JSP include directive Vs JSP include action

<%@ include file=”filename” %> is the JSP include directive.
At JSP page translation time, the content of the file given in the include directive is ‘pasted’ as it is, in the place where the JSP include directive is used. Then the source JSP page is converted into a java servlet class. The included file can be a static resource or a JSP page. Generally JSP include directive is used to include header banners and footers. The JSP compilation procedure is that, the source JSP page gets compiled only if that page has changed. If there is a change in the included JSP file, the source JSP file will not be compiled and therefore the modification will not get reflected in the output.


<jsp:include page=”relativeURL” /> is the JSP include action element.The jsp:include action element is like a function call. At runtime, the included file will be ‘executed’ and the result content will be included with the soure JSP page. When the included JSP page is called, both the request and response objects are passed as parameters.If there is a need to pass additional parameters, then jsp:param element can be used. If the resource is static, its content is inserted into the calling JSP file, since there is no processing needed.

Include Directive	Include Action
include directive is processed at the translation time	Include action is processed at the run time.
include directive can use relative or absolute path	Include action always use relative path
Include directive can only include contents of resource it will not process the dynamic resource	Include action process the dynamic resource and result will be added to calling JSP
We can not pass any other parameter	Here we can pass other parameter also using JSP:param
We cannot  pass any request or response object to calling jsp to included file or JSP or vice versa	In this case it’s possible.