Web Technologies Java Server Pages

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What is JavaServer Pages?

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology for developing web pages that support dynamic content which helps developers insert java code in HTML pages by making use of special JSP tags, most of which start with <% and end with %>. JavaServer Pages component is a type of Java servlet that is designed to fulfill the role of a user interface for a Java web application. Web developers write JSPs as text files that combine HTML or XHTML code, XML elements, and embedded JSP actions and commands. Using JSP, you can collect input from users through web page forms, present records from a database or another source, and create web pages dynamically. JSP tags can be used for a variety of purposes, such as retrieving information from a database or registering user preferences, accessing JavaBeans components, passing control between pages and sharing information between requests, pages etc.

Why Use JSP?

JavaServer Pages often serve the same purpose as programs implemented using the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). But JSP offer several advantages in comparison with the CGI.

Performance is significantly better because JSP allows embedding Dynamic Elements in HTML Pages itself instead of having a separate CGI files. JSP are always compiled before it's processed by the server unlike CGI/Perl which requires the server to load an interpreter and the target script each time the page is requested. JavaServer Pages are built on top of the Java Servlets API, so like Servlets, JSP also has access to all the powerful Enterprise Java APIs, including JDBC, JNDI, EJB, JAXP etc. JSP pages can be used in combination with servlets that handle the business logic, the model supported by Java servlet template engines.

Finally, JSP is an integral part of J2EE, a complete platform for enterprise class applications. This means that JSP can play a part in the simplest applications to the most complex and demanding.

Advantages of JSP:
Following is the list of other advantages of using JSP over other technologies:

vs. Active Server Pages (ASP): The advantages of JSP are twofold. First, the dynamic part is written in Java, not Visual Basic or other MS specific language, so it is more powerful and easier to use. Second, it is portable to other operating systems and non-Microsoft Web servers. 1

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vs. Pure Servlets: It is more convenient to write (and to modify!) regular HTML than to have plenty of println statements that generate the HTML. vs. Server-Side Includes (SSI): SSI is really only intended for simple inclusions, not for "real" programs that use form data, make database connections, and the like. vs. JavaScript: JavaScript can generate HTML dynamically on the client but can hardly interact with the web server to perform complex tasks like database access and image processing etc. vs. Static HTML: Regular HTML, of course, cannot contain dynamic information.

JSP - Architecture
The web server needs a JSP engine ie. container to process JSP pages. The JSP container is responsible for intercepting requests for JSP pages. This tutorial makes use of Apache which has built-in JSP container to support JSP pages development. A JSP container works with the Web server to provide the runtime environment and other services a JSP needs. It knows how to understand the special elements that are part of JSPs. Following diagram shows the position of JSP container and JSP files in a Web Application.

JSP Processing:
The following steps explain how the web server creates the web page using JSP:

As with a normal page, your browser sends an HTTP request to the web server. The web server recognizes that the HTTP request is for a JSP page and forwards it to a JSP engine. This is done by using the URL or JSP page which ends with .jsp instead of .html. 2

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The JSP engine loads the JSP page from disk and converts it into a servlet content. This conversion is very simple in which all template text is converted to println( ) statements and all JSP elements are converted to Java code that implements the corresponding dynamic behavior of the page. The JSP engine compiles the servlet into an executable class and forwards the original request to a servlet engine. A part of the web server called the servlet engine loads the Servlet class and executes it. During execution, the servlet produces an output in HTML format, which the servlet engine passes to the web server inside an HTTP response. The web server forwards the HTTP response to your browser in terms of static HTML content. Finally web browser handles the dynamically generated HTML page inside the HTTP response exactly as if it were a static page.

All the above mentioned steps can be shown below in the following diagram:

Typically, the JSP engine checks to see whether a servlet for a JSP file already exists and whether the modification date on the JSP is older than the servlet. If the JSP is older than its generated servlet, the JSP container assumes that the JSP hasn't changed and that the generated servlet still matches the JSP's contents. This makes the process more efficient than with other scripting languages (such as PHP) and therefore faster. So in a way, a JSP page is really just another way to write a servlet without having to be a Java programming wiz. Except for the translation phase, a JSP page is handled exactly like a regular servlet

JSP - Life Cycle

The key to understanding the low-level functionality of JSP is to understand the simple life cycle they follow.

