JSP vs. Active Server Pages (ASP).
ASP is a similar technology from Microsoft.
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.
JSP vs. Pure Servlets.
JSP doesn't give you anything that you couldn't in principle do with a servlet.
But it is more convenient to write (and to modify!) regular HTML than to have a zillion println statements that generate the HTML.
Plus, by separating the look from the content you can put different people on different tasks; your Web page design experts can build the HTML, leaving places for your servlet programmers to insert the dynamic content.
JSP vs. Server-Side Includes (SSI).
SSI is a widely-supported technology for including externally-defined pieces into a static Web page.
JSP is better because it lets you use servlets instead of a separate program to generate that dynamic part.
Besides, SSI is really only intended for simple inclusions, not for "real" programs that use form data, make database connections, and the like.
JSP vs. JavaScript.
JavaScript can generate HTML dynamically on the client.
This is a useful capability, but only handles situations where the dynamic information is based on the client's environment.
With the exception of cookies, HTTP and form submission data is not available to JavaScript.
And, since it runs on the client, JavaScript can't access server-side resources like databases, catalogs, pricing information, and the like.
JSP vs. Static HTML.
Regular HTML, of course, cannot contain dynamic information.
JSP is so easy and convenient that it is quite feasible to augment HTML pages that only benefit marginally by the insertion of small amounts of dynamic data.
Previously, the cost of using dynamic data would preclude its use in all but the most valuable instances.
Next Time:
Getting Started: Installation and Setup
Obtaining and Installing the Servlet and JSP Classes
Getting a Servlet-Capable Web Server
This tutorial is now available as a book: Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages by Marty Hall, published by Sun Microsystems Press.
Read all about it at CoreServlets.com
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