Java Server Pages (JSP) Tutorial

Java Server Pages (JSP) is a new technology for web application development that has received a great deal of attention since it was first announced.

Why is Java Server Pages (JSP) so exciting?
One reason is that JSP is Java-based, and Java is well-suited for enterprise computing. In fact, JSP is a key part of the Java™ 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform and can take advantage of the many Java Enterprise libraries, such as JDBC, JNDI, and Enterprise JavaBeans™. Another reason is that JSP supports a powerful model for developing web applications that separates presentation from processing. Understanding why this is so important requires a bit of a history lesson.

In the early days of the Web, the only tool for developing dynamic web content was the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). CGI outlined how a web server made user input available to a program, as well as how the program provided the web server with dynamically generated content to send back. CGI scripts were typically written in Perl. (In fact, CGI Perl scripts still drive numerous dynamic web sites.) However, CGI is not an efficient solution. For every request, the web server has to create a new operating-system process, load a Perl interpreter and the Perl script, execute the script, and then dispose of the entire process when it's done. To provide a more efficient solution, various alternatives to CGI have been added to programmers' toolboxes over the last few years: FastCGI, for example, runs each CGI program in an external permanent process (or a pool of processes). In addition, mod_perl for Apache, NSAPI for Netscape, and ISAPI for Microsoft's IIS all run server-side programs in the same process as the web server itself. While these solutions offer betterperformance and scalability, each one is supported by only a subset of the popular web servers. The Java Servlet API, introduced in early 1997, provides a solution to the portability issue.

However, all these technologies suffer from a common problem : HTML code embedded inside programs. If you've ever looked at the code for a servlet, you've probably seen endless calls to out.println( ) that contain scores of HTML tags. For the individual developer working on a simple web site this approach may work fine, but it makes it very difficult for people with different skills to work together to develop a web application. This is becoming a significant problem.
As web sites become increasingly complex and are more and more critical to the success of an organization, the appearance and usability of the web interface becomes paramount. New client technologies, such as client-side scripts and DHTML, can develop more responsive and interactive user interfaces, stylesheets can make it easier to globally change fonts and colors, and images can make the interface more appealing.

At the same time, server-side code is getting more complex, and demands for reliability, performance, and fault tolerance are increasing. The growing complexity of web applications requires a development model that allows people with different skills to cooperate efficiently. JavaServer Pages provides just such a development model, allowing web page authors with skills in graphics, layout, and usability to work in tandem with programmers who are experienced in server-side technologies such as multithreading, resource pooling, databases, and caching. While there are other technologies, such as ASP, PHP, and ColdFusion, that support similar development models, none of them offers all the advantages of JSP.

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Filetype : pdf
Size : 2,328 KB
First Edition, December 2000
Page : 572 pages

Professional Java Development with the Spring Framework

Introduction Professional Java Development with the Spring Framework :

The Spring Framework is a major open source application development framework that makes Java/J2EE development easier and more productive.

Spring offers services that you can use in a wide range of environments, from applets and standalone clients through web applications running in a simple servlet engine to complex enterprise applications running in a full-blown J2EE application server. Spring enables a POJO programming model that decouples your code from its environment, protecting your investment in the face of change. Spring works on JDK 1.3 and later, taking advantage of JDK 1.4 and 1.5 features if available. Spring's J2EE services run on J2EE 1.2 and later.

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