Scribd
Upload
111 views

Lecture 34

JSP stands for JavaServer Pages, which is a technology that allows mixing static and dynamic content on web pages. A JSP page is first parsed into Java code, compiled, and then executed as a servlet to generate the response. This means that JSPs can benefit from the full Java language and class libraries to generate dynamic content. The key ingredients in a JSP include directives, scripting elements like expressions and scriptlets, and action elements. Scripting elements allow embedding Java code directly in JSPs to generate dynamic output.

Uploaded by

api-3729920
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
111 views

Lecture 34

JSP stands for JavaServer Pages, which is a technology that allows mixing static and dynamic content on web pages. A JSP page is first parsed into Java code, compiled, and then executed as a servlet to generate the response. This means that JSPs can benefit from the full Java language and class libraries to generate dynamic content. The key ingredients in a JSP include directives, scripting elements like expressions and scriptlets, and action elements. Scripting elements allow embedding Java code directly in JSPs to generate dynamic output.

Uploaded by

api-3729920
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 10

Handout 34

Web Design & Development CS-506

Lecture 34
JavaServer Pages
As we concluded in our discussion on JSP, JSP is a text based document capable of
returning either static or dynamic content to a client’s browser. Static content and
dynamic content can be intermixed. The examples of static content are HTML, XML &
Text etc. Java code, displaying properties of JavaBeans and invoking business logic
defined in custom tags are all examples of dynamic content.

First run of a JSP


Figure below shows what phases a JSP passed through before displaying result.

The web browser makes a request to JSP source code. This code is bifurcated into HTML
and java code by the JSP parser. The java source code is compiled by the Java compiler
resulting in producing a servlet equivalent code of a JSP. The servlet code is intermixed
with HTML and displayed to the user. It is important to note that a JSP only passes
through all these phases when it is invoked for the first time or when the changes have
been made to JSP. Any later call to JSP does not undergo of compilation phase.

Benefits of JSP
Convenient
ƒ We already know java and HTML. So nothing new to be learned to work with
JSP.
ƒ Like servlets (as seen, ultimately a JSP gets converted into a servlet), provides an
extensive infrastructure for
- Tracking sessions
- Reading and sending HTML headers
- Parsing and decoding HTML form data

- 424 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

Efficient
Every request for a JSP is handled by a simple JSP java thread as JSP gets converted into
a servlet. Hence, the time to execute a JSP document is not dominated by starting a
process.

Portable
Like Servlets, JSP is also a specification and follows a well standardized API. The JVM
which is used to execute a JSP file is supported on many architectures and operating
systems.

Inexpensive
There are number of free or inexpensive Web Servers that are good for commercial
quality websites.

JSP vs. Servlet


Let’s compare JSP and Servlet technology by taking an example that simply plays current
date.

First have a look on JSP that is displaying a current date. This page more looks like a
HTML page except of two strangely written lines of codes. Also there are no signs of
doGet(), doPost().

<%@ page import=“java.util.*” %>

<html>
<body>
<h3>
Current Date is:<%= new Date()%>
</h3>
</body>
</html>

- 425 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

Now, compare the JSP code above with the Servlet code given below that is also
displaying the current date.

//File: SearchPersonServlet.java

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

import java.util.*;

public class SearchPersonServlet extends HttpServlet {

protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request,


HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

out.println(
“<html>” +
“<body>” +
“<h3>” +
“Current Date is:“ + new Date() +
“</h3>” +
“</body>” +
“</html>”
);

out.close();
}

// Handles the HTTP GET method.


protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
processRequest(request, response);
}

// Handles the HTTP POST method.


protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
processRequest(request, response);
}
}

Clearly, a lot of code is needed to be written in the case of servlet example to perform a
basic job.

- 426 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

JSP Ingredients
Besides HTML, a JSP may contain the following elements.

ƒ Directive Elements
– Provides global control of JSP ……..…………….. <%@ %>

ƒ Scripting Elements
– JSP comments ……………………………………... <%-- --%>

– declarations ……………………………………... <%! %>


• Used to declare instance variables & methods
– expressions ……………………………………... <%= %>
• A java code fragment which returns String

– scriptlets ……………………………………... <% %>


• Blocks of java code

ƒ Action Elements
– Special JSP tags ……..…………………………….. <jsp: .…. />

We’ll discuss in detail all the ingredients of JSP. This handout will cover only scripting
elements, remaining ones will be discussed in next handouts.

Scripting Elements
Comments

Comments are ignored by JSP-to-servlet translator. Two types of comments are possibly
used in JSP.

