Difference between ServletConfig and ServletContext in JSP Servlet? Answer

Difference between ServletConfig and ServletContext

ServletContext and ServletConfig these two are the important interface of Servlet API which is used by Java J2EE programmer during web application development. Correct understanding of What is ServletContext and ServletConfig is very important for any J2EE application developer. Apart from that Difference between ServletContext and ServletConfig are a popular Servlet JSP interview questions and mostly asked on both fresher and experienced Java programmer during J2EE interviews. 

Difference between include directive, include action and JSTL import tag in JSP? Answer

There are three main ways to include the content of one JSP into another:

include directive

JSP include action

and JSTL import tag

The include directive provides static inclusion. It adds the content of the resource specified by its file attribute, which could be HTML, JSP, or any other resource at translation time.

Any change you make in the file to be included after JSP is translated will not be picked up by the include directive.

Top 5 Free Servlet, JSP, Java FX, and JDBC Courses for Java Web Developers in 2025 - Best of Lot

If you are a Java developer working on a Java JEE projects like a Java Web application running on Tomcat or Glassfish, or you want to get into that by learning server-side technologies like Servlet, JSP, and JDBC, then you have come to the right place. In this article, I will share some free online courses to learn Servlet, JSP, and JDBC at your own pace. If you want to become a rockstar Java web developer, then you must have a good understanding of these essential web technologies before you learn frameworks like Spring and Hibernate. These frameworks work on top of these basic technologies, and if you don't know them, then you would often struggle to debug and troubleshoot problems in the real world.

How to escape HTML Special characters in JSP and Java? Example

Escaping HTML special characters in JSP or Java is a common task for Java programmers. There are many ways to escape HTML metacharacters in Java, some of which we have already seen in the last article escaping XML metacharacters in Java.  For those who are not familiar with HTML special characters, there are five e.g. <, >, &, ' and '' and if you want to print them literally just like here, Than you need to escape those characters so < becomes &lt;, > becomes &gt; and so on. 

Difference between include() and forward() methods of RequestDispatcher in Servlert

What is the difference between include and forward methods of RequestDispatcher interface is one of the frequently asked Servlet questions from Java EE interviews and we'll see how you can answer this question on your interview. You get the RequestDispatcher reference either from ServletContext or ServletRequest interface and even though both include() and forward() method allow a Servlet to interact with another servlet, the main difference between include() and forward is that the include() method is used to load the contents of the specified resource (could be a Servlet, JSP, or static resource like HTML files) directly into the Servlet's response, as if it is part of the calling Servlet. 

6 Difference between forward() and sendRedirect() in Servlet - Answer

Servlet in JEE platform provides two methods forward() and sendRedirect() to route an HTTP request to another Servlet for processing. Though both are used for forwarding HTTP requests for further processing there are many differences between the forward() and sendRedirect() method e.g. forward is performed internally by Servlet, but the redirection is a two-step process, where Servlet instructs the web browser (client) to go and fetch another URL, which is different from the original. That's why forward() is also known as a server-side redirect and sendRedirect() is known as the client-side redirect. 

java.lang.IllegalStateException: getOutputStream() has already been called for this response

This error comes when you call to include() or forward() method after calling the getOutputStream() from ServletResponse object and writing into it.  This error is similar to java.lang.IllegalStateException: getWriter() has already been called for this response error, which we have seen in the earlier article.

This is the exception:
org.apache.jasper.JasperException: java.lang.IllegalStateException: getOutputStream() has already been called for this response
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.handleJspException(JspServletWrapper.java:502)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:424)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:313)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:260)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:723)
HelloServlet.doGet(HelloServlet.java:25)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:723)

and here is the root cause :

How to fix java.lang.IllegalStateException: getWriter() has already been called for this response [Solution]

This error comes when a Servlet calls the getOutputStream() method on the response object for writing something after calling the include() method. Suppose a Servlet calls the include() method to load the response of a JSP. Since JSP has already written the response on it hence again opening OutputStream on the response object is illegal, you get the java.lang.IllegalStateException: getWriter() has already been called for this response error. This error also comes when you try to include the response of another Servlet and then tries to write something on the output stream again. In short, your Servlet should never write anything on the response object after calling the include() method. 

