Java and ASP/JSP interaction

[Richard Robbins]

I am developing an application with which I need to manipulate ASP and JSP pages. This is a new field for me, and I would like some direction on where to look to get started (e.g. books, online tutorials, etc.) Also, what are the fundamental differences between ASP and JSP? Thanks, Richard

[David Freels]

Go to http://www.javasoft.com/products/jsp/index.html for information regarding JSP. ASP is a M$ product so look at the MSDN site. Basically ASP and JSP are the same except JSP use HTML/Java/Javascript and ASP uses HTML/VBScript/JavaScript. ASP can only be run with IIS. JSP can run with multiple web servers across multiple platforms. You will need a JSP engine to execute your JSP code though.
David
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java2 Platform

[Phil Hanna]

You don't mention whether the ASP and JSP components are on the same server. If you are talking about accessing an ASP already set up elsewhere, a JSP page or servlet can easily send requests to it and interpret the response, the same as a web browser can. Just build a URL to access the ASP:

URL url = new URL("http://server/path/legacy.asp");

and then read the response it sends back (which will be HTML, of course):

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
   new InputStreamReader(url.openStream()));
for (;;) {
   String line = in.readLine();
   if (line == null) break;
   // Do something with the line
}
in.close();

------------------
Phil Hanna
Author of :
JSP: The Complete Reference
Instant Java Servlets

[Dustin Marx]

http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/jsp-asp.html is a Sun-provided page that specifically compares ASP and JSP. Keep in mind that is *may* be biased.
Other such comparison sites include:
http://www.indiawebdevelopers.com/technology/Java/jsp.asp
http://www.devx.com/upload/free/features/javapro/2000/04apr00/jt0004/jt0004.asp
http://objectpro.surfnetusa.com/jsp-heaven/tut/intro.htm