JSP Setup Tomcat First JSP Page: Tutorial, Examples, FAQs & Interview Tips

Prerequisites

Before writing your first JSP page, you need the following installed on your system:

JDK 8+ - Download from oracle.com. Set JAVA_HOME environment variable.
Apache Tomcat 9+ - A popular open-source JSP/Servlet container. Download from tomcat.apache.org.
IDE - Eclipse IDE for Enterprise Java (Eclipse EE) or IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate both have excellent JSP support.

Project Directory Structure

A standard JSP web application follows this directory structure:

MyWebApp/
├── index.jsp              <- JSP pages (root level)
├── about.jsp
├── WEB-INF/
│   ├── web.xml            <- Deployment descriptor
│   ├── classes/           <- Compiled .class files
│   │   └── com/example/
│   │       └── MyServlet.class
│   └── lib/               <- JAR dependencies
│       └── jstl.jar
└── resources/
    ├── css/
    └── images/

The WEB-INF directory is protected - clients cannot access files inside it directly. Only the server can access them.

web.xml - Deployment Descriptor

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee
         http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_4_0.xsd"
         version="4.0">

    <display-name>My JSP Application</display-name>

    <!-- Default welcome file -->
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
        <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

    <!-- Session timeout in minutes -->
    <session-config>
        <session-timeout>30</session-timeout>
    </session-config>

</web-app>

Your First JSP Page

Create a file named index.jsp in the root of your web application:

First JSP Page

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<%@ page import="java.util.Date"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Welcome to JSP</title>
    <style>
        body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 40px; }
        .greeting { color: #2196F3; font-size: 24px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1 class="greeting">Hello, World!</h1>

    <%-- JSP Comment: This won't appear in HTML source --%>
    <%
        // Java code in scriptlet
        String user = request.getParameter("name");
        if (user == null || user.isEmpty()) {
            user = "Guest";
        }
    %>

    <p>Welcome, <strong><%= user %></strong>!</p>
    <p>Server time: <%= new Date() %></p>
    <p>Server info: <%= application.getServerInfo() %></p>

    <form method="get">
        <input type="text" name="name" placeholder="Enter your name">
        <button type="submit">Greet Me</button>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Deploying to Tomcat

There are two ways to deploy a JSP application to Tomcat:

Direct Copy: Copy your web application folder into Tomcat's webapps/ directory. Tomcat auto-deploys it on startup.
WAR File: Package your application as a .war file and copy it to webapps/. Tomcat extracts and deploys it automatically.
Tomcat Manager: Use the Tomcat Manager web interface at http://localhost:8080/manager to deploy WAR files through a browser.
IDE Integration: Eclipse and IntelliJ can deploy directly to a configured Tomcat server with one click.

After deploying, access your application at: http://localhost:8080/MyWebApp/index.jsp

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JSP Setup Tomcat First JSP Page: Tutorial, Examples, FAQs & Interview Tips

Prerequisites

Project Directory Structure

Your First JSP Page

Deploying to Tomcat

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