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A JSP life cycle can be defined as the entire process from its creation till the destruction which is similar to a servlet life cycle with an additional step which is required to compile a JSP into servlet. The following are the paths followed by a JSP

Compilation Initialization Execution Cleanup

The three major phases of JSP life cycle are very similar to Servlet Life Cycle and they are as follows:

(1) JSP Compilation:

When a browser asks for a JSP, the JSP engine first checks to see whether it needs to compile the page. If the page has never been compiled, or if the JSP has been modified since it was last compiled, the JSP engine compiles the page. The compilation process involves three steps: 1. Parsing the JSP. 2. Turning the JSP into a servlet. 3. Compiling the servlet.
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(2) JSP Initialization:

When a container loads a JSP it invokes the jspInit() method before servicing any requests. If you need to perform JSP-specific initialization, override the jspInit() method:
public void jspInit(){ // Initialization code... }

Typically initialization is performed only once and as with the servlet init method, you generally initialize database connections, open files, and create lookup tables in the jspInit method.

(3) JSP Execution:

This phase of the JSP life cycle represents all interactions with requests until the JSP is destroyed. Whenever a browser requests a JSP and the page has been loaded and initialized, the JSP engine invokes the _jspService() method in the JSP. The _jspService() method takes an HttpServletRequest and an HttpServletResponse as its parameters as follows:
void _jspService(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) { // Service handling code... }

The _jspService() method of a JSP is invoked once per a request and is responsible for generating the response for that request and this method is also responsible for generating responses to all seven of the HTTP methods ie. GET, POST, DELETE etc.

(4) JSP Cleanup:

The destruction phase of the JSP life cycle represents when a JSP is being removed from use by a container. The jspDestroy() method is the JSP equivalent of the destroy method for servlets. Override jspDestroy when you need to perform any cleanup, such as releasing database connections or closing open files.

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The jspDestroy() method has the following form:
public void jspDestroy() { // Your cleanup code goes here. }

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JSP Syntax The Scriptlet:

A scriptlet can contain any number of JAVA language statements, variable or method declarations, or expressions that are valid in the page scripting language. Following is the syntax of Scriptlet:
<% code fragment %>

You can write XML equivalent of the above syntax as follows:

<jsp:scriptlet> code fragment </jsp:scriptlet>

Any text, HTML tags, or JSP elements you write must be outside the scriptlet. Following is the simple and first example for JSP:
<html> <head><title>Hello World</title></head> <body> Hello World!<br/> <% out.println("Your IP address is " + request.getRemoteAddr()); %> </body> </html>

NOTE: Assuming that Apache Tomcat is installed in C:\apache-tomcat-7.0.2 and your environment is setup as per environment setup tutorial. Let us keep above code in JSP file hello.jsp and put this file in C:\apache-tomcat7.0.2\webapps\ROOT directory and try to browse it by giving URL http://localhost:8080/hello.jsp. This would generate following result:
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JSP Declarations:
A declaration declares one or more variables or methods that you can use in Java code later in the JSP file. You must declare the variable or method before you use it in the JSP file. Following is the syntax of JSP Declarations:
<%! declaration; [ declaration; ]+ ... %>

You can write XML equivalent of the above syntax as follows:

<jsp:declaration> code fragment </jsp:declaration>

Following is the simple example for JSP Comments:

<%! int i = 0; %> <%! int a, b, c; %> <%! Circle a = new Circle(2.0); %>

JSP Expression:
A JSP expression element contains a scripting language expression that is evaluated, converted to a String, and inserted where the expression appears in the JSP file. Because the value of an expression is converted to a String, you can use an expression within a line of text, whether or not it is tagged with HTML, in a JSP file. The expression element can contain any expression that is valid according to the Java Language Specification but you cannot use a semicolon to end an expression.
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Following is the syntax of JSP Expression:
<%= expression %>

