JSP

Stands for "Java Server Page." This standard was developed by Sun Microsystems as an alternative to Microsoft's active server page (ASP) technology. JSP pages are similar to ASP pages in that they are compiled on the server, rather than in a user's Web browser. After all, they don't call them "server pages" for nothing. However, JSP is Java-based, whereas ASP is Visual Basic-based. JSP pages are useful for building dynamic Web sites and accessing database information on a Web server. Though JSP pages may have Java interspersed with HTML, all the Java code is parsed on the server. Therefore, once the page gets to the browser, it is only HTML. JavaScript, on the other hand, is usually parsed by the Web browser, not the Web server.

Published: 2004