Getting Familiar with your JSP server

If you do not have a JSP capable web-server (sometimes known as application servers for configuration reasons), the first step is to download one. There are many such servers available, most of which can be downloaded for free evaluation and/or development. Some of them are:

Blazix from Desiderata Software (1.5 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)
ServletExec from New Atlanta/Unify (3.8 Megabytes, JSP and Servlets)
JRun from Allaire (11 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)
WebLogic from BEA Systems (44 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)
WebSphere from IBM (105 Megabytes, JSP, Servlets and EJBs)

If you do not already have a server, it is recommended that you download Blazix because it includes a tag library that is used later in this tutorial in the tag library chapter. Blazix is also very small and can be easily downloaded even over a modem, will work on all kinds of systems including Windows 98, and can be installed in less than ten minutes.

To truly learn JSP, it is really very important that you try out the examples with a real server. This web-site doesn't have running examples because running examples really don't do a good teaching job. The best way to learn the technology is to get hands-on experience. If you don't have a server, please go get one and install it now!

Once you have a web-server, you need to know the following information about your web-server:

Where to place the files
How to access the files from your browser (with an http: prefix, not as file:)

You should be able to create a simple file, such as

<HTML>
<BODY>
Hello, world
</BODY>
</HTML>

know where to place this file and how to see it in your browser with an http:// prefix.

Since this step is different for each web-server, you would need to see the web-server documentation to find out how this is done. Once you have completed this step, proceed to the next tutorial.

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