Sun Microsystems Inc has released the specification and reference implementation of its JavaServer Pages technology, a part of the Java2 Enterprise Edition platform it is due to launch at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco on June 15th. The release follows the availability of the Enterprise JavaBeans EJB 1.1 specification two weeks ago (CI No 3,664).

Java Server Pages makes it easier to develop cross-platform Java servlets by enabling Java code to be inserted directly within an HTML web page. It opens up the technology to web page developers who would previously have had to use a full IDE software development tool or CGI scripts, and enables server generated web pages to be created that can dynamically combine changing content from a variety of sources.

Sun spokesman Bill Roth claimed that Java Server Pages would run faster than Microsoft Corp’s Active Server Pages equivalent, as well being a more complete language and offering cross-platform support. JSP can run on HTTP servers from Apache, Microsoft and Netscape Communications Corp, while Active Server Pages is restricted to Windows NT and Internet Information Server – although ChiliSoft Inc has developed a version for Apache (CI No 3,591). With JSP, code is compiled into a servlet the first time the web server sees the page. Early versions of the technology have already appeared in some products, including Netscape’s enterprise server software, and these may have to be tweaked for full compatibility.

The technology, developed by Sun in collaboration with Java tools vendors, is available for free download from http://java.sun.com/products/jsp. Vendors supporting the launch included Adobe Systems Inc, BEA Systems Inc, Bluestone Software Inc, Caucho Technology Inc, Elemental Software Inc, Forte Software Inc, Fujitsu Ltd, Gefion Software Inc, Gemstone Systems Inc, Halcyon Software Inc, Live Software Inc, Macromedia Inc, New Atlanta Communications Inc, Netscape, Netobjects Inc, Novera Software Inc, O’Reilly & Associates, Oracle Corp, Persistence Software Inc, Sybase Inc, Symantec Corp and Vignette Corp.