jsp newbie

[bugster]

Can someone guide me in the correct direction as to how i would setup a java development environment on a linux hosting account? I have a normal hosting account that would normally rub PHP, but can i easily install the java sdk to this and start developing in java? Is it that easy or am i missing something? Some links if you've got em would be nice, or some "kind" words of wisdom would do as well :). thanks.

[ess]

I will start with a word of wisdom just like you requested.

There are many ways to skin a cat

in other words, there are many solid solutions that may combine technologies/programming language(s) such as PHP/JSP/Ruby on Rails/Python or solutions that specifically provide JSP solutions full stop.

Therefore, if you are only interested in hosting JSP pages, then depending on your linux destro...you may only need to execute a couple of install commands...and edit a couple of configuration files.

For example, here is a howto guide that provides a step by step instructions on how to install Sun Java and Tomcat on a Ubutnu box

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44006

Note: I have not mentioned security nor pre-built solutions yet.

There are other solutions that may combine one, two, or more scripting/programming language. For example, many hosting companies will provide PHP, JSP, ASP.NET etc technologies in a single package. Some might use proxy technologies to forward requests between say Apache and Tomcat...Apache and MS IIS etc. a good example is the use of mod_jk or mod_proxy to forward requests between Apache and Tomcat. to find out more about mod_jk, please read this page http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/

In any case, it all comes down to your specific requirements and why you would want to use say JSP/PHP/ASP.NET or any other technologies (for example, it is the only programming language you know..or it is the only programming language your team know..or it is a cheap solution..etc)...or perhaps a combination of one or more solution running on the same box..or running on different machines.

In any case, here is a good tutorial that provides a step by step guide on how to install Apache + Tomcat + OpenSSL + Postgresql + Struts and other solutions.

http://www.linuxjava.net/howto/webapp/

Pre-Built Solutions
If you cannot be bothered to install and configure everything yourself, there are many pre-built solutions that you can deploy on your machine. I am only going to list one...as I have been using it on my Linux box and on my Windows box...and it has worked for me in the past without any problems. In actual fact, one of their installation I have running on a USB drive..as I use more than computer and sometimes it gets really annoying to keep copying and pasting files etc.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/index.html

Note: In order to be able to use JSP...you will need to install some add-ons which I am not sure if the Tomcat addon is available for Linux or not. In any case, please read their documentations and howtos.

Note:Most Linux distributions (i.e. Fedora, Ubuntu, CentOS, etc) provide wikies on how to install software on their machines. I would strongly recommend that you visit the main website of your Linux distribution and find out if they provide a howto or not. If not, I would use Google and specifically search for howto installations for your specific Linux distribution.

Cheers,
Ess

[Spookster]

In order to run JSP on Linux you will need to install the JDK and the Tomcat server. This would require root access to the hosting server. If you do not have root access then you are out of luck.