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You can write XML equivalent of the above syntax as follows:

<jsp:expression> expression </jsp:expression>

Following is the simple example for JSP Expression:

<html> <head><title>A Comment Test</title></head> <body> <p> Today's date: <%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString()%> </p> </body> </html>

This would generate following result: Today's date: 11-Sep-2010 21:24:25

JSP Comments:
JSP comment marks text or statements that the JSP container should ignore. A JSP comment is useful when you want to hide or "comment out" part of your JSP page. Following is the syntax of JSP comments:
<%-- This is JSP comment --%>

Following is the simple example for JSP Comments:

<html> <head><title>A Comment Test</title></head> <body> <h2>A Test of Comments</h2> <%-- This comment will not be visible in the page source --%> </body> </html>

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This would generate following result:

Unit-7

A Test of Results
There are a small number of special constructs you can use in various cases to insert comments or characters that would otherwise be treated specially. Here's a summary: Syntax <%-- comment --%> <!-- comment --> <\% %\> \' \" Purpose A JSP comment. Ignored by the JSP engine. An HTML comment. Ignored by the browser. Represents static <% literal. Represents static %> literal. A single quote in an attribute that uses single quotes. A double quote in an attribute that uses double quotes.

JSP Directives:
A JSP directive affects the overall structure of the servlet class. It usually has the following form:
<%@ directive attribute="value" %>

There are three types of directive tag: Directive <%@ page ... %> <%@ include ... %> <%@ taglib ... %> Description Defines page-dependent attributes, such as scripting language, error page, and buffering requirements. Includes a file during the translation phase. Declares a tag library, containing custom actions, used in the page

We would explain JSP directive in separate chapter JSP - Directives

JSP Actions:
JSP actions use constructs in XML syntax to control the behavior of the servlet engine. You can dynamically insert a file, reuse JavaBeans components, forward the user to another page, or generate HTML for the Java plugin.
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There is only one syntax for the Action element, as it conforms to the XML standard:
<jsp:action_name attribute="value" />

Action elements are basically predefined functions and there are following JSP actions available: Syntax jsp:include jsp:include jsp:useBean jsp:setProperty jsp:getProperty jsp:forward jsp:plugin jsp:element jsp:attribute jsp:body jsp:text Purpose Includes a file at the time the page is requested Includes a file at the time the page is requested Finds or instantiates a JavaBean Sets the property of a JavaBean Inserts the property of a JavaBean into the output Forwards the requester to a new page Generates browser-specific code that makes an OBJECT or EMBED tag for the Java plugin Defines XML elements dynamically. Defines dynamically defined XML element's attribute. Defines dynamically defined XML element's body. Use to write template text in JSP pages and documents.

We would explain JSP actions in separate chapter JSP - Actions

JSP Implicit Objects:

JSP supports nine automatically defined variables, which are also called implicit objects. These variables are: Objects request response out Description This is the HttpServletRequest object associated with the request. This is the HttpServletResponse object associated with the response to the client. This is the PrintWriter object used to send output to the 10

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client. session application config pageContext page Exception

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This is the HttpSession object associated with the request. This is the ServletContext object associated with application context. This is the ServletConfig object associated with the page. This encapsulates use of server-specific features like higher performance JspWriters. This is simply a synonym for this, and is used to call the methods defined by the translated servlet class. The Exception object allows the exception data to be accessed by designated JSP.

We would explain JSP Implicit Objects in separate chapter JSP - Implicit Objects.

Control-Flow Statements:
JSP provides full power of Java to be embeded in your web application. You can use all the APIs and building blocks of Java in your JSP programming including decision making statements, loops etc.