– HTML comment:
These comments are shown in browser, means on taking view source of the web
page; these sorts of comments can be read. Format of HTML comments is like to:
<!-- comment text-->

– JSP comment:
These comments are not displayed in browser and have format like:
<%-- comment text --%>

- 427 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

Expressions

The format of writing a Java expression is: <%= Java expression %>

These expressions are evaluated, after converted to strings placed into HTML page at the
place it occurred in JSP page

Examples of writing Expressions are:


– <h2> Time: <%= new java.util.Date() %> </h2>
will print current data & time after converting it to String

– <h2> Welcome: <%= request.getParameter(“name”)%> </h2>


will print the name attribute

Scriptlets

The format of writing a scriptlet is: <%= Java code %>

After opening up the scriptlet tag, any kind of java code can be written inside it. This
code is inserted verbatim into corresponding servlet.

Example of writing a scriptlet is:


– <%
String n = request.getParameter(“name”);
out.println(“welcome ” + n);
%>

The above scriptlet reads the name attribute and prints it after appending
“welcome”

- 428 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

Declarations

The format of writing a declaration tag is: <%! Java code %>

This tag is used to declare variables and methods at class level. The code written inside
this tag is inserted verbatim into servlet’s class definition.

Example of declaring a class level (attribute) variable is:


– <%!
private int someField = 5; %>
%>

Example of declaring a class level method is:


– <%!
public void someMethod ( …… ) {
…………….
}
%>

Code Example: Using scripting elements

The next example code consists on two JSP pages namely first.jsp and
second.jsp. The user will enter two numbers on the first.jsp and after pressing
the calculate sum button, able to see the sum of entered numbers on second.jsp

first.jsp
This page only displays the two text fields to enter numbers along with a button.
<html>
<body>

<h2>Enter two numbers to see their sum</h1>

<!—the form values will be posted to second.jsp -->


<form name = "myForm" action="second.jsp" >

<h3> First Number </h3>


<input type="text" name="num1" />

<h3> Second Number </h3>


<input type="text" name="num2" />
<br/><br/>

<input type="submit" value="Calculate Sum" />


</form>
</body>
</html>

- 429 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

second.jsp
This page retrieves the values posted by first.jsp. After converting the numbers into
integers, displays their sum.

<html>
<body>

<!-- JSP to sum two numbers -->

<%-- Declaration--%>
<%!
// declaring a variable to store sum
int res;

// method helps in calculating the sum


public int sum(int op1, int op2) {
return op1 + op2;
}
%>

<%-- Scripltet--%>
<%
String op1 = request.getParameter("num1");
String op2 = request.getParameter("num2");

int firstNum = Integer.parseInt(op1);


int secondNum = Integer.parseInt(op2);

// calling method sum(), declared above in declartion tag


res = sum(firstNum, secondNum);
%>

<%-- expression used to display sum --%>


<h3>Sum is: <%=res%> </h3>

</body>
</html>

- 430 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

Writing JSP scripting Elements in XML


Now days, the preferred way for composing a JSP pages is using XML. Although writing
JSP pages in old style is still heavily used as we had shown you in the last example.
Equivalent XML tags for writing scripting elements are given below:

ƒ Comments: No equivalent tag is defined

ƒ Declaration: <jsp:declartion> </jsp:declaration>

ƒ Expression: <jsp:expression> </jsp:expression>

ƒ Scriptlet: <jsp:scriptlet> </jsp:scriptlet>

It’s important to note that every opening tag also have a closing tag too.

The second.jsp of last example is given below in XML style.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<jsp:root xmlns:jsp="http://java.sun.com/JSP/Page" version="2.0">

<!-- to change the content type or response encoding change the


following line
-->

<jsp:directive.page contentType="text/xml;charset=UTF-8"/>

<!-- any content can be specified here, e.g.: -->


<jsp:element name="text">
<jsp:body>

<jsp:declaration>

int res;

public int sum(int op1, int op2) {


return op1 + op2;
}

</jsp:declaration>

<jsp:scriptlet>
String op1 = request.getParameter("num1");
String op2 = request.getParameter("num2");

int firstNum = Integer.parseInt(op1);


int secondNum = Integer.parseInt(op2);

res = sum(firstNum, secondNum);


</jsp:scriptlet>

- 431 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

<jsp:text> Sum is: </jsp:text>


<jsp:expression> res </jsp:expression>

</jsp:body>
</jsp:element>
</jsp:root>

- 432 -
Handout 34
Web Design & Development CS-506

References:

ƒ Java A Lab Course by Umair Javed

ƒ Core Servlets and JSP by Marty Hall

- 433 -

You might also like