Part of the magic of JSP is that you can replace JSP source code on the fly while the server is active. The next time a request comes for that JSP code, will be automatically recompiled.

Multiple Languages

• HTML.
• Java scriptlets — a mixture of HTML and encapsulated Java.
• XML, a JSP glue.
• taglibs, e.g. JSTL, JSF, Jakarta Taglibs, ColdTags, Velocity.
• Struts.

Hello.jsp

Note how it looks like ordinary HTML with dynamically generated variable content Java code enclosed in <%=… %>.

Two Types Of Include

<%@include> is a macro-style, in-line, translation time include that inserts some JSP/HTML source code into the current JSP program.

Alternatives To JSP

1. Ones that also rely 100% on server side computing, such as Velocity, Tea and Freemarker. There are scores of lemmings all going for the fundamentally flawed, but easy to implement, 100% server side solution. You can see a list of them under servlet wombs.
2. Ones that use a combination of server side and client side computing such as Canoo. Flash is about the only mainstream alternative, (unfortunately non-Java), for the combined solution. I have written up a JSP Replacer student project for an all-Java server-controlled client-side validation environment.

I am not the only one who thinks JSP is not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Check out these essays:

• JGuru on alternatives to JSP
• Jason Hunter’s essay
• Reaction to Jason Hunter’s essay
• IBM Developer Works essay

Books

	recommend book⇒Core Web Programming, Second Edition
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-0-13-089793-0
	ISBN10:	0-13-089793-0
	publisher:	Prentice Hall
	published:	2001-06-03
	by:	Marty Hall and Gary Cornell
1250 pages. This is a great doorstop of a book. It has a few chapters on client-server programming in Java, and a section of that is on CGI. I have looked at hundreds of Java books and found nothing that deals in depth with client side Java talking to CGI, except Marty’s book. It is really very simple and he does an excellent job of explaining it. Marty has posted all the source code examples from the book for anyone to use. These contain updates and errata fixes you don’t get on the CD-ROM that comes with the book.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Core Servlets and Java Server Pages
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-0-13-089340-6
	ISBN10:	0-13-089340-4
	publisher:	Prentice Hall
	published:	2000-05-26
	by:	Marty Hall
Complete text of the book available on line in pdf format.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒More Servlets and Java Server Pages
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-0-13-067614-6
	ISBN10:	0-13-067614-4
	publisher:	Pearson Education
	published:	2001-12-26
	by:	Marty Hall
Complete text of the book available on line in pdf format.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Web Development with JavaServer Pages
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-1-930110-12-0
	ISBN10:	1-930110-12-X
	publisher:	Manning Publications
	published:	2001-09-15
	by:	Duane K. Fields, Mark A. Kolb, Shawn Bayern
A very thorough treatment.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Java Servlet Programming
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-0-596-00040-0
	ISBN10:	0-596-00040-5
	publisher:	O’Reilly
	published:	2001-01-15
	by:	Jason Hunter, William Crawford
highly recommended. Covers basics of JSP too.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de O’Reilly Safari amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Murach’s Java Servlets and JSP
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-1-890774-44-8
	ISBN10:	1-890774-44-8
	publisher:	Mike Murach
	published:	2008-01-21
	by:	Joel Murach and Andrea Steelman
Presumes Tomcat and Netbeans. That is a disadvantage if you use other tools but a boon if you use them, since so many problems are about the details of configuring and implementation, not the code itself.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Java 2 Enterprise Edition BibleJava 2 Enterprise Edition Bible
		paperback
	ISBN13:	978-0-7645-0882-0
	ISBN10:	0-7645-0882-2
	publisher:	Wiley
	published:	2002-04-01
	by:	Justin Couch and Daniel H. Steinberg
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

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