Decision-Making Statements:
The if...else block starts out like an ordinary Scriptlet, but the Scriptlet is closed at each line with HTML text included between Scriptlet tags.
<%! int day = 3; %> <html> <head><title>IF...ELSE Example</title></head> <body> <% if (day == 1 | day == 7) { %> <p> Today is weekend</p> <% } else { %> <p> Today is not weekend</p> <% } %> </body> </html>

This would produce following result: Today is not weekend

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Now look at the following switch...case block which has been written a bit differentlty using out.println() and inside Scriptletas:
<%! int day = 3; %> <html> <head><title>SWITCH...CASE Example</title></head> <body> <% switch(day) { case 0: out.println("It\'s Sunday."); break; case 1: out.println("It\'s Monday."); break; case 2: out.println("It\'s Tuesday."); break; case 3: out.println("It\'s Wednesday."); break; case 4: out.println("It\'s Thursday."); break; case 5: out.println("It\'s Friday."); break; default: out.println("It's Saturday."); } %> </body> </html>

This would produce following result: It's Wednesday.

Loop Statements:
You can also use three basic types of looping blocks in Java: for, while,and dowhile blocks in your JSP programming. Let us look at the following for loop example:
<%! int fontSize; %> <html> <head><title>FOR LOOP Example</title></head> <body> <%for ( fontSize = 1; fontSize <= 3; fontSize++){ %>

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<font color="green" size="<%= fontSize %>"> JSP Tutorial </font><br /> <%}%> </body> </html>

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This would produce following result:

JSP Tutorial

JSP

Tutorial

JSP Tutorial Above example can be written using while loop as follows:
<%! int fontSize; %> <html> <head><title>WHILE LOOP Example</title></head> <body> <%while ( fontSize <= 3){ %> <font color="green" size="<%= fontSize %>"> JSP Tutorial </font><br /> <%fontSize++;%> <%}%> </body> </html>

This would also produce following result:

JSP Tutorial

JSP

Tutorial

JSP Tutorial

JSP Operators:
JSP supports all the logical and arithmatic operators supported by Java. Following table give a list of all the operators with the highest precedence appear at the top of the table, those with the lowest appear at the bottom. Within an expression, higher precedenace operators will be evaluated first. Category Postfix Unary Operator () [] . (dot operator) ++ - - ! ~ Associativity Left to right Right to left 13

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Multiplicative Additive Shift Relational Equality Bitwise AND Bitwise XOR Bitwise OR Logical AND Logical OR Conditional Assignment Comma */% +>> >>> << > >= < <= == != & ^ | && || ?: = += -= *= /= %= >>= <<= &= ^= |= ,

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Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Left to right Right to left Right to left Left to right

JSP Literals:
The JSP expression language defines the following literals:

Boolean: true and false Integer: as in Java Floating point: as in Java String: with single and double quotes; " is escaped as \", ' is escaped as \', and \ is escaped as \\. Null: null

JSP - Directives
JSP directives provide directions and instructions to the container, telling it how to handle certain aspects of JSP processing. A JSP directive affects the overall structure of the servlet class. It usually has the following form:

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<%@ directive attribute="value" %>

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Directives can have a number of attributes which you can list down as key-value pairs and separated by commas. The blanks between the @ symbol and the directive name, and between the last attribute and the closing %>, are optional. There are three types of directive tag: Directive <%@ page ... %> <%@ include ... %> <%@ taglib ... %> Description Defines page-dependent attributes, such as scripting language, error page, and buffering requirements. Includes a file during the translation phase. Declares a tag library, containing custom actions, used in the page

The page Directive:

The page directive is used to provide instructions to the container that pertain to the current JSP page. You may code page directives anywhere in your JSP page. By convention, page directives are coded at the top of the JSP page. Following is the basic syntax of page directive:
<%@ page attribute="value" %>

You can write XML equivalent of the above syntax as follows:

<jsp:directive.page attribute="value" />

Attributes:
Following is the list of attributes associated with page directive: Attribute buffer autoFlush Purpose Specifies a buffering model for the output stream. Controls the behavior of the servlet output buffer. 15

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contentType errorPage isErrorPage extends import info isThreadSafe language session isELIgnored isScriptingEnabled Defines the character encoding scheme.

