a good JSP framework for a beginning JSP developer

Question

I started looking at JSP yesterday and a question I asked my friend was:

"is there not something like an online manual for JSP? Something like php.net"

He replied : "There isn't such, because it is expected that you use a framework if you code with JSP" and later recommended that I start with Struts(citing that it has better documentation than Spring.

Biase aside, and given my little background in J2SE development, what framework can you recommend and why (take note, I have no experience in JSP development yet, and up until yesterday, the only web programming language I know is PHP).

Answer 1

I found Head First Servlets and JSP to be a great teaching book on JSP and servlets. It teaches it pretty purely without getting into any specific frameworks. It does near the end go over a model for developing web pages which describes pretty much how the struts framework works (and does reveal at the end of the chapter this is what struts does). This would be my recommendation... really like the Head First series books.

Answer 2

"is there not something like an online manual for JSP? Something like php.net"

JSP and PHP are like apples and pears. Strictly speaking, the API and the TLD documentations are your manuals.

To avoid wasting more words, I'll just link the answer I've already given on that subject: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1958808/java-web-development-what-skills-do-i-need

With regard to frameworks, there are a lot. But with Java EE 6 in mind, I would just suggest to go ahead with JSF. The aforementioned link includes more links and information.