Java Interview Questions - JSP/JavaScripts
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Q. What is a JSP and what is it used for?
A. Java Server Pages (JSP) is a platform independent presentation layer technology that comes with SUN s J2EE platform. JSPs are normal HTML pages with Java code pieces embedded in them. JSP pages are saved to *.jsp files. A JSP compiler is used in the background to generate a Servlet from the JSP page.
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Q. What is difference between custom JSP tags and beans? (Job Interview Favourites)
A. Custom JSP tag is a tag you defined. You define how a tag, its attributes and its body are interpreted, and then group your tags into collections called tag libraries that can be used in any number of JSP files. To use custom JSP tags, you need to define three separate components:
1. the tag handler class that defines the tag\'s behavior
2. the tag library descriptor file that maps the XML element names to the tag implementations
3. the JSP file that uses the tag library
When the first two components are done, you can use the tag by using taglib directive:
<%@ taglib uri="xxx.tld" prefix="..." %>
Then you are ready to use the tags you defined. Let's say the tag prefix is test:
<test:tag1>MyJSPTag</test:tag1> or <test:tag1 />
JavaBeans are Java utility classes you defined. Beans have a standard format for Java classes. You use tags
<jsp:useBean id="identifier" class="packageName.className"/>
to declare a bean and use
<jsp:setProperty name="identifier" property="classField" value="someValue" />
to set value of the bean class and use
<jsp:getProperty name="identifier" property="classField" />
to get value of the bean class.
<%=identifier.getclassField() %>
Custom tags and beans accomplish the same goals -- encapsulating complex behavior into simple and accessible forms. There are several differences:
Custom tags can manipulate JSP content; beans cannot.
Complex operations can be reduced to a significantly simpler form with custom tags than with beans.
Custom tags require quite a bit more work to set up than do beans.
Custom tags usually define relatively self-contained behavior, whereas beans are often defined in one servlet and used in a different servlet or JSP page.
Custom tags are available only in JSP 1.1 and later, but beans can be used in all JSP 1.x versions.
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Q. What are the two kinds of comments in JSP and what's the difference between them?
A.
<%-- JSP Comment --%>
<!-- HTML Comment -->
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Q. What is JSP technology?
A. Java Server Page is a standard Java extension that is defined on top of the servlet Extensions. The goal of JSP is the simplified creation and management of dynamic Web pages. JSPs are secure, platform-independent, and best of all, make use of Java as a server-side scripting language.
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Q. What is JSP page?
A. A JSP page is a text-based document that contains two types of text: static template data, which can be expressed in any text-based format such as HTML, SVG, WML, and XML, and JSP elements, which construct dynamic content.
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Q. What are the implicit objects?
A. Implicit objects are objects that are created by the web container and contain information related to a particular request, page, or application. They are:
--request
--response
--pageContext
--session
--application
--out
--config
--page
--exception
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Q. How many JSP scripting elements and what are they? (Job Interview Favourites)
A. There are three scripting language elements:
--declarations
--scriptlets
--expressions
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Q. Why are JSP pages the preferred API for creating a web-based client program?
A. Because no plug-ins or security policy files are needed on the client systems(applet does). Also, JSP pages enable cleaner and more module application design because they provide a way to separate applications programming from web page design. This means personnel involved in web page design do not need to understand Java programming language syntax to do their jobs.
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Q. Is JSP technology extensible?
A. YES. JSP technology is extensible through the development of custom actions, or tags, which are encapsulated in tag libraries.
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Q. How do you call a bean method from a Javascript onclick handler?
A. This is a trick question. JavaScript onclick handler is usually handled on the client side and a bean method is handled on the server side. It is not possible to call a bean method from a Javascript onclick handler directly. Explain it why or ask back to clarify this question.
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Q. What is JavaScript?
A. JavaScript is a general-purpose programming language designed to let programmers of all skill levels control the behavior of software objects. The language is used most widely today in Web browsers whose software objects tend to represent a variety of HTML elements in a document and the document itself. But the language can be--and is--used with other kinds of objects in other environments. For example, Adobe Acrobat Forms uses JavaScript as its underlying scripting language to glue together objects that are unique to the forms generated by Adobe Acrobat. Therefore, it is important to distinguish JavaScript, the language, from the objects it can communicate with in any particular environment. When used for Web documents, the scripts go directly inside the HTML documents and are downloaded to the browser with the rest of the HTML tags and content.
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Q. How is JavaScript different from Java?
A. JavaScript was developed by Brendan Eich of Netscape; Java was developed at Sun Microsystems. While the two languages share some common syntax, they were developed independently of each other and for different audiences. Java is a full-fledged programming language tailored for network computing; it includes hundreds of its own objects, including objects for creating user interfaces that appear in Java applets (in Web browsers) or standalone Java applications. In contrast, JavaScript relies on whatever environment it's operating in for the user interface, such as a Web document's form elements.
JavaScript was initially called LiveScript at Netscape while it was under development. A licensing deal between Netscape and Sun at the last minute let Netscape plug the "Java" name into the name of its scripting language. Programmers use entirely different tools for Java and JavaScript. It is also not uncommon for a programmer of one language to be ignorant of the other. The two languages don't rely on each other and are intended for different purposes. In some ways, the "Java" name on JavaScript has confused the world's understanding of the differences between the two. On the other hand, JavaScript is much easier to learn than Java and can offer a gentle introduction for newcomers who want to graduate to Java and the kinds of applications you can develop with it.
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Q. How can JavaScript make a Web site easier to use? That is, are there certain JavaScript techniques that make it easier for people to use a Web site?