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Defines the URL of another JSP that reports on Java unchecked runtime exceptions. Indicates if this JSP page is a URL specified by another JSP page's errorPage attribute. Specifies a superclass that the generated servlet must extend Specifies a list of packages or classes for use in the JSP as the Java import statement does for Java classes. Defines a string that can be accessed with the servlet's getServletInfo() method. Defines the threading model for the generated servlet. Defines the programming language used in the JSP page. Specifies whether or not the JSP page participates in HTTP sessions Specifies whether or not EL expression within the JSP page will be ignored. Determines if scripting elements are allowed for use.

Check more detail related to all the above attributes at Page Directive.

The include Directive:

The include directive is used to includes a file during the translation phase. This directive tells the container to merge the content of other external files with the current JSP during the translation phase. You may code include directives anywhere in your JSP page. The general usage form of this directive is as follows:
<%@ include file="relative url" >

The filename in the include directive is actually a relative URL. If you just specify a filename with no associated path, the JSP compiler assumes that the file is in the same directory as your JSP. You can write XML equivalent of the above syntax as follows:
<jsp:directive.include file="relative url" />

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Check more detail related to include directive at Include Directive.

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The taglib Directive:

The JavaServer Pages API allows you to define custom JSP tags that look like HTML or XML tags and a tag library is a set of user-defined tags that implement custom behavior. The taglib directive declares that your JSP page uses a set of custom tags, identifies the location of the library, and provides a means for identifying the custom tags in your JSP page. The taglib directive follows the following syntax:
<%@ taglib uri="uri" prefix="prefixOfTag" >

Where the uri attribute value resolves to a location the container understands and the prefix attribute informs a container what bits of markup are custom actions. You can write XML equivalent of the above syntax as follows:
<jsp:directive.taglib uri="uri" prefix="prefixOfTag" />

JSP - Actions
JSP actions use constructs in XML syntax to control the behavior of the servlet engine. You can dynamically insert a file, reuse JavaBeans components, forward the user to another page, or generate HTML for the Java plugin. There is only one syntax for the Action element, as it conforms to the XML standard:
<jsp:action_name attribute="value" />

Action elements are basically predefined functions and there are following JSP actions available: Syntax jsp:include jsp:include jsp:useBean Purpose Includes a file at the time the page is requested Includes a file at the time the page is requested Finds or instantiates a JavaBean

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jsp:setProperty jsp:getProperty jsp:forward jsp:plugin jsp:element jsp:attribute jsp:body jsp:text Sets the property of a JavaBean Inserts the property of a JavaBean into the output Forwards the requester to a new page

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Generates browser-specific code that makes an OBJECT or EMBED tag for the Java plugin Defines XML elements dynamically. Defines dynamically defined XML element's attribute. Defines dynamically defined XML element's body. Use to write template text in JSP pages and documents.

Common Attributes:
There are two attributes that are common to all Action elements: the id attribute and the scope attribute.

Id attribute: The id attribute uniquely identifies the Action element, and allows the action to be referenced inside the JSP page. If the Action creates an instance of an object the id value can be used to reference it through the implicit object PageContext Scope attribute: This attribute identifies the lifecycle of the Action element. The id attribute and the scope attribute are directly related, as the scope attribute determines the lifespan of the object associated with the id. The scope attribute has four possible values: (a) page, (b)request, (c)session, and (d) application.

The <jsp:include> Action

This action lets you insert files into the page being generated. The syntax looks like this:
<jsp:include page="relative URL" flush="true" />

Unlike the include directive, which inserts the file at the time the JSP page is translated into a servlet, this action inserts the file at the time the page is requested. Following is the list of attributes associated with include action: Attribute page Description The relative URL of the page to be included. 18

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flush The boolean attribute determines whether the included resource has its buffer flushed before it is included.

