Overview

Java Server Pages (JSP) is a Java-based technology that simplifies the process of developing interactive and dynamic websites. JSP with Java and HTML tags can easily make static web pages dynamic.

Java Server Pages are source files with .jsp file extensions. JSP files contain embedded Java code and HTML tags. The web programmer can access data from Java code running on the server.

Some earlier or alternative technologies to create dynamic web content were as follows:

• CGI(Common Gateway Interface)
• ASP(Active Server Pages)

CGI

CGI provides a mechanism for the server to pass the requested information to external programs. These external programs are run by the web server to create the requested data at runtime.

ASP

ASP(Active Server Pages) technology is developed by Microsoft Corporation. ASP supports Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) running under Windows OS. ASP supports multiple
scripting languages like PerlScript, VBScript, etc. VBScript is the default and supports ActiveX components which are compiled code objects that provide dynamic content. It can access the database and can perform file manipulations.

JSP makes webpage dynamic

When a JSP page on the server is requested by the website user, the Java code from HTML tags is separated, compiled, and executed. The result is supplied back to the page. The result is communicated as a response to the user.