets.

For Example,

<%!

private int counter = 0 ;

private String get Account ( int accountNo) ;
%>

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Expression tag ( <%= %>)
This tag allows the developer to embed any Java expression and is short for
out.println().

A semicolon ( ; ) does not appear at the end of the code inside the tag.

For example, to show the current date and time.

Date : <%= new java.util.Date() %>

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Directive tag ( <%@ directive … %>)
A JSP directive gives special information about the page to the JSP Engine.

There are three main types of directives:

1) page – processing information for this page.

2) Include – files to be included.
3) Tag library – tag library to be used in this page.

Directives do not produce any visible output when the page is requested but
change the way the JSP Engine processes the page.

For example, you can make session data unavailable to a page by setting a page
directive (session) to false.

1. Page directive

This directive has 11 optional attributes that provide the JSP Engine with special
processing information. The following table lists the 11 different attributes with a
brief description:

language Which language the file uses. <%@ page language = “java” %>
extends Superclass used by the JSP <%@ page extends =
engine for the translated Servlet. “com.taglib…” %>
import Import all the classes in a java <%@ page import = “java.util.*”
package into the current JSP %>
page. This allows the JSP page to
use other java classes.
session Does the page make use of Default is set to true.
sessions. By default all JSP pages
have session data available.
There are performance benefits
to switching session to false.
buffer Controls the use of buffered <%@ page buffer = “none” %>
output for a JSP page. Default is
8kb
autoFlush Flush output buffer when full. <%@ page autoFlush = “true” %>
isThreadSafe Can the generated Servlet deal
with multiple requests? If true a
new thread is started so requests
are handled simultaneously.
info Developer uses info attribute to <%@ page info =
add information/document for a “visualbuilder.com test page,
page. Typically used to add copyright 2001. “ %>
author, version, copyright and
date info.
errorPage Different page to deal with <%@ page errorPage =
errors. Must be URL to error “/error/error.jsp” %>
page.
IsErrorPage This flag is set to true to make a
JSP page a special Error Page.
This page has access to the
implicit object exception (see
later).

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contentType Set the mime type and character
set of the JSP.

2. Include directive

Allows a JSP developer to include contents of a file inside another. Typically

include files are used for navigation, tables, headers and footers that are common
to multiple pages.

Two examples of using include files:

This includes the html from privacy.html found in the include directory into the
current jsp page.

<%@ include file = “include/privacy.html %>

or to include a naviagation menu (jsp file) found in the current directory.

<%@ include file = “navigation.jsp %>

Include files are discussed in more detail in the later sections of this tutorial.

3. Tag Lib directive

A tag lib is a collection of custom tags that can be used by the page.

<%@ taglib uri = “tag library URI” prefix = “tag Prefix” %>

Custom tags were introduced in JSP 1.1 and allow JSP developers to hide complex
server side code from web designers.

This topic will be covered in the Advanced JSP tutorial at visualbuilder.com

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Scriptlet tag ( <% … %> )
Between <% and %> tags, any valid Java code is called a Scriptlet. This code can
access any variable or bean declared.

For example, to print a variable.

<%

String username = “visualbuilder” ;

out.println ( username ) ;

%>

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Action tag

There are three main roles of action tags :

1) enable the use of server side Javabeans

2) transfer control between pages
3) browser independent support for applets.

Javabeans

A Javabean is a special type of class that has a number of methods. The JSP page
can call these methods so can leave most of the code in these Javabeans. For
example, if you wanted to make a feedback form that automatically sent out an
email. By having a JSP page with a form, when the visitor presses the submit
button this sends the details to a Javabean that sends out the email. This way
there would be no code in the JSP page dealing with sending emails (JavaMail
API) and your Javabean could be used in another page (promoting reuse).

To use a Javabean in a JSP page use the following syntax:

<jsp : usebean id = “ …. “ scope = “application” class = “com…” />

The following is a list of Javabean scopes:

page – valid until page completes.

request – bean instance lasts for the client request
session – bean lasts for the client session.
application – bean instance created and lasts until application ends.

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Creating your second JSP page

For the second example, we will make use of the different tags we have
learnt. This example will declare two variables; one string used to stored
the name of a website and an integer called counter that displays the
number of times the page has been accessed. There is also a private
method declared to increment the counter. The website name and counter
value are displayed.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> JSP Example 2</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY> JSP Example 2
<BR>
<%!
String sitename = “visualbuilder.com”;
int counter = 0;

private void increment Counter()

{
counter ++;
}
%>

Website of the day is

<%= sitename %>
<BR>
page accessed
<%= counter %>
</BODY>
</HTML>

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Implicit Objects

So far we know that the developer can create Javabeans and interact with Java
objects. There are several objects that are automatically available in JSP called
implicit objects.

The implicit objects are

Variable Of type
Request Javax.servlet.http.httpservletrequest
Response Javax.servlet.http. httpservletresponse
Out Javax.servlet.jsp.JspWriter
Session Javax.servlet.http.httpsession
PageContent Javax.servlet.jsp.pagecontext
Application Javax.servlet.http.ServletContext
Config Javax.servlet.http.ServletConfig
Page Java.lang.Object

Page object

Represents the JSP page and is used to call any methods defined by the servlet
class.

Config object

Stores the Servlet configuration data.

Request object

Access to information associated with a request. This object is normally used in

looking up parameter values and cookies.

<% String devStr = request.getParameter(“dev”); %>

Development language = <%= devStr %>

This code snippet is storing the parameter “dev” in the string devStr. The result is
displayed underneath.

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JSP Comments

Coming soon…

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Creating your third JSP page

Coming soon…

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JSP page directives

Coming soon…

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Static JSP includes

Coming soon…

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Dynamic JSP includes

Coming soon…

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Error pages

Coming soon…

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Using JavaBeans with JSP

Coming soon…

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If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this document,
please use the JSP forum at visualbuilder.com or send us an email
at support@visualbuilder.com

Thank you,

Visualbuilder team

http://www.visualbuilder.com

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