RE: Tomcat 5 vs Websphere Express

Sorry Joe, new to the Java world and still getitng use to the terms. When I 
said "java app" I meant JSP model II and using a servlet to populate a bean. 
 
On the JDK 1.4  issue, our person investigating Java wrote the servlet and 
compiled it using a sun java compiler that used JDK 1.4. He could not find one 
that still used JDK 1.3. The servlet would not run in the in-process Tomcat 
server. We made the assumption that it was due to the JDK level not being the 
same. So to update to JDK 1.4 in Tomcat we went with Tomcat 5. 

The support issue was one reason I sent this email. We went with Tomcat 
initially because it looked to me much easier to setup. Only had the Web server 
to start and in-process Tomcat started also (although in poking around today I 
see an option to start a WAS server when an Apache instance starts that I don't 
remember seeing before). Dropped the jsp and html in the right folder and it 
ran. Tomcat 5 appears to be about the same as WAS from an administration 
perspective and from a learning curve. If that is true I think I will go WAS 
for the support issue alone.
 
We tried again today to see how to just drop a jsp into an IFS folder and could 
not get it to run. Can you recommend any IBM manuals/redbooks/3rd party books 
that would explain how WAS works ? 

>>> joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 9/9/2005 1:08:11 AM >>>

> From: Mike Cunningham
> 
> We have just completed deploying our first JSP application. We are
using
> the in-process tomcat app server and it has worked fine. We chose this
> over Websphere since we could just drop the JSP files in the IFS and
they
> would run. With Websphere you have to package and EAR/WAR file and
then
> install and deploy it on the server. Tomcat looked to be much easier.

Unfortunately, you started with a bad assumption.  You've been able to
hot deploy JSP files to WebSphere since as far back as WebSphere 1.1. 


> We
> want to take the next step and clean up some things we didn't do right
due
> to lack of knowledge and needing to get the application in service.
One
> thing we want to do is move the jdbc connect code and place it in a
java
> app in order to hide the userid/password from the jsp and to reuse the
> connect code in the next project.

I'm not sure I completely understand this.  If you've got JDBC code in
your JSP you definitely have some design issues, but I don't understand
the "Java app" part.  Are you talking about implementing JSP Model II
and using a servlet to populate beans that are then accessed by the JSP?
If so, you're definitely headed in the right direction.


> In order to do that we need to go to JDK
> 1.4 and the in-process server only supports JDK 1.3. We just
downloaded
> and installed Tomcat 5 but after taking an initial look at it, it
looks a
> lot like Websphere. Now I'm not sure if we should forget Tomcat and go
> Websphere or stick with Tomcat. Got any advice ?

I don't have enough information about your app.  JSP Model II does not
require any special JVM; I've used it successfully for years with
JDK1.2.2.  As for Tomcat vs. WebSphere, on the iSeries only WebSphere is
officially supported.  I don't know how much you value IBM support; when
I've needed it, it's been invaluable.

Joe