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Example:
Let us define following two files (a)date.jps and (b) main.jsp as follows: Following is the content of date.jsp file:
<p> Today's date: <%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString()%> </p>

Here is the content of main.jsp file:

<html> <head> <title>The include Action Example</title> </head> <body> <center> <h2>The include action Example</h2> <jsp:include page="date.jsp" flush="true" /> </center> </body> </html>

Now let us keep all these files in root directory and try to access main.jsp. This would display result something like this:

The include action Example

Today's date: 12-Sep-2010 14:54:22

The <jsp:useBean> Action

The useBean action is quite versatile. It first searches for an existing object utilizing the id and scope variables. If an object is not found, it then tries to create the specified object. The simplest way to load a bean is as follows:
<jsp:useBean id="name" class="package.class" />

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Once a bean class is loaded, you can use jsp:setProperty and jsp:getProperty actions to modify and retrieve bean properties. Following is the list of attributes associated with useBean action: Attribute class type beanName Description Designates the full package name of the bean. Specifies the type of the variable that will refer to the object. Gives the name of the bean as specified by the instantiate () method of the java.beans.Beans class.

Let us discuss about jsp:setProperty and jsp:getProperty actions before giving a valid example related to these actions.

The <jsp:setProperty> Action

The setProperty action sets the properties of a Bean. The Bean must have been previously defined before this action. There are two basic ways to use the setProperty action: You can use jsp:setProperty after, but outside of, a jsp:useBean element, as below:
<jsp:useBean id="myName" ... /> ... <jsp:setProperty name="myName" property="someProperty" .../>

In this case, the jsp:setProperty is executed regardless of whether a new bean was instantiated or an existing bean was found. A second context in which jsp:setProperty can appear is inside the body of a jsp:useBean element, as below:
<jsp:useBean id="myName" ... > ... <jsp:setProperty name="myName" property="someProperty" .../> </jsp:useBean>

Here, the jsp:setProperty is executed only if a new object was instantiated, not if an existing one was found. Following is the list of attributes associated with setProperty action:

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Attribute name Description

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Designates the bean whose property will be set. The Bean must have been previously defined. Indicates the property you want to set. A value of "*" means that all request parameters whose names match bean property names will be passed to the appropriate setter methods. The value that is to be assigned to the given property. The the parameter's value is null, or the parameter does not exist, the setProperty action is ignored. The param attribute is the name of the request parameter whose value the property is to receive. You can't use both value and param, but it is permissible to use neither.

property

value

param

The <jsp:getProperty> Action

The getProperty action is used to retrieve the value of a given property and converts it to a string, and finally inserts it into the output. The getProperty action has only two attributes, both of which are required ans simple syntax is as follows:
<jsp:useBean id="myName" ... /> ... <jsp:getProperty name="myName" property="someProperty" .../>

Following is the list of required attributes associated with setProperty action: Attribute name property Description The name of the Bean that has a property to be retrieved. The Bean must have been previously defined. The property attribute is the name of the Bean property to be retrieved.

Example:
Let us define a test bean which we will use in our example:
/* File: TestBean.java */ package action;

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public class TestBean { private String message = "No message specified"; public String getMessage() { return(message); } public void setMessage(String message) { this.message = message; } }

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Compile above code to generated TestBean.class file and make sure that you copied TestBean.class in C:\apache-tomcat-7.0.2\webapps\WEB-INF\classes\action folder and CLASSPATH variable should also be set to this folder: Now use the following code in main.jsp file which loads the bean and sets/gets a simple String parameter:
<html> <head> <title>Using JavaBeans in JSP</title> </head> <body> <center> <h2>Using JavaBeans in JSP</h2> <jsp:useBean id="test" class="action.TestBean" /> <jsp:setProperty name="test" property="message" value="Hello JSP..." /> <p>Got message....</p> <jsp:getProperty name="test" property="message" /> </center> </body> </html>

Now try to access main.jsp, it would display following result:

Using JavaBeans in JSP

Got message.... Hello JSP...

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The <jsp:forward> Action

The forward action terminates the action of the current page and forwards the request to another resource such as a static page, another JSP page, or a Java Servlet. The simple syntax of this action is as follows:
<jsp:forward page="Relative URL" />

Following is the list of required attributes associated with forward action: Attribute page Description Should consist of a relative URL of another resource such as a static page, another JSP page, or a Java Servlet.

