Preface

This document introduces and explains Oracle's implementation of JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology, specified by Sun Microsystems. The document summarizes standard features, as specified by Sun, but focuses primarily on Oracle-specific implementations and extensions in the OracleJSP product.

Note: OracleJSP release 1.1.2.x is a complete implementation of the Sun Microsystems JavaServer Pages Specification, Version 1.1.

Intended Audience

This document is intended for developers interested in using OracleJSP to create Web applications based on JavaServer Pages technology. It assumes that working Web and servlet environments already exist, and that readers are already familiar with the following:

• general Web technology

• general servlet technology (some technical background is provided in Appendix B)

• how to configure their Web server and servlet environments

• HTML

• Java

• Oracle JDBC (for JSP applications accessing an Oracle database)

• Oracle SQLJ (for JSP database applications using SQLJ)

This document focuses on Oracle JSP extensions, and on features and logistics particular to running JSP pages in the Oracle9i Servlet Engine.

While some information about standard JSP 1.1 technology and syntax is provided in Chapter 1 and elsewhere, there is no attempt at completeness in this area. For additional information about standard JSP 1.1 features, consult the Sun Microsystems JavaServer Pages Specification, Version 1.1 or other appropriate reference materials.

Because the JSP 1.1 specification relies on a servlet 2.2 environment, this document is geared largely toward such environments. OracleJSP has special features for earlier servlet environments, however, and there is special discussion of these features as they relate to servlet 2.0 environments, particularly Apache/JServ, which is included with the Oracle9i Application Server.

Structure

This document includes the following chapters and appendixes:

• Chapter 1, "General Overview"--This chapter highlights standard JSP 1.1 technology. (It is not intended as a complete reference.)

• Chapter 2, "Overview of Oracle's JSP Implementation"--This chapter discusses support for OracleJSP in both Oracle and non-Oracle JSP environments, and introduces Oracle JSP extensions and features.

• Chapter 3, "Basics"--This chapter introduces basic JSP programming considerations and provides a starter sample for database access.

• Chapter 4, "Key Considerations"--This chapter discusses a variety of general programming and configuration issues the developer should be aware of. It also covers considerations specific to the OSE and Apache/JServ environments.

• Chapter 5, "OracleJSP Extensions"--This chapter covers Oracle JSP extensions--both Oracle-specific extensions and extensions that are portable to other JSP environments.

• Chapter 6, "JSP Translation and Deployment"--This chapter focuses on procedures and logistics in deploying JSP pages to Oracle9i to run in the Oracle9i Servlet Engine, but also covers general JSP translation and deployment features and issues.

• Chapter 7, "JSP Tag Libraries and the Oracle JML Tags"--This chapter introduces the basic JSP 1.1 framework for custom tag libraries and also provides an overview and tag descriptions for the JSP 1.1 (runtime) implementation of the Oracle JML sample tag library.

• Chapter 8, "OracleJSP Globalization Support"--This chapter discusses both standard and Oracle-specific features for globalization support.

• Chapter 9, "Sample Applications"--This chapter contains a set of sample applications covering both standard JSP technology and Oracle extensions.

• Appendix A, "General Installation and Configuration"--This appendix covers OracleJSP required and optional files, configuration steps for non-Oracle environments such as Apache/JServ and Tomcat, and OracleJSP configuration parameters for on-demand translation.

• Appendix B, "Servlet and JSP Technical Background"--This appendix provides a brief background of servlet technology and introduces the standard JSP interfaces for translated pages.

• Appendix C, "Compile-Time JML Tag Support"--This chapter provides an overview of the compile-time implementation of the Oracle JML sample tag library (as supported in pre-JSP 1.1 releases), and documents tags not supported in the runtime implementation documented in Chapter 7.

Related Documents

See the following additional documents available from the Oracle Java Platform group:

• Oracle9i Java Developer's Guide

  This book introduces the basic concepts of Java in Oracle9i and provides general information about server-side configuration and functionality. Information that pertains to the Oracle Java platform as a whole, rather than to a particular product (such as JDBC, SQLJ, or EJBs) is in this book.

• Oracle9i Servlet Engine Developer's Guide

  This book documents use of the Oracle9i Servlet Engine, the servlet container in Oracle9i.

• Oracle9i Java Tools Reference

  This book documents Java-related tools and utilities for use with Oracle9i or in deploying applications to Oracle9i (such as the Oracle9i session shell and loadjava tools).

• Oracle9i JDBC Developer's Guide and Reference

  This book covers programming syntax and features of Oracle's implementation of the JDBC standard (for Java Database Connectivity). This includes an overview of the Oracle JDBC drivers, details of Oracle's implementation of JDBC 1.22 and 2.0 features, and discussion of Oracle JDBC type extensions and performance extensions.

