Updated March 6, 2023
Difference Between JSP and JavaScript
JSP is Java Server Pages is a dynamic web pages technology that is used to generate dynamic web content. JSP technology is based on different content formats such as XML or HTML or any other type of document contents. Sun Microsystems released JSP in 1999. It is similar to that of PHP and ASP (Microsoft Active Server Pages technology). It completely uses Java Programming Language. It was developed and released based on the JSR (Java Specification Request) 245 specification. The latest release version of Java Server Pages is 2.3. The Java Server Pages are compatible with a servlet container, which is of Java EE specification standard and requires application or web servers such as Tomcat or Jetty. Java Server Pages will be converted into Servlets during the runtime of an application. HTML content inside Java is called Servlet, whereas Java content in between HTML is called Java Server Pages technology.
JavaScript is often called as JS, which is interpreted, high level and dynamic programming language. It has weak typed and dynamic typed programming discipline. It first appeared in the month of September 1995. The standard used for JavaScript is ES which is called as ECMAScript. ECMAScript is a standards body that maintains the JavaScript programming language standards. The developers of the ECMA standard include Netscape, Ecma International and Mozilla Foundation as a group. It was developed and designed by Brendan Eich, who hails from the USA. JavaScript is one of the web technologies standards alongside HTML and CSS.
Head to Head Comparison between JSP and JavaScript (Infographics)
Below is the top 9 difference between JSP vs JavaScript :
Key Differences between JSP and JavaScript
Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference :
- Java Server Pages is a dynamic web page technology, whereas JavaScript is a scripting language to make the static HTML content as dynamic.
- Java Server Pages has scriptlets to add Java code in between HTML, whereas JavaScript has many inbuilt functions that can be used to modify the data using the JavaScript objects that are based on the inheritance based on prototype pattern in the object-oriented programming model.
- Java Server Pages has JSTL support to handle a few complex features, whereas JavaScript has different data types such as Boolean, Number, String, Date, Math, HTML DOM, and RegExp etc.,
- Java Server Pages supports almost all web browsers, whereas JavaScript does not support the cross-browser functionality that results in the failure of executing few functionalities during the changes in a browser that results in a disadvantage.
- Java Server Pages will be rendered and served from the back-end through web server. In contrast, JavaScript is a scripting language that can be used both at client-side and server-side either that comes at browser end or client end where the code will be compiled internally by the JavaScript inbuilt compiler called JIT compiler. It will be interpreted in the browser, and the modules’ execution happens later at the client-side environment, i.e. on the browser.
- Java Server Pages has JSR specification, which is a standard from Oracle, whereas JavaScript has the latest standard called ES 9 (ECMAScript standard) that supports high-level functional aspects in its programming model and several higher-order functions.
- Java Server Pages has limitations in developing complex features, whereas JavaScript has a standard specification that can be used to manipulate the complex modules using the powerful functional programming aspects of JS.
- Java Server Pages has JSP implicit objects feature in web container whereas JavaScript has a hoisting feature which can be used in ES 6 standard by using let keyword.
- Java Server Pages support Expression Language (EL) that provides access to functions and the data in Java objects, whereas JavaScript has implicit prototype reference to refer to the data in JS objects.
- Java Server Pages has a JSP compiler, which translates JSP into Servlet to interpret the web page content and display, whereas JavaScript has a Javascript interpreter to parse the code, which is called the Javascript engine.
JSP vs JavaScript Comparison Table
Below is the topmost Comparison between JSP vs JavaScript :
| The basis Of Comparison | JSP | JavaScript |
| Definition | JSP is technology based on servlet container and Java EE specification by Oracle (then Sun Microsystems). | JavaScript is a scripting language. |
| License | It also adds dynamic web content to the web pages but has limited features. | Adds dynamic functional aspect to the static web pages with a rich user experience. |
| Integration with |
HTML can be embedded around the Java code using Scriptlets. | HTML can’t be embedded inside JavaScript. |
| Supporting Features |
Requires servlet container-based web or application server to deploy the JSP web pages. | Requires JavaScript engine to run the code. |
| Generality | Will be rendered from the Server-side using servlet technology. | Available in major browsers in client and server-side environment. |
| Maintenance | Maintained by Java Specification group. | Maintained by ECMA TC-39 committee. |
| HTTP/ FTP | Weblogic supports HTTP and FTP as well. | Tomcat supports only HTTP. |
| Browser Support |
It supports all browsers easily because it is being rendered by a web server to generate the content. | Supports contents in few browsers depending on the functionalities. |
| Flexibility | It is difficult to maintain larger projects. | It is easier and flexible to develop large and complex projects. |
Conclusion
Java Server Pages provide dynamic web content on the web pages and its’ associated documented style format for the representation of view layer, whereas JavaScript can be used only as Scripting language whereas it requires HTML to display the content. There are several frameworks to display view content at the view layer, such as Angular JS, React JS, Vue JS etc. JavaScript has different types of libraries: ReactJS, AngularJS, Vue JS and ExtJS etc., to provide ultra-fast and rich web applications.
JSP can be used only in the servlet container compliant servers only whereas JavaScript can be used in the Node.js server with any JS related frameworks to develop web pages and can be integrated with any kind of JS frameworks. JSP requires Java programming language to be used along with HTML to write Java code inside scriptlets to display HTML content with real-time dynamic data, whereas Javascript does not need any Servlet containers to deploy the web pages. JavaScript provides different options to develop web pages.
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