Example:
Let us reuse following two files (a) date.jps and (b) main.jsp as follows: Following is the content of date.jsp file:
<p> Today's date: <%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString()%> </p>

Here is the content of main.jsp file:

<html> <head> <title>The include Action Example</title> </head> <body> <center> <h2>The include action Example</h2> <jsp:forward page="date.jsp" /> </center> </body> </html>

Now let us keep all these files in root directory and try to access main.jsp. This would display result something like as below. Here it discarded content from main page and displayed content from forwarded page only. Today's date: 12-Sep-2010 14:54:22

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The <jsp:plugin> Action

The plugin action is used to insert Java components into a JSP page. It determines the type of browser and inserts the <object> or <embed> tags as needed. If the needed plugin is not present, it downloads the plugin and then executes the Java component. The Java component can be either an Applet or a JavaBean. The plugin action has several attributes that correspond to common HTML tags used to format Java components. The <param> element can also be used to send parameters to the Applet or Bean. Following is the typical syntax of using plugin action:
<jsp:plugin type="applet" codebase="dirname" code="MyApplet.class" width="60" height="80"> <jsp:param name="fontcolor" value="red" /> <jsp:param name="background" value="black" /> <jsp:fallback> Unable to initialize Java Plugin </jsp:fallback> </jsp:plugin>

You can try this action using some applet if you are interested. A new element, the <fallback> element, can be used to specify an error string to be sent to the user in case the component fails.

The <jsp:element> Action The <jsp:attribute> Action The <jsp:body> Action

The <jsp:element>, lt;jsp:attribute> and <jsp:body> actions are used to define XML elements dynamically. The word dynamically is important, because it means that the XML elements can be generated at request time rather than statically at compile time. Following is a simple example to define XML elements dynamically:
<%@page language="java" contentType="text/html"%> <html xmlns="http://www.w3c.org/1999/xhtml"

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xmlns:jsp="http://java.sun.com/JSP/Page"> <head><title>Generate XML Element</title></head> <body> <jsp:element name="xmlElement"> <jsp:attribute name="xmlElementAttr"> Value for the attribute </jsp:attribute> <jsp:body> Body for XML element </jsp:body> </jsp:element> </body> </html>

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This would produce following HTML code at run time:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3c.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:jsp="http://java.sun.com/JSP/Page"> <head><title>Generate XML Element</title></head> <body> <xmlElement xmlElementAttr="Value for the attribute"> Body for XML element </xmlElement> </body> </html>

The <jsp:text> Action

The <jsp:text> action can be used to write template text in JSP pages and documents. Following is the simple syntax for this action:
<jsp:text>Template data</jsp:text>

The body fo the template cannot contain other elements; it can only contain text and EL expressions ( Note: EL expressions are explained in subsequent chapter). Note that in XML files, you cannot use expressions such as ${whatever > 0}, because the greater than signs are illegal. Instead, use the gt form, such as ${whatever gt 0} or an alternative is to embed the value in a CDATA section.
<jsp:text><![CDATA[<br>]]></jsp:text>

If you need to include a DOCTYPE declaration, for instance for XHTML, you must also use the <jsp:text> element as follows:

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<jsp:text><![CDATA[<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">]]> </jsp:text> <head><title>jsp:text action</title></head> <body> <books><book><jsp:text> Welcome to JSP Programming </jsp:text></book></books> </body> </html>

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JSP - Implicit Objects

JSP Implicit Objects are the Java objects that the JSP Container makes available to developers in each page and developer can call them directly without being explicitly declared. JSP Implicit Objects are also called pre-defined variables. JSP supports nine Implicit Objects which are listed below: Object request response out session application config pageContext page Exception Description This is the HttpServletRequest object associated with the request. This is the HttpServletResponse object associated with the response to the client. This is the PrintWriter object used to send output to the client. This is the HttpSession object associated with the request. This is the ServletContext object associated with application context. This is the ServletConfig object associated with the page. This encapsulates use of server-specific features like higher performance JspWriters. This is simply a synonym for this, and is used to call the methods defined by the translated servlet class. The Exception object allows the exception data to be accessed by designated JSP.