• Oracle9i JPublisher User's Guide

  This book describes how to use the Oracle JPublisher utility to translate object types and other user-defined types to Java classes. If you are developing SQLJ or JDBC applications that use object types, VARRAY types, nested table types, or object reference types, then JPublisher can generate custom Java classes to map to them.

• Oracle9i SQLJ Developer's Guide and Reference

  This book covers the use of SQLJ to embed static SQL operations directly into Java code, covering SQLJ language syntax and SQLJ translator options and features. Both standard SQLJ features and Oracle-specific SQLJ features are described.

• Oracle9i Java Stored Procedures Developer's Guide

  This book discusses Java stored procedures--programs that run directly in the Oracle9i database. With stored procedures (functions, procedures, triggers, and SQL methods), Java developers can implement business logic at the server level, thereby improving application performance, scalability, and security.

• Oracle9i Enterprise JavaBeans Developer's Guide and Reference

  This book describes Oracle's Enterprise JavaBeans implementation and extensions.

• Oracle9i CORBA Developer's Guide and Reference

  This book describes Oracle's CORBA implementation and extensions.

The following documentation is for Oracle products that incorporate OracleJSP. You may want to refer to them for JSP information, including installation and configuration, for those products:

• Oracle9i Application Server Documentation Library

• Oracle Application Server, Release 4.0.8.2
  Developer's Guide: JServlet and JSP Applications

• Oracle JDeveloper online help

• Oracle Web-to-go Implementation Guide

The following documents from the Oracle Server Technologies group may also contain information of interest.

• Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - XML

• Oracle9i XML Reference

  These books provides information about the Oracle XML-SQL Utility. Some of this is relevant to XML-related support provided by OracleJSP.

• Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - Fundamentals

  This book introduces basic design concepts and programming features in using Oracle9i and creating data-access applications.

• Oracle9i Supplied PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference

  This book documents PL/SQL packages available as part of the Oracle9i database, some of which may be useful to call from JDBC applications.

• PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference

  PL/This book explains the concepts and features of PL/SQL, Oracle's procedural language extension to SQL.

• Oracle9i Globalization Support Guide

  This book contains information about Oracle Globalization Support environment variables, character sets, and territory and locale settings. In addition, it contains an overview of common globalization issues, typical scenarios, and related considerations for OCI and SQL programmers.

• Oracle9i SQL Reference

  This book contains a complete description of the content and syntax of the SQL commands and features used to manage information in an Oracle database.

• Oracle9i Net Services Administrator's Guide

  This book contains information about the Oracle8 Connection Manager and Oracle Net network administration in general.

• Oracle Advanced Security Administrator's Guide

  This book describes features of the Oracle Advanced Security Option (formerly known as ANO or ASO).

• Oracle9i Database Reference

  This book contains general reference information about the Oracle9i database.

• Oracle9i Database Error Messages

  This book contains information about error messages that can be passed by the Oracle9i database.

Additional Resources

The following Oracle Technology Network (OTN) resources are available for further information about JavaServer Pages:

• OTN Web site for Java servlets and JavaServer Pages:

  http://technet.oracle.com/tech/java/servlets/
  
  

• OTN JSP discussion group, accessible through the following address:

  http://technet.oracle.com/support/bboard/discussions.htm
  
  

The following resources are available from Sun Microsystems:

• Javasoft Web site for JavaServer Pages:

  http://www.javasoft.com/products/jsp/index.html
  
  

• jsp-interest discussion group for JavaServer Pages

  To subscribe, send an e-mail to [e-mail] with the following line in the body of the message:

  subscribe jsp-interest yourlastname yourfirstname
  
  

  It is recommended, however, that you request only the daily digest of the posted e-mails. To do this add the following line to the message body as well:

  set jsp-interest digest
  
  

Conventions

The following conventions are used in this document:

Convention	Meaning
italicized regular text	Italicized regular text is used for emphasis or to indicate a term that is being defined or will be defined shortly.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in sample code indicate the omission of a statement or statements or part of a statement. This is done when you would normally expect additional statements or code to appear, but such statements or code would not be relevant to the example.
code text	Code text within regular text indicates commands, option names, parameter names, Java syntax, class names, object names, method names, variable names, Java types, Oracle datatypes, file names, and directory names.
italicized_code_text	Italicized code text in a program statement indicates something that must be provided by the user.
[italicized_code_text ]	Square brackets enclosing italicized code text in a program statement indicates something that can optionally be provided by the user.

Documentation Accessibility

Oracle's goal is to make our products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the disabled community with good usability. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at:

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.