A. JavaScript's greatest potential gift to a Web site is that scripts can make the page more immediately interactive, that is, interactive without having to submit every little thing to the server for a server program to re-render the page and send it back to the client. For example, consider a top-level navigation panel that has, say, six primary image map links into subsections of the Web site. With only a little bit of scripting, each map area can be instructed to pop up a more detailed list of links to the contents within a subsection whenever the user rolls the cursor atop a map area. With the help of that popup list of links, the user with a scriptable browser can bypass one intermediate menu page. The user without a scriptable browser (or who has disabled JavaScript) will have to drill down through a more traditional and time-consuming path to the desired content.
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Q. How can JavaScript be used to improve the "look and feel" of a Web site? By the same token, how can JavaScript be used to improve the user interface?
A. On their own, Web pages tend to be lifeless and flat unless you add animated images or more bandwidth-intensive content such as Java applets or other content requiring plug-ins to operate (ShockWave and Flash, for example).
Embedding JavaScript into an HTML page can bring the page to life in any number of ways. Perhaps the most visible features built into pages recently with the help of JavaScript are the so-called image rollovers: roll the cursor atop a graphic image and its appearance changes to a highlighted version as a feedback mechanism to let you know precisely what you're about to click on. But there are less visible yet more powerful enhancements to pages that JavaScript offers.
Interactive forms validation is an extremely useful application of JavaScript. While a user is entering data into form fields, scripts can examine the validity of the data--did the user type any letters into a phone number field?, for instance. Without scripting, the user has to submit the form and let a server program (CGI) check the field entry and then report back to the user. This is usually done in a batch mode (the entire form at once), and the extra transactions take a lot of time and server processing power. Interactive validation scripts can check each form field immediately after the user has entered the data, while the information is fresh in the mind.
Another helpful example is embedding small data collections into a document that scripts can look up without having to do all the server programming for database access. For instance, a small company could put its entire employee directory on a page that has its own search facility built into the script. You can cram a lot of text data into scripts no larger than an average image file, so it's not like the user has to wait forever for the data to be downloaded.
Other examples abound, such as interactive tree-structure tables of contents. More modern scriptable browsers can be scripted to pre-cache images during the page's initial download to make them appear lickety-split when needed for image swapping. I've even written some multi-screen interactive applications that run entirely on the client, and never talk to the server once everything is downloaded.
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Q. How can JavaScript be used to improve the "look and feel" of a Web site? By the same token, how can JavaScript be used to improve the user interface?
A. On their own, Web pages tend to be lifeless and flat unless you add animated images or more bandwidth-intensive content such as Java applets or other content requiring plug-ins to operate (ShockWave and Flash, for example).
Embedding JavaScript into an HTML page can bring the page to life in any number of ways. Perhaps the most visible features built into pages recently with the help of JavaScript are the so-called image rollovers: roll the cursor atop a graphic image and its appearance changes to a highlighted version as a feedback mechanism to let you know precisely what you're about to click on. But there are less visible yet more powerful enhancements to pages that JavaScript offers.
Interactive forms validation is an extremely useful application of JavaScript. While a user is entering data into form fields, scripts can examine the validity of the data--did the user type any letters into a phone number field?, for instance. Without scripting, the user has to submit the form and let a server program (CGI) check the field entry and then report back to the user. This is usually done in a batch mode (the entire form at once), and the extra transactions take a lot of time and server processing power. Interactive validation scripts can check each form field immediately after the user has entered the data, while the information is fresh in the mind.
Another helpful example is embedding small data collections into a document that scripts can look up without having to do all the server programming for database access. For instance, a small company could put its entire employee directory on a page that has its own search facility built into the script. You can cram a lot of text data into scripts no larger than an average image file, so it's not like the user has to wait forever for the data to be downloaded.
Other examples abound, such as interactive tree-structure tables of contents. More modern scriptable browsers can be scripted to pre-cache images during the page's initial download to make them appear lickety-split when needed for image swapping. I've even written some multi-screen interactive applications that run entirely on the client, and never talk to the server once everything is downloaded.
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Q. How can JavaScript be used to personalize or tailor a Web site to fit individual users?
A. JavaScript allows a Web page to perform "if-then" kinds of decisions based on browser version, operating system, user input, and, in more recent browsers, details about the screen size in which the browser is running. While a server CGI program can make some of those same kinds of decisions, not everyone has access to or the expertise to create CGI programs. For example, an experienced CGI programmer can examine information about the browser whenever a request for a page is made; thus a server so equipped might serve up one page for Navigator users and a different page for Internet Explorer users. Beyond browser and operating system version, a CGI program can't know more about the environment. But a JavaScript-enhanced page can instruct the browser to render only certain content based on the browser, operating system, and even the screen size.
Scripting can even go further if the page author desires. For example, the author may include a preference screen that lets the user determine the desired background and text color combination. A script can save this information on the client in a well-regulated local file called a cookie. The next time the user comes to the site, scripts in its pages look to the cookie info and render the page in the color combination selected previously. The server is none the wiser, nor does it have to store any visitor-specific information.
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Q. Are you concerned that older browsers don't support JavaScript and thus exclude a set of Web users?
A. Fragmentation of the installed base of browsers will only get worse. By definition, it can never improve unless absolutely everyone on the planet threw away their old browsers and upgraded to the latest gee-whiz versions. But even then, there are plenty of discrepancies between the scriptability of the latest Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The situation makes scripting a challenge, especially for newcomers who may not be aware of the limitations of earlier browsers. A lot of effort in my books and ancillary material goes toward helping scripters know what features work in which browsers and how to either workaround limitations in earlier browsers or raise the compatibility common denominator.
Designing scripts for a Web site requires making some hard decisions about if, when, and how to implement the advantages scripting offers a page to your audience. For public Web sites, I recommend using scripting in an additive way: let sufficient content stand on its own, but let scriptable browser users receive an enhanced experience, preferably with the same HTML document.
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