Java Server Pages [JSP]

1) Briefly explain about Java Server Pages technology?

JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology provides a simplified, fast way to create web pages
that display dynamically-generated content. The JSP specification, developed through an
industry-wide initiative led by Sun Microsystems, defines the interaction between the
server and the JSP page, and describes the format and syntax of the page.
2) What is a JSP Page?
A JSP page is a text document that contains two types of text: static data, which can be
expressed in any text-based format (such as HTML,WML,XML,etc), and JSP elements,
which construct dynamic content.JSP is a technology that lets you mix static content with
dynamically-generated content.
3) Why do I need JSP technology if I already have servlets?
JSP pages are compiled into servlets, so theoretically you could write servlets to support
your web-based applications. However, JSP technology was designed to simplify the
process of creating pages by separating web presentation from web content. In many
applications, the response sent to the client is a combination of template data and
dynamically-generated data. In this situation, it is much easier to work with JSP pages
than to do everything with servlets.
4) How are the JSP requests handled?
The following sequence of events happens on arrival of jsp request:
a. Browser requests a page with .jsp file extension in webserver.
b. Webserver reads the request.
c. Using jsp compiler,webserver converts the jsp into a servlet class that implement the
javax.servletjsp.jsp page interface.the jsp file compiles only when the page is first
requested or when the jsp file has been changed.
d. The generated jsp page servlet class is invoked to handle the browser request.
e. The response is sent to the client by the generated servlet.
5) What are the advantages of JSP?
Ans : The following are the advantages of using JSP:
a. JSP pages easily combine static templates, including HTML or XML fragments, with
code that generates dynamic content.
b. JSP pages are compiled dynamically into servlets when requested, so page authors can
easily make updates to presentation code. JSP pages can also be precompiled if desired.
c. JSP tags for invoking JavaBeans components manage these components completely,
shielding the page author from the complexity of application logic.
d. Developers can offer customized JSP tag libraries that page authors access using an
XML-like syntax.
e. Web authors can change and edit the fixed template portions of pages without
affecting the application logic. Similarly, developers can make logic changes at the
component level without editing the individual pages that use the logic.

6) How is a JSP page invoked and compiled?

Pages built using JSP technology are typically implemented using a translation phase
that is performed once, the first time the page is called. The page is compiled into a Java
Servlet class and remains in server memory, so subsequent calls to the page have very
fast response times.
7) What are Directives?
Directives are instructions that are processed by the JSP engine when the page is
compiled to a servlet. Directives are used to set page-level instructions, insert data from
external files, and specify custom tag libraries. Directives are defined between < %@ and
% >.
< %@ page language=="java" imports=="java.util.*" % >
< %@ include file=="banner.html" % >
8) What are the different types of directives available in JSP?
Ans : The following are the different types of directives:
a. include directive : used to include a file and merges the content of the file with the
current page
b. page directive : used to define page specific attributes like scripting language, error
page, buffer, thread safety, etc
c. taglib : used to declare a custom tag library which is used in the page.
9) What are JSP actions?
JSP actions are executed when a JSP page is requested. Action are inserted in the jsp
page using XML syntax to control the behavior of the servlet engine. Using action, we
can dynamically insert a file, reuse bean components, forward the user to another page, or
generate HTML for the Java plugin. Some of the available actions are as follows:
<jsp:include> - include a file at the time the page is requested.
<jsp:useBean> - find or instantiate a JavaBean.
<jsp:setProperty> - set the property of a JavaBean.
<jsp:getProperty> - insert the property of a JavaBean into the output.
<jsp:forward> - forward the requester to a new page.
<jsp:plugin> - generate browser-specific code that makes an OBJECT or EMBED tag for
the Java plugin.
10) What are Scriptlets?
Scriptlets are blocks of programming language code (usually java) embedded within a
JSP page. Scriptlet code is inserted into the servlet generated from the page. Scriptlet
code is defined between <% and %>
11) What are Decalarations?
Declarations are similar to variable declarations in Java.Variables are defined for
subsequent use in expressions or scriptlets. Declarations are defined between <%! and
%>.
< %! int i=0; %>

12) How to declare instance or global variables in jsp?

