Java web hosting suggestions

Java is a programming language that was developed initially by Sun Corporations and is being used by thousands of websites across the world. Today, java is an open source project, which means that can be altered by every individually that has some knowledge. It is used as a platform for large govermental, corporate and portal websites with serious infrastructures and load balancing mechanisms.

The simple websites are based on just plain HTML scripts which determine how the page looks like. However, the HTML has only the basic features and can be used to only create static websites which look the same way. However, there are various other technologies which either allow different scripts to execute via server-client way i.e. creating a page dynamically at the server based on previous conditions or data and sending it to the client, and even client side scripts, which do some processing at the client end and change the pages/data based on the user’s actions.

Many such solutions are available, which include Perl, Python, ASP.net, Java tools and many more. These tools can be used either independently or in some sense with interoperability between the different technologies to design the website as per the requirements. A lot of these services come with their own incorporations of things like Database Handling, built-in APIs for communication with mail protocols and such other features. While some of these technologies are supported only on Windows-based Servers there are other technologies which can be ported on different platforms with some effort.

The most popularly used cross-platform solution is Java. The biggest asset of Java is that it has no portability issues and the same underlying code works seamlessly on both Windows and Linux Servers. Java is a web platform developed by Sun Microsystems, which is now acquired by Oracle. Java comprises of not only a huge number of proprietary computer software products that together provide a system for developing application software but also various tools and features that allow interoperability among the various systems.

The most important aspect of Jave is the fact that can be used to create programs that run in almost every platform that is avalailable today. From handheld devices and mobile phones to high end servers, Java is a universal framework for developing software solutions. There are many tools and books that can help even the novice programmers to start with Java. If your website is based on Java, then you absolutely need a reliable and affordable Java hosting provider.

For the purpose of website designing, Java has typically two older and most prominently used features called the “Java Applet” and the “Java Scripts”. While the applets are small codes which are applications which run at the server, the Java scripts are client side applications which can be used for validation of forms or such other usage. However, being 15 years in the software fields, Java also has its own implementations for Database Connectivity called JDBC, Java Server pages (jsp), Java mail, SOAP etc.

These implementations can be used to get all the features that are provided by the other services like ODBC for Database Connectivity and Active Server Pages (ASP). However, the inherent benefit of using Java for creating the websites is that the platform of the web server doesn’t matter and also a lot of times most of the programmers have had some experience in Java. As a result, they can, without learning a completely new technology like ASP.net or scripting languages like CGI or PHP start working on Java and design their web pages. The other benefit of using Java approach is that by using an init or a start on the applet, the developers can load the applet as a normal Java code. This will enable them to run the applet in their Java Development Environment and hence ease the process of debugging.

In older days, the Java codes used to take more time to execute than similar C/C++ codes and hence using the Java solutions would slowdown the websites, since the processing has to happen on class files which are non-platform specific. However, in recent times, the performance of Java has improved greatly. Moreover, the browsers can also cache the applets thus making the web pages load faster after the first time.

However, for the Java applications, i.e. the servlet or applet to work, the user machine needs to have the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed for the browser. Unless the JVM is installed, the page doesn’t load and there are also some pages which need newer versions of JVM installed and do not have backward compatibility which, may lead to some of the traffic to go away from the page. This may pose a concern as a website owner.

At the same time, the client side Java scripts and the newer AJAX which can do some processing on the client side itself, thus both reducing the load on the server and also improving the surfing speed by not pinging the server for small changes on the form, can co-exist with JSP or even with other technologies like Perl and ASP.net making them universal and not dependent on Java.

On the whole, whether or not to go for a Java-based hosting depends on considering the needs of the website owner. However, if a Java-based hosting is needed one should looks at web hosting services designed specifically for JSPs, since Java server pages (JSPs) work best with these. It is always important to find out what other features and support is present even when looking for a JSP-based hosting scheme since not just the hosting fees and the features, but also the level of support offered by different Web hosts are different.