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What does the application server convert JSP pages into for execution?

Published in Web Development 2 mins read

An application server converts JSP (JavaServer Pages) pages into Java servlets for execution.

How it works:

  1. When a user requests a JSP page, the application server receives the request.
  2. The server checks if a servlet for that JSP page already exists in memory.
  3. If not, the server compiles the JSP page into a Java servlet based on the JSP specification.
  4. This generated servlet contains the Java code that handles the logic and dynamic content of the JSP page.
  5. The server then executes the generated servlet, producing the final HTML output that is sent back to the user's browser.

Benefits of this conversion:

  • Improved performance: By compiling JSP pages into servlets, the application server can execute them more efficiently.
  • Increased security: The generated servlet code is typically compiled and executed in a secure environment.
  • Simplified development: JSP pages provide a more user-friendly way to create dynamic web content compared to writing raw Java code.

Example:

Let's say you have a JSP page called welcome.jsp with the following code:

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
    pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Welcome</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Welcome to my website!</h1>
</body>
</html>

The application server will convert this JSP page into a servlet class, which will contain the necessary Java code to generate the HTML output shown in the browser.

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