Release 12 – Compiling Custom JSPs

In Release 11i deployment of a custom JSP or JSPs, in general, was done as follows:

1. Copy the file (for example: mycustom.jsp) to the server in the $OA_HTML directory
2. Using the browser URL, enter the following http://: /OA_HTML/mycustom.jsp

You will notice mycustom.jsp compiled in the cache directory of the middle tier server, as follows

cd $OA_HTML/../_pages/_oa__html

Listing this directory will display

_mycustom.class
_mycustom.java

Performing the same steps in Release 12 environment just shows a blank screen – result mycustom.jsp does not get compiled.

In Release 12 the (automatic) compilation of JSP is disabled and on runtime, only the pre-compiled JSP’s are picked up and displayed in the browser. This is the case with 11i as well, however, in 11i it was easier to deploy custom JSPs.

In cases where development activities are in abundance and JSP pages change often the default setting makes things a bit cumbersome to use and deployment takes a longer time. Each time a JSP is deployed a manual compilation, using the ojspCompile.pl, is needed. OC4J process needs to be restarted to pick up the modifications done to the custom JSP.

Follow the steps below to:

* Automatically have the JSP recompile when JSP code has changed (or at least the time stamp has changed)
* See the new JSP, in a browser window, without having the need to restart the OC4J process.

The objective is to change the setting for main_mode from justrun to recompile in

$INST_TOP directory

/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/oacore/application-deployments/oacore/html/orion-web.xml

This can be achieved by the following steps

* Use the Context editor to change the value for “s_jsp_main_mode” in the .xml file used by Autoconfig and change value from justrun to recompile
* Run Autoconfig to propagate the changes to the configuration files
* Verify that

$INST_TOP/ora/10.1.3/j2ee/oacore/application-deployments/oacore/html/orion-web.xml file

has the following lines, under the init-param tag

main_mode
recompile

* Restart the Middle Tier services

* Request a JSP in the browser which is compiled.

Notice that a new _.class is created in _pages or $OA_HTML/../_pages/_oa__html (cache directory)

* Make a change to the JSP file

* Refresh the JSP file in the browser window. Notice that _.class is ‘refreshed’ in the cache directory and the
change can be noticed in the browser