Instance variables should be declared inside the declaration part. The variables declared
with JSP declaration element will be shared by all requests to the jsp page.
< %@ page language=="java" contentType="text/html"% >
< %! int i=0; %>
13) What are Expressions?
Expressions are variables or constants that are inserted into the data returned by the web
server. Expressions are defined between <% = and % >
< %= scorer.getScore() %>
14) What is meant by implicit objects? And what are they?
Ans : Implicit objects are those objects which are avaiable by default. These objects are
instances of classesdefined by the JSP specification. These objects could be used within
the jsp page without being declared.
The following are the implicit jsp objects:
1. application
2. page
3. request
4. response
5. session
6. exception
7. out
8. config
9. pageContext
15) How do I use JavaBeans components (beans) from a JSP page?
The JSP specification includes standard tags for bean use and manipulation. The
<jsp:useBean> tag creates an instance of a specific JavaBean class. If the instance already
exists, it is retrieved. Otherwise, a new instance of the bean is created. The
<jsp:setProperty> and <jsp:getProperty> tags let you manipulate properties of a specific
bean.
16) What is the difference between <jsp:include> and <%@include:>
Both are used to insert files into a JSP page.
<%@include:> is a directive which statically inserts the file at the time the JSP page is
translated into a servlet.
<jsp:include> is an action which dynamically inserts the file at the time the page is
requested.
17) What is the difference between forward and sendRedirect?
Both requestDispatcher.forward() and response.sendRedirect() is used to redirect to new
url.

forward is an internal redirection of user request within the web container to a new URL
without the knowledge of the user(browser). The request object and the http headers
remain intact.
sendRedirect is normally an external redirection of user request outside the web
container. sendRedirect sends response header back to the browser with the new URL.
The browser send the request to the new URL with fresh http headers. sendRedirect is
slower than forward because it involves extra server call.
18) Can I create XML pages using JSP technology?
Yes, the JSP specification does support creation of XML documents. For simple XML
generation, the XML tags may be included as static template portions of the JSP page.
Dynamic generation of XML tags occurs through bean components or custom tags that
generate XML output.
19) How is Java Server Pages different from Active Server Pages?
JSP is a community driven specification whereas ASP is a similar proprietary technology
from Microsoft. In JSP, the dynamic part is written in Java, not Visual Basic or other MSspecific language. JSP is portable to other operating systems and non-Microsoft Web
servers whereas it is not possible with ASP
20) Can't Javascript be used to generate dynamic content rather than JSP?
JavaScript can be used to generate dynamic content on the client browser. But it can
handle only handles situations where the dynamic information is based on the client's
environment. It will not able to harness server side information directly.
Q:
What is a output comment?
A: A comment that is sent to the client in the viewable page source.The JSP engine
handles an output comment as uninterpreted HTML text, returning the comment in
the HTML output sent to the client. You can see the comment by viewing the page
source from your Web browser.
JSP Syntax
<!-- comment [ <%= expression %> ] -->
Example 1
<!-- This is a commnet sent to client on
<%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString() %>
-->
Displays in the page source:
<!-- This is a commnet sent to client on January 24, 2004 -->
Q:
What is a Hidden Comment?
A: A comments that documents the JSP page but is not sent to the client. The JSP
engine ignores a hidden comment, and does not process any code within hidden
comment tags. A hidden comment is not sent to the client, either in the displayed
JSP page or the HTML page source. The hidden comment is useful when you want

to hide or "comment out" part of your JSP page.

You can use any characters in the body of the comment except the closing --%>
combination. If you need to use --%> in your comment, you can escape it by
typing --%\>.
JSP Syntax
<%-- comment --%>
Examples
<%@ page language="java" %>
<html>
<head><title>A Hidden Comment </title></head>
<body>
<%-- This comment will not be visible to the colent in the page source --%>
</body>
</html>
Q:
What is a Expression?
A: An expression tag contains a scripting language expression that is evaluated,
converted to a String, and inserted where the expression appears in the JSP file.
Because the value of an expression is converted to a String, you can use an
expression within text in a JSP file. Like
<%= someexpression %>
<%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString() %>
You cannot use a semicolon to end an expression
Q:
What is a Declaration?
A: A declaration declares one or more variables or methods for use later in the JSP
source file.
A declaration must contain at least one complete declarative statement. You can
declare any number of variables or methods within one declaration tag, as long as
they are separated by semicolons. The declaration must be valid in the scripting
language used in the JSP file.
<%! somedeclarations %>
<%! int i = 0; %>
<%! int a, b, c; %>
Q:
What is a Scriptlet?
A: A scriptlet can contain any number of language statements, variable or method
declarations, or expressions that are valid in the page scripting language.Within
scriptlet tags, you can
1.Declare variables or methods to use later in the file (see also Declaration).
2.Write expressions valid in the page scripting language (see also Expression).

