JavaServer Pages, Second Edition

What You Need to Get Started

Before we begin, let’s quickly run through what you need to run the examples and develop your own applications. You really only need three things:

• A PC or workstation, with a connection to the Internet so you can download the software you need

• A Java 2 compatible-Java Software Development Kit (Java 2 SDK)

• A JSP 1.2-enabled web server, such as Apache Tomcat from the Jakarta Project

The Apache Tomcat server is the reference implementation for JSP 1.2. All the examples in the book were tested on Tomcat. In Chapter 4, I’ll show you how to download, install, and configure the Tomcat server as well as the examples described in this book.

In addition, there are a variety of other tools and servers that support JSP, from both open source projects and commercial companies. Close to 30 different server products support JSP to date, and roughly 10 IDEs and authoring tools with varying degrees of JSP support are listed on Sun’s JSP web site (http://java.sun.com/products/jsp). You may want to evaluate some of these products when you’re ready to start developing your application, but all you really need to work with the examples in this book is a regular text editor, such as Notepad, vi, or Emacs, and of course the Tomcat server.

So let’s get going and take a closer look at what JSP has to offer. You’ll need a solid ground to stand on though, so in the next chapter we will start with the foundations upon which JSP is built: HTTP and Java servlets.