Difference between Page and PageContext

[jose chiramal]

Can someone please clarify the difference between Page and PageContext impilcit objects in jsp ?

page : page is of class java.lang.Object,and it refers to instance of generated servlet. // what does this mean ?

PageContext : pageContext is of type javax.servlet.jsp.PageContext.

Am not able to get the difference between these both, please assist.

[Bear Bibeault]

Please be sure to ask JSP questions in the JSP forum. I have moved this post there for you.

[Bear Bibeault]

JSPs are implemented by generating a servlet. The page variable refers to the servlet instance.

As your JSP should not have any Java code in it, this is no longer useful.

[Lalit Mehra]

it means ...

with page ... you can work with the servlet

with pageContext you can work with the jsp

[Bear Bibeault]

Lalit Mehra wrote:with page ... you can work with the servlet , for example setting attributes

No. That is not the way to deal with "attributes" (scoped variables).

[Lalit Mehra]

Bear Bibeault wrote:
No. That is not the way to deal with "attributes" (scoped variables).

Then how do we use page in real ... ???

I mean we use it in our jsp page as <@ page ... >

what else ???

[Bear Bibeault]

I've already pointed out that it is completely useless in modern JSP. In fact, it was pretty useless in ancient JSP as well. I never used it for anything.

[Lalit Mehra]

thanks DEAR Mr. Bear

[Nilesh Miskin]

page & pageContext both are implicit objects in a JSP.
page is of type java.lang.Object & refers to the instance of servlet generated from 'this' JSP.
pageContext is of type javax.servlet.jsp.PageContext.
It does following:
1. provides methods to get & set attributes in different scopes.
2. provides methods to include or forward the current request to other active componets in the application
3. provides a mechanism to handle errorpage exceptionn processing.
4. provides mechanism to manage session usage by the page

As Bear suggested, there are better ways to deal with attributes in different scopes.