Chapter 5: JSP to Servlet Conversion

In the previous chapter, we took a look at how a JSP file looks like and the contents that can be present inside a typical JSP file.

As you might already know (If you have J2EE programming experience) a JSP file gets converted into a Servlet at runtime and then gets executed. Well, if you did not know this, don't worry. That is what this chapter is for. To tell you the fact that JSPs get converted into Servlets for execution and also to tell you how that happens.

So, lets get started!!!

JSP to Servlet Conversion

JSPs are converted to servlets before the container runs them. This is actually cool because you don't need hardcore java programming skills to create a JSP page whereas you’ll need them to write a servlet. Moreover, all you’ll need to write a JSP is some expertise in creating HTML files and in using JavaScript. You can create front-end JSP pages without having much expertise in Java at all. Although JSP reduces the required skill level, JSP becomes a servlet, with the nice performance and portability benefits.

Below is how the conversion happens.

First lets look at a sample JSP page that we will consider for this conversion process. It's the same sample JSP we saw in the previous chapter. Lets name this guy my_first_jsp.jsp
Sample JSP File Code:

< html >
< body >
I Like Cars, Especially Ferrari .
< / body >
< / html >

This JSP file has to be placed in the …\jakarta-tomcat-4.0.1\webapps\examples\jsp folder in our system. To access this JSP through the tomcat server we can use the below URL:

http://localhost:8080/examples/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp.

When you hit enter after typing the contents above in the browsers address bar, tomcat covnerts this JSP into a servlet, compiles it and then invokes it.

The servlet that gets created will be placed in …\jakarta-tomcat-4.0.1\work\localhost\examples\jsp as my_0005fservlet$jsp.java.

The contents of this converted Servlet would be as below:

package org.apache.jsp;

import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import javax.servlet.jsp.*;
import org.apache.jasper.runtime.*;

public class my_0005fservlet$jsp extends HttpJspBase {

static {
}
public my_0005fservlet$jsp( ) {
}

private static boolean _jspx_inited = false;

public final void _jspx_init()
throws org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspException {
}

public void _jspService(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws java.io.IOException, ServletException {

JspFactory _jspxFactory = null;
PageContext pageContext = null;
HttpSession session = null;
ServletContext application = null;
ServletConfig config = null;
JspWriter out = null;
Object page = this;
String _value = null;
try {

if (_jspx_inited == false) {
synchronized (this) {
if (_jspx_inited == false) {
_jspx_init();
_jspx_inited = true;
}
}
}
_jspxFactory = JspFactory.getDefaultFactory();
response.setContentType("text/html;charset=" +
"ISO-8859-1");
pageContext = _jspxFactory.getPageContext(this,
request, response, "",
true, 8192, true);

application = pageContext.getServletContext();
config = pageContext.getServletConfig();
session = pageContext.getSession();
out = pageContext.getOut();

// HTML // begin [file="/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp"]
out.write(">
\r\n< html >\r\n< body >"+
"\r\nI Like Cars, Especially Ferrari ."+
"\r\n\r\n\r\n");

// end

} catch (Throwable t) {
if (out != null && out.getBufferSize() != 0)
out.clearBuffer();
if (pageContext != null)
pageContext.handlePageException(t);
} finally {
if (_jspxFactory != null)
jspxFactory.releasePageContext(pageContext);
}
}
}

A point to note here is that, the exact code that gets generated for your Servlet might vary slightly and may not exactly match what is given above.

As you can see, Tomcat does a lot of work when it converts our JSP into a servlet. If you look at the source that is sent to your browser, you will see the original HTML in the JSP file.
Well, the above example was a little too easy and in reality we will have some Java code too in our JSP. So, lets take a look at how the conversion happens if we put some java code into our earlier example.

Our Modified JSP:


< html >
< body >
I Like Cars, Especially Ferrari .

< % ! int val1 = 10, val2=5; % >
< % = val1 * val2 % >

//Close the html and body tags here too

Tomcat will now convert the Java embedded in the JSP to the following:

// begin [file="/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp";from=(7,3);to=(7,31)]
int val1 = 10, val2=5;
// end

It also generates this version of the try block, which differs slightly from the previous servlet code:

try {

if (_jspx_inited == false) {
synchronized (this) {
if (_jspx_inited == false) {
_jspx_init();
_jspx_inited = true;
}
}
}
_jspxFactory = JspFactory.getDefaultFactory();
response.setContentType("text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1");
pageContext = _jspxFactory.getPageContext(this,
request, response,
"", true, 8192, true);

application = pageContext.getServletContext();
config = pageContext.getServletConfig();
session = pageContext.getSession();
out = pageContext.getOut();

// HTML // begin [file="/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp"...]
out.write("" +
"\r\n< html >\r\n< body >\r\n" +
"I Like Cars, Especially < b > Ferrari < / b >.
\r\n");

// end
// HTML // begin [file="/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp";from=...]
out.write("\r\n ");

// end
// begin [file="/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp";from=...]
out.print(val1 * val2);
// end
// HTML // begin [file="/jsp/my_first_jsp.jsp";from=...]
out.write("\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n");

// end

}

As you can see, Tomcat now takes our val1 and val2 variables that were declared at the top of our JSP page and generates declarations as class variables in the servlet.

So, < % - val1 & val2 % > becomes

out.print(val1*val2);

Once the conversion is complete, this servlet will be compiled and loaded to memory. Every call to invoke this JSP will make Tomcat compare the modification date of the loaded servlet with the date of the JSP. If it is the same, the compiled servlet is executed and contents displayed on screen. Else, if it sees that the JSP has changed, it will recompile the JSP and load the newly converted Servlet instead of the older version.

Previous Chapter: Chapter 4 - A Sample JSP

Next Chapter: Quick Recap - Chapters 1 to 5