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<concept id="cpdjsps" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology</title>
<prolog><metadata>
<keywords><indexterm>JSP pages<indexterm>overview</indexterm></indexterm>
<indexterm>Web content<indexterm>generating dynamically</indexterm></indexterm>
</keywords>
</metadata></prolog>
<conbody>
<p>The JavaServer Pages technology enables you to generate dynamic web content,
such as HTML, DHTML, XHTML, and XML files, to include in a Web application.
JSP files are one way to implement server-side dynamic page content. JSP files
allow a Web server, such as Apache Tomcat, to add content dynamically to your
HTML pages before they are sent to a requesting browser.</p>
<p>When you deploy a JSP file to a Web server that provides a servlet engine,
it is preprocessed into a servlet that runs on the Web server. This is in
contrast with client-side <tm tmclass="special" tmowner="Sun Microsystems, Inc."
tmtype="tm" trademark="JavaScript">JavaScript</tm> (within <codeph>&lt;SCRIPT></codeph> tags),
which is run in a browser. A JSP page is ideal for tasks that are better suited
to execution on the server, such as accessing databases or calling Enterprise <tm
tmclass="special" tmowner="Sun Microsystems, Inc." tmtype="tm" trademark="Java">Java</tm> beans.</p>
<p>You can create and edit a JSP file in the HTML editor by adding your own
text and images using HTML, JSP tagging, or <tm tmclass="special" tmowner="Sun Microsystems, Inc."
tmtype="tm" trademark="JavaScript">JavaScript</tm>, including <tm tmclass="special"
tmowner="Sun Microsystems, Inc." tmtype="tm" trademark="Java">Java</tm> source
code inside of scriptlet tags. Typically, JSP files have the file extension
.jsp. Additionally, the JSP specification suggests that JSP fragment files
should have file extension .jspf. If this convention is not followed, the
JSP validator will treat JSP fragments as regular standalone JSP files, and
compilation errors might be reported.</p>
<p>The <cite>Sun Microsystems JSP 1.2 Specification</cite> provides the ability
to create custom JSP tags. Custom tags simplify complex actions and  provide
developers with greater control over page content. Custom tags are collected
into a library (taglib). A tag library descriptor file (taglib.tld) is an
XML document that provides information about the tag library, including the
taglib short name, library description, and tag descriptions. Refer to the <cite>Sun
Microsystems JSP 1.2 Specification</cite> for more details.</p>
<p>To use JSP 1.2 custom taglibs, you can import the tag library .tld and
.jar files into your project to use them, or associate them as Web Library
projects. You can also reference a TLD file by using a URI.</p>
</conbody>
</concept>