3.Use any of the JSP implicit objects or any object declared with a <jsp:useBean>
tag.
You must write plain text, HTML-encoded text, or other JSP tags outside the
scriptlet.
Scriptlets are executed at request time, when the JSP engine processes the client
request. If the scriptlet produces output, the output is stored in the out object,
from which you can display it.
Q:
What are implicit objects? List them?
A: Certain objects that are available for the use in JSP documents without being
declared first. These objects are parsed by the JSP engine and inserted into the
generated servlet. The implicit objects re listed below
request
response
pageContext
session
application
out
config
page

exception

Q:
Difference between forward and sendRedirect?
A: When you invoke a forward request, the request is sent to another resource on the
server, without the client being informed that a different resource is going to
process the request. This process occurs completly with in the web container.
When a sendRedirtect method is invoked, it causes the web container to return to
the browser indicating that a new URL should be requested. Because the browser
issues a completly new request any object that are stored as request attributes
before the redirect occurs will be lost. This extra round trip a redirect is slower
than forward.
Q:
What are the different scope valiues for the <jsp:useBean>?
A: The different scope values for <jsp:useBean> are
1. page
2. request
3.session
4.application

Q:
Explain the life-cycle mehtods in JSP?
A:
THe generated servlet class for a JSP page implements the HttpJspPage interface
of the javax.servlet.jsp package. Hte HttpJspPage interface extends the JspPage
interface which inturn extends the Servlet interface of the javax.servlet package.
the generated servlet class thus implements all the methods of the these three
interfaces. The JspPage interface declares only two mehtods - jspInit() and
jspDestroy() that must be implemented by all JSP pages regardless of the clientserver protocol. However the JSP specification has provided the HttpJspPage
interfaec specifically for the JSp pages serving HTTP requests. This interface
declares one method _jspService().
The jspInit()- The container calls the jspInit() to initialize te servlet instance.It is
called before any other method, and is called only once for a servlet instance.
The _jspservice()- The container calls the _jspservice() for each request, passing
it the request and the response objects.
The jspDestroy()- The container calls this when it decides take the instance out of
service. It is the last method called n the servlet instance.
Q:
How do I prevent the output of my JSP or Servlet pages from being
cached by the browser?
A: You will need to set the appropriate HTTP header attributes to prevent the
dynamic content output by the JSP page from being cached by the browser. Just
execute the following scriptlet at the beginning of your JSP pages to prevent them
from being cached at the browser. You need both the statements to take care of
some of the older browser versions.

<%
response.setHeader("Cache-Control","no-store"); //HTTP 1.1
response.setHeader("Pragma\","no-cache"); //HTTP 1.0
response.setDateHeader ("Expires", 0); //prevents caching at the proxy server
%>

Q:
How does JSP handle run-time exceptions?
A: You can use the errorPage attribute of the page directive to have uncaught runtime exceptions automatically forwarded to an error processing page. For
example:
<%@ page errorPage=\"error.jsp\" %> redirects the browser to the JSP page
error.jsp if an uncaught exception is encountered during request processing.
Within error.jsp, if you indicate that it is an error-processing page, via the
directive: <%@ page isErrorPage=\"true\" %> Throwable object describing the
exception may be accessed within the error page via the exception implicit object.
Note: You must always use a relative URL as the value for the errorPage attribute.
Q:
How can I implement a thread-safe JSP page? What are the advantages
and Disadvantages of using it?
A: You can make your JSPs thread-safe by having them implement the
SingleThreadModel interface. This is done by adding the directive <%@ page
isThreadSafe="false" %> within your JSP page. With this, instead of a single
instance of the servlet generated for your JSP page loaded in memory, you will
have N instances of the servlet loaded and initialized, with the service method of
each instance effectively synchronized. You can typically control the number of
instances (N) that are instantiated for all servlets implementing SingleThreadModel
through the admin screen for your JSP engine. More importantly, avoid using the
tag for variables. If you do use this tag, then you should set isThreadSafe to true,
as mentioned above. Otherwise, all requests to that page will access those
variables, causing a nasty race condition. SingleThreadModel is not recommended
for normal use. There are many pitfalls, including the example above of not being
able to use <%! %>. You should try really hard to make them thread-safe the old
fashioned way: by making them thread-safe .
Q:
How do I use a scriptlet to initialize a newly instantiated bean?
A: A jsp:useBean action may optionally have a body. If the body is specified, its
contents will be automatically invoked when the specified bean is instantiated.
Typically, the body will contain scriptlets or jsp:setProperty tags to initialize the
newly instantiated bean, although you are not restricted to using those alone.
The following example shows the today property of the Foo bean initialized to
the current date when it is instantiated. Note that here, we make use of a JSP
expression within the jsp:setProperty action.
<jsp:useBean id="foo" class="com.Bar.Foo" >

