Why use JSP / Servlets?

Question

I have done a lot of web development using PHP (both procedural and OO). Over the past few years, I have been involved in the development of Java (rather than JSP and Servlets) for embedded systems. I am pretty good at Java SE and have recently earned a good job in web design. I am thinking of developing this site using JSP and Servlets, but this is strictly for my own knowledge progression using Java. Is there a real reason to use JSPs and servlets over PHP or ASP, etc. The problem is that many hosting companies do not offer, for example. Tomcat or other JSP servers, and if they do, it's expensive.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Gf

Answer 1

I have been using JSP for many years, and extensibility usually makes the face value of a monthly placement more than worthy. However, if you need to supply a basic informational or renewed page type, you probably will not need JBoss or some other sledgehammer.

With JSP / Java, it opens the door for using Java at the controller level (you probably already used or heard about the extended connection pool, distributed caching, scheduling via Quartz, Hibernate object / relational persistence). And then you can run Java on any machine with the JVM. The JSP syntax is not incredibly complex, although it does have a learning curve. As for hosting, eatj.com is still pretty good.

On the PHP side, you can easily incorporate community features like Wordpress. Although you can use nWordPress for Java, it's just not the same. Facebook, probably one of the biggest PHP implementations, uses HipHop and dramatically reduces CPU requirements.

It may also be easier to bundle work with PHP developers in your project, as they are relatively easily accessible than JSP developers. I would say, recognizing JSP and / or Ruby - it opens a few more doors, and you can end up choosing one method over another.

Answer 2

If you have the time, it's a good idea just to learn the web aspects of Java. I would suggest looking at a Java web environment such as Spring MVC , Wicket, or Struts , as they simplify development (after you recognize them) and make web applications more testable and maintainable.