IMPLICIT OBJECT
JSP
Introduction
These Objects are the Java objects that the JSP Container makes available to the
developers in each page and the developer can call them directly without being
explicitly declared. JSP Implicit Objects are also called pre-defined variables.
■ request (HttServletRequest)
■ response (HttpServletResponse)
■ pageContext (PageContext) out (JspWriter)
■ PrintWriter object session (HttpSession)
■ application (ServletContext)
■ config (ServletConfig)
request
The request object is an instance of a javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest object. Each
time a client requests a page the JSP engine creates a new object to represent that request.
The request object provides methods to get the HTTP header information including form
data, cookies, HTTP methods etc.
The response Object
The response object is an instance of a javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse object. Just
as the server creates the request object, it also creates an object to represent the response to
the client.
The response object also defines the interfaces that deal with creating new HTTP headers.
Through this object the JSP programmer can add new cookies or date stamps, HTTP status
codes, etc.
The pageContext Object
The pageContext object is an instance of a javax.servlet.jsp.PageContext object. The
pageContext object is used to represent the entire JSP page.
This object is intended as a means to access information about the page while avoiding
most of the implementation details.
This object stores references to the request and response objects for each request. The
application, config, session, and out objects are derived by accessing attributes of this
object.
The out Object
The out implicit object is an instance of a javax.servlet.jsp.JspWriter object and is used to
send content in a response.
The initial JspWriter object is instantiated differently depending on whether the page is
buffered or not. Buffering can be easily turned off by using the buffered = 'false' attribute of
the page directive.
■ out.print(dataType dt): Print a data type value
■ out.println(dataType dt):Print a data type value then terminate the line with
new line character.
■ out.flush(): Flush the stream.
The session Object
The session object is an instance of javax.servlet.http.HttpSession and behaves
exactly the same way that session objects behave under Java Servlets.
The session object is used to track client session between client requests.
The application Object
The application object is direct wrapper around the ServletContext object for the generated
Servlet and in reality an instance of a javax.servlet.ServletContext object.
This object is a representation of the JSP page through its entire lifecycle. This object is
created when the JSP page is initialized and will be removed when the JSP page is removed
by the jspDestroy() method.
The config Object
The config object is an instantiation of javax.servlet.ServletConfig and is a direct wrapper
around the ServletConfig object for the generated servlet.
This object allows the JSP programmer access to the Servlet or JSP engine initialization
parameters such as the paths or file locations etc.
