Problem enabling jsp in SunONE 6.0 sp9

Question

Hi there.
Bit of a newbie question here... We've never used JSP pages on any of our sites before, so this hasn't come up.
I'm having difficulty enabling JSPs on our web server.
I've followed the steps in the "...Guide to Servlets" manual (1. enable servlets in server manager; 2. include jsp-servlet enable="true" in web-apps.xml file; 3. add tools.jar to jvm classpath (found this in /usr/java/lib/tools.jar) )
The classpath was originally .../iplanet/servers/plugins/servlets/examples/legacy/beans.10/SDKBeans10.jar and now I've added :/usr/java/lib/tools.jar to it.
When I try to access a JSP application provided by a software vendor, I get an error in the server's error log as follows:
[25/May/2007:11:48:58] info (19136):     JSP11 Log:The scratchDir you specified: /export/swr/iplanet/servers/https-mapstest.county.oxford.on.ca/config/../ClassCache/https-mapstest.county.oxford.on.ca/jspviewer is unusable.
[25/May/2007:11:49:09] info (19136):     jsp: init
[25/May/2007:11:49:10] failure (19136):     Internal error: servlet service function had thrown ServletException (uri=/jspviewer/jspForm.jsp): org.apache.jasper.compiler.CompileException: /export/swr/arcgis/arcims/Samples/Java/jspviewer/jspForm.jsp(8,0) Unable to open taglibrary http://mapstest.county.oxford.on.ca/maps/Java_Connector91 : Could not locate TLD http://mapstest.county.oxford.on.ca/maps/JavaConnector91, stack: org.apache.jasper.compiler.CompileException: /export/swr/arcgis/arcims/Samples/Java/jspviewer/jspForm.jsp(8,0) Unable to open taglibrary http://mapstest.county.oxford.on.ca/maps/Java_Connector91 : Could not locate TLD http://mapstest.county.oxford.on.ca/maps/JavaConnector91
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.JspParseEventListener.handleDirective(JspParseEventListener.java:715)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.DelegatingListener.handleDirective(DelegatingListener.java:110)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser$Directive.accept(Parser.java:215)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parse(Parser.java:1096)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parse(Parser.java:1061)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parse(Parser.java:1057)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:218)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet$JspServletWrapper.loadJSP(JspServlet.java:209)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet$JspServletWrapper.access$4(JspServlet.java:171)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:489)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:599)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
at com.iplanet.server.http.servlet.NSServletRunner.invokeServletService(NSServletRunner.java:943)
at com.iplanet.server.http.servlet.WebApplication.service(WebApplication.java:1094)
at com.iplanet.server.http.servlet.NSServletRunner.ServiceWebApp(NSServletRunner.java:1005)
, root cause:
There is a .tld file at the noted location (which is linked as an "additional document directory"). It's arcims_taglib.tld.
Is this a classpath thing?
The server has been restarted, and starts with no apparent errors. It's noted in the error log that it has successfully initialized the web application environment (web-apps.xml) for the virtual server.
Any suggestions and/or assistance will be greatly welcomed!
Thanks,
Chris J.

Answer 1

I've installed 7.0 of the web server, and it's working fine. Administration seems a little slower (probably just the speed of the test machine), but it's generally fine to use. Seems quite quick and responsive at serving pages...
In short, jsp seems to work (out-of-box). A really simple jsp page (which just prints out a date) works. (e.g.
    <%
    Date now = new Date();
    out.println(DateFormat.getTimeInstance().format(now));
    %>)
However, if I try to use a more complex set of jsp pages, one of which is referencing something from a jar file, I get a server error:
for host xx.xx.xx.xx trying to GET /GeoDoc/redirectlogin.do, service-j2ee reports: StandardWrapperValve[action]: PWC1406: Servlet.service() for servlet action threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException at com.geodoc.struts.redirectLoginAction.execute(redirectLoginAction.java:73) at org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.processActionPerform(RequestProcessor.java:431) at org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.process(RequestProcessor.java:236) at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1196) at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doGet(ActionServlet.java:414) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:796) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:917) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.servletService(ApplicationFilterChain.java:391) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:272) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invokeInternal(StandardContextValve.java:241) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:182) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:571) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:160) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:571) at com.sun.webserver.connector.nsapi.NSAPIProcessor.process(NSAPIProcessor.java:149) at com.sun.webserver.connector.nsapi.NSAPIConnector.service(NSAPIConnector.java:995)
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks,
CDEJ