JSP provides standard actions to do things without using Java inside the scriptlet. Two of such standard actions, which help JSP to interact with other server resources e.g. another JSP, Servlet, or HTML files are, include and forward actions. The action enables you to forward an HTTP request to a static HTML file, a servlet, or another JSP. It has an attribute called page, which accepts the URL of another resource as shown below: Let's say you have two JSP files, hello.jsp and header.jsp in your Java web application, and if you want to forward an HTTP request from hello.jsp to header.jsp, you can add the following lines into hello.jsp: The path to the resource is relative, as the request itself has knowledge of the current URL. Btw, what is the difference between include and forward action is one of the common JSP interview questions, and if you are preparing for Java or JEE developer interviews then you should be aware of many such frequently asked questions. One way to prepare well is to refer to a good book like Java Programming Interviews exposed, which contains questions and answers from all important Java topics and frameworks, including Servlet and JSP. Worth noting is that the JSP that contains the action stops processing, clears its buffer, and forwards the request to the target resource. Note that the calling JSP should not write anything to the response prior to the action. Anything written would go away and not appear in the final response which comes from the header.jsp now. Remember, include action is different than include directive, which also includes a response from another resource but at translation time, not at the request time. You can also pass additional parameters to the target resource using the
