Developing JSP-Based WebObjects Applications

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a specification that describes what a servlet-based content creation system should do. One of its main purposes is to facilitate the creation of dynamic Web pages.

You can directly access WebObjects components in your JSP pages. These components can be WOComponents or WODirectActions. This allows you to create JSP-based applications that take advantage of WebObjects technologies, such as Enterprise Objects.

When your servlet container receives a request addressed to a JSP page, the container reads the .jsp file and compiles it into a workhorse servlet that processes the HTTP requests and produces responses to them.

This chapter addresses the following topics:

• "JSP-Page Writing Guidelines" introduces the custom tag library that your JSP pages must include to be able to access WebObjects components.
• "Creating a JSP-Based Application" walks you through the steps needed to create a simple JSP-based WebObjects application.
• "Passing Data From a JSP Page to a Component" explains what you need to do in order to pass data from a JSP page to a WebObjects component or direct action.
• "Using WebObjects Classes in a JSP Page" shows you how to write JSP pages that use WebObjects classes.
• "Using Direct Actions in JSP Pages" explains how to use a direct action in a JSP page.
• "Custom-Tag Reference" provides a detailed explanation for each of the tags defined in the custom tag library.