It All Starts with Java
The J in JSP is for the Java programming language, and we're going to need Java to run JSP. If you already have access to a Web server that runs Java and JSP, congratulationsyou're all set. On the other hand, if you don't yet have access to such a server, or want to develop your JSP code offline on your own computer, we can set up our own development environment.
The first thing to install is Java itself, which the Web server will need to access to run your JSP code. Java is a product of Sun Microsystems, and you can download it for free from its Web site. We're going to use Java 2 Standard Edition; the current version is 1.4. (That might be different when you read this, howeveryou should get the latest version of the Java 2 Standard Edition SDK, the Software Development Kit.) Here are the URLs you'll need:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/The home page for Java 2 Standard Edition. Go here to see your download options for Java.
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.htmlThe current download page for Java 1.4. You can also download the Java documentation here, which is a good idea.
CAUTION
Allow some time to download Javathe executable installation file is 2036MB large, depending on what operating system you're using.
The installation instructions are online (you can view them from the download page). Typically, you run a self-extracting executable file, such as j2sdk-1_4_0-win.exe in Windows, or j2re-1_4_0-solx86.sh for the Solaris operating system. After you follow the installation instructions, you'll have Java installed.