i am doing a project at college. i am wondering if i should use asp or jsp. any ideas?
thanks.

ScottGem

without knowing more about the project its impossible to advise.

sarah11282

i have to chose 1. i have never learned any before. i have studied some c++ but that is it.
my project is i am setting up a web page(using html) that sells clothes, household goods etc. not like e-bay but a online store. and as far as i know?? please correct me if i am wrong i will store all this info in a database and use either asp or jsp. i am just wondering which you think would be the best to use and easiest to learn. i am also starting java this year so wondering if jsp would be the way to go. and which do you think would give me more marks at the end. this is a very important project towards my degree. which is why we are basically left on our own to decide what language to use and learn.

thanks!

Ademan

Geeze. From the sounds of it you dont know much about web development (thats fine, just assuming) First of all, we need to get something out on the table, ASP IS DISGUSTING. I know its just preference, but you will be totally bewildered if you are used to c-style languages. Jsp is fine, but really, I love php. PHP kicks the crap outta both of those. Of course, this is all preference. Just for the record ASP can actually use 2 scripting languages, VBSCRIPT, which is a subset of visual basic, is what most people generally associate with vb, and that's what i'm calling disgusting, i have not dealt with the other option (jscript). Another option, is ASP.NET, which is the preffered server side scripting language of all who have used it (i have not). I am a big believer in php5, its very powerful, and most importantly, c-like, which means your knowledge of c++'s syntax applies (for the most part).

1. ASP.NET (i would assume getting a copy of the ASP.NET server would be expensive (or very illegal) c-like)
2. PHP5 (wonderful, my personal favorite, very logical syntax, easy to get used to, FREE)
3. JSP (not my cup of tea, just doesnt feel right to me, c-like, i would assume pricing is the same as ASP.NET)
4. ASP with VBSCRIPT (absolutely disgusting, it will make you lose faith in humanity, plus I would assume getting a server set up with it will be expensive as with JSP and ASP.NET)

Also, you will need a database. mysql is free and nice, and there are plenty of resources around. It will probably serve you just fine. However, there are things about mysql that are lacking regarding some of the more "advanced" features (ones i hardly touch myself), therefore many people reccomend postresql, which i believe is also free.

as a totally free web server solution apache httpd + php5 + mysql or postgresql

hope that helps
-Dan

dlochart

I have to agree with Dan ASP/VB ... disgusting. When asking for help in this manner you need to get in the habit of specifying your platform (Operating System) that you have at your disposal. Also your database that you have access too. I think the assumption here is WindBlows. If you had said Unix / Linux then ASP etc is really a non issue unless you are trying to commit suicide.

BTW ... JSP is just a tool and its FREE. Tomcat (jakarta.apache.org) is an open source (free) Servlet/JSP container that can stand alone or sit behind Apache.

I have never used PHP but have heard many good things about it. This forum is a PHP application if I am not mistaken. PHP is offered on a multitude of platforms. I am a Java guy (9 years now) however my experience with JSP is limited. I use Tapestry and Servlets (similar to JSF (Java Server Faces)).

Since you are just starting Java I believe that JSP may be a big pill to swallow if you are doing them in concert. It also depends on your knowledge of web programming. There is ALOT that happens that you need to get involved with that are even outside the scope of JSP/PHP. Just let me say that YOU WILL LEARN ALOT by the time you are finished with this project.

My gut instinct tells me PHP. However if the majority of your coursework will use Java then it might be worth the hit to use JSP and Servlets. But you need to get familiar with Web Programming in general before you dive into JSP to any great extent.

Doug

--
I fish therefore I am
I code therefore I can afford to fish

Ademan

Good to know about JSP. I had no clue it was open source. Regardless, I would like to re-emphasise my advocation of php5 + apache + postgresql or mysql. If you need a support library for php i'm working on one at the moment, it has absolutley no documentation at the moment, however, i would hope it would be straightforward to use. I'm creating it as a response that php is too low level. (ie you print("<a href="index2.html">Skip Intro</a>"); ) as opposed to Document->Body->AddChild(new qHtmlLink("index2.html")); of course, in this particular case, actually typing out the html and manually printing it is far faster, however, once things get more advanced, my library becomes indispensable (for me) its by no means finished, but you're welcome to it if you'd like, even as a learning tool.

just for the heck of it, heres a little sample of using my library (the qHtmlWindowVerticalLayout class is still being debugged, (something about php5's inherritance is screwing it up) )

<?php

include 'libhtml.php';

$Doc = new qHtmlDocument();

$Layout = new qHtmlLayout();
$News = new qHtmlWindowVerticalLayout("windowheader", "windowbody");
$Menu = new qHtmlWindowVerticalLayout("windowheader", "windowbody");
$MenuLayout = new qHtmlLayout();
$NewsItem = new qHtmlWindow("windowheader", "windowbody");

$NewsItem->Header->sprint("This is the News Header");
$NewsItem->Body->sprint("body body body");

$Menu->Header->sprint("Menu");
$Menu->sprint("option #1");
$Menu->sprint("option #2");
$Menu->sprint("option #3");
$Menu->sprint("option #4");
$Menu->sprint("option #5");

$Layout->AddHorizontal($Menu);
$Layout->AddHorizontal($News);

$News->Header->sprint("News");
$News->Body->AddChild($NewsLayout);
$News->AddChild($NewsItem);
$News->AddChild($NewsItem);
$News->AddChild($NewsItem);

$Doc->AddChild($Layout);
$Doc->Body->SetClass('main');
$Doc->Header->AddStylesheet('style.css');
$Doc->AddTitle("Welcome to MyFlashPictures.net");
$Doc->Write();

?>

of course that doesnt look so pretty, but i'm still working on it, as of now, my naming scheme is as such (i decided againt using namespaces, and instead i'm prepending either Html (for the low level (actual html) names of things, ie: HtmlForm HtmlAnchor HtmlHeader) or qHtml (quick Html, which is my wrapper for the raw html) qHtmlWindow qHtmlDocument qHtmlStyleSheet, and these names do not necessarily correspond to the names of the html tags they output, ie, qHtmlLink is a wrapper for the HtmlAnchor class )

woo, boy can i ramble

hope that helps
-Dan