Difference between jsp:include and jsp:forward action- Example

JSP provides standard actions to do things without using Java inside the scriptlet. Two of such standard actions, which help JSP to interact with other server resources e.g. another JSP, Servlet, or HTML files are, include and forward actions. The <jsp:forward> action enables you to forward an HTTP request to a static HTML file, a servlet, or another JSP. It has an attribute called page, which accepts the URL of another resource as shown below:

<jsp:forward page="URL" /> 

6 Difference between include directive and include action in JSP

Difference between include directive and include action
Even though both include directive and include action allows you to include the response of one JSP into another, they are quite different from each other e.g. include directive is processed at translation time and used to include the static resources e.g. HTML files, images, and CSS, etc, while the <jsp:include> action is processed at request time and used to include more dynamic resources e.g. JSP or Servlet. What is the difference between include directive and include action is also one of the most popular JSP interview questions, mostly asked either at telephonic round or first few round of Java web developer interviews?

Top 12 Servlet JSP Interview Questions for Java JEE Developers

Hello guys, Servlets and JSP Interview Questions are the core of any Java JEE Interview and why not they are the back bone of Java Web technology. While the industry have moved from JSP and JSF to React based frontend there are still millions of applications which are using JSP and Servlet in backend. They are also the underlying technology for any web framework on Java like Spring MVC or Spring Boot and It's expected from candidates to have good knowledge of Servlet, JSP, EJB, Struts, or Spring in any JEE interview. That's why Servlets and JSP Interview Questions are very common in any JEE Interviews along with some questions from core Java, Some interview Questions from Spring, and Some EJB interview questions. 

Difference between GenericServlet vs HttpServlet in Servlet JSP - J2EE question

Difference between GenericServlet and HttpServlet is one of the classic Servlet Interview Question, asked on many Servlet and JSP Interviews on 2 to 4 years experience developers. Since both GenericServlet and HttpServlet form the basis of Servlets its important to know What are they and What is main difference between them. From common sense and there names, its obvious that GenericServlet is a generic and protocol-independent implementation of Servlet interface while HttpServlet implements HTTP protocol specifics. If you are working in Java web application or J2EE projects, you are most likely to deal with HttpServlet all time as HTTP is main communication protocol of web. In this Servlet JSP article we will outline some important difference between HttpServlet and GenericServlet which is worth knowing and remembering.

Top 40 Java and Linux Interview Questions Answers for IT Support Engineers

Hello guys, if you are going for a Java support engineer interview and looking for some frequently asked questions then you have come to the right place. I have shared many posts about Java interview questions in the past but nothing, particularly from the support engineer perspective. Since there are a lot of L1 and L2 support job that exists in BFSI (Banking, Finance, and Insurance Industry) and they are also for the longer term, I decided to write this post. In this article, I will share questions to help with technical aspects like the essential skills you need to clear a support engineer interview.

How to create a custom tag in JSP? Steps and Example

You can create a custom tag in JSP either by implementing the SimpleTag interface or extending SimpleTagSupport class. Custom tags are introduced in JSP 2.0 in an effort to minimize Java code from JSP to keep them maintainable and allow page authors to work more in HTML or XML, like environment than writing Java codes. SimpleTag and SimpleTagSupport allow you to create a custom tag in JSP. It's easier to start with SimpleTagSupport class because it implements all methods of the SimpleTagSupport interface and if you are writing a basic tag then you just need to override the doTag() method of this class. 

9 JSP Implicit Objects and When to Use Them

If you are new to JSP then your first question would be what are implicit objects in JSP? Well, implicit objects in JSP are Java object which is created by Servlet containers like the tomcat or Jetty during translation phase of JSP, when JSP is converted to Servlet. These objects are created as local variables inside the service() method generated by the container. The most important thing about the implicit objects is to remember that these objects are available to any JSP developer inside the JSP page and they can do a lot of things with implicit objects and expression language which was only possible with scriptlet earlier. That's why they are known as implicit objects. 

How to Fix "Can not find the tag library descriptor for “http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core” - Cause and Solution

This error comes in when you are trying to use the JSTL core tag library in your JSP page but the web container is not able to locate corresponding TLD files, also known as tag library descriptors. In order to use the custom tags in the JSP page, the first step is to import them using the @taglib directive and for that purpose, we provide a URI. Many JSP developer thinks this is the location where TLD files are stored but that's not true, this is actually the value, custom tab library developer has put in the URL field of tag library descriptor. This misunderstanding causes lots of trouble while solving "Can not find the tag library descriptor for “http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core”.