<jsp:setProperty name="foo" property="today"

value="<%=java.text.DateFormat.getDateInstance().format(new java.util.Date())
%>" / >
<%-- scriptlets calling bean setter methods go here --%>
</jsp:useBean >

Q:
How can I prevent the word "null" from appearing in my HTML input text
fields when I populate them with a resultset that has null values?
A: You could make a simple wrapper function, like
<%!
String blanknull(String s) {
return (s == null) ? \"\" : s;
}
%>
then use it inside your JSP form, like
<input type="text" name="lastName" value="<%=blanknull(lastName)% >" >

Q:
What's a better approach for enabling thread-safe servlets and JSPs?
SingleThreadModel Interface or Synchronization?
A: Although the SingleThreadModel technique is easy to use, and works well for low
volume sites, it does not scale well. If you anticipate your users to increase in the
future, you may be better off implementing explicit synchronization for your
shared data. The key however, is to effectively minimize the amount of code that
is synchronzied so that you take maximum advantage of multithreading.
Also, note that SingleThreadModel is pretty resource intensive from the server\'s
perspective. The most serious issue however is when the number of concurrent
requests exhaust the servlet instance pool. In that case, all the unserviced
requests are queued until something becomes free - which results in poor
performance. Since the usage is non-deterministic, it may not help much even if
you did add more memory and increased the size of the instance pool.

Q:
How can I enable session tracking for JSP pages if the browser has
disabled cookies?

A: We know that session tracking uses cookies by default to associate a session

identifier with a unique user. If the browser does not support cookies, or if cookies
are disabled, you can still enable session tracking using URL rewriting. URL
rewriting essentially includes the session ID within the link itself as a name/value
pair. However, for this to be effective, you need to append the session ID for each
and every link that is part of your servlet response. Adding the session ID to a link
is greatly simplified by means of of a couple of methods: response.encodeURL()
associates a session ID with a given URL, and if you are using redirection,
response.encodeRedirectURL() can be used by giving the redirected URL as input.
Both encodeURL() and encodeRedirectedURL() first determine whether cookies are
supported by the browser; if so, the input URL is returned unchanged since the
session ID will be persisted as a cookie.
Consider the following example, in which two JSP files, say hello1.jsp and
hello2.jsp, interact with each other. Basically, we create a new session within
hello1.jsp and place an object within this session. The user can then traverse to
hello2.jsp by clicking on the link present within the page. Within hello2.jsp, we
simply extract the object that was earlier placed in the session and display its
contents. Notice that we invoke the encodeURL() within hello1.jsp on the link used
to invoke hello2.jsp; if cookies are disabled, the session ID is automatically
appended to the URL, allowing hello2.jsp to still retrieve the session object. Try
this example first with cookies enabled. Then disable cookie support, restart the
brower, and try again. Each time you should see the maintenance of the session
across pages. Do note that to get this example to work with cookies disabled at
the browser, your JSP engine has to support URL rewriting.
hello1.jsp
<%@ page session=\"true\" %>
<%
Integer num = new Integer(100);
session.putValue("num",num);
String url =response.encodeURL("hello2.jsp");
%>
<a href=\'<%=url%>\'>hello2.jsp</a>
hello2.jsp
<%@ page session="true" %>
<%
Integer i= (Integer )session.getValue("num");
out.println("Num value in session is " + i.intValue());
%>
Q:
What is the difference b/w variable declared inside a declaration part
and variable declared in scriplet part?
A:Variable declared inside declaration part is treated as a global variable.that
means after convertion jsp file into servlet that variable will be in outside of
service method or it will be declared as instance variable.And the scope is
available to complete jsp and to complete in the converted servlet class.where
as if u declare a variable inside a scriplet that variable will be declared inside a
service method and the scope is with in the service method.

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Q:
Is there a way to execute a JSP from the comandline or from my own
application?
A:
There is a little tool called JSPExecutor that allows you to do just that. The
developers (Hendrik Schreiber <[email protected]> & Peter Rossbach
<[email protected]>) aim was not to write a full blown servlet engine, but to
provide means to use JSP for generating source code or reports. Therefore most
HTTP-specific features (headers, sessions, etc) are not implemented, i.e. no
reponseline or header is generated. Nevertheless you can use it to precompile
JSP for your website.

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