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The request Object:

The request object is an instance of a javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest object. Each time a client requests a page the JSP engine creates a new object to represent that request. The request object provides methods to get HTTP header information including form data, cookies, HTTP methods etc.

The response Object:

The response object is an instance of a javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse object. Just as the server creates the request object, it also creates an object to represent the response to the client. The response object also defines the interfaces that deal with creating new HTTP headers. Through this object the JSP programmer can add new cookies or date stamps, HTTP status codes etc.

The out Object:

The out implicit object is an instance of a javax.servlet.jsp.JspWriter object and is used to send content in a response. The initial JspWriter object is instantiated differently depending on whether the page is buffered or not. Buffering can be easily turned off by using the buffered='false' attribute of the page directive. The JspWriter object contains most of the same methods as the java.io.PrintWriter class. However, JspWriter has some additional methods designed to deal with buffering. Unlike the PrintWriter object, JspWriter throws IOExceptions. Following are the important methods which we would use to write boolean char, int, double, object, String etc. Method out.print(dataType dt) out.println(dataType dt) out.flush() Description Print a data type value Print a data type value then terminate the line with new line character. Flush the stream.

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The session Object:

The session object is an instance of javax.servlet.http.HttpSession and behaves exactly the same way that session objects behave under Java Servlets.

The application Object:

The application object is direct wrapper around the ServletContext object for the generated Servlet and in reality an instance of a javax.servlet.ServletContext object. This object is a representation of the JSP page through its entire lifecycle. This object is created when the JSP page is initialized and will be removed when the JSP page is removed by the jspDestroy() method. By adding an attribute to application, you can ensure that all JSP files that make up your web application have access to it.

The config Object:

The config object is an instantiation of javax.servlet.ServletConfig and is a direct wrapper around the ServletConfig object for the generated servlet. This object allows the JSP programmer access to the Servlet or JSP engine initialization parameters such as the paths or file locations etc. The following config method is the only one you might ever use, and its usage is trivial:

config.getServletName();

This returns the servlet name, which is the string contained in the <servlet-name> element defined in the WEB-INF\web.xml file

The pageContext Object:

The pageContext object is an instance of a javax.servlet.jsp.PageContext object. The pageContext object is used to represent the entire JSP page. This object is intended as a means to access information about the page while avoiding most of the implementation details.

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This object stores references to the request and response objects for each request. The application, config, session, and out objects are derived by accessing attributes of this object. The pageContext object also contains information about the directives issued to the JSP page, including the buffering information, the errorPageURL, and page scope. The PageContext class defines several fields, including PAGE_SCOPE, REQUEST_SCOPE, SESSION_SCOPE, and APPLICATION_SCOPE, which identify the four scopes. It also supports more than 40 methods, about half of which are inherited from the javax.servlet.jsp. JspContext class. One of the important methods is removeAttribute, which accepts either one or two arguments. For example, pageContext.removeAttribute ("attrName") removes the attribute from all scopes, while the following code only removes it from the page scope:

pageContext.removeAttribute("attrName", PAGE_SCOPE);

The page Object:

This object is an actual reference to the instance of the page. It can be thought of as an object that represents the entire JSP page. The page object is really a direct synonym for the this object.

The exception Object:

The exception object is a wrapper containing the exception thrown from the previous page. It is typically used to generate an appropriate response to the error condition.

JSP - Form Processing GET method:

The GET method sends the encoded user information appended to the page request. The page and the encoded information are separated by the ? character as follows:
http://www.test.com/hello?key1=value1&key2=value2

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The GET method is the defualt method to pass information from browser to web server and it produces a long string that appears in your browser's Location:box. Never use the GET method if you have password or other sensitive information to pass to the server. The GET method has size limtation: only 1024 characters can be in a request string. This information is passed using QUERY_STRING header and will be accessible through QUERY_STRING environment variable which can be handled using getQueryString() and getParameter() methods of request object.

POST method:
A generally more reliable method of passing information to a backend program is the POST method. This method packages the information in exactly the same way as GET methods, but instead of sending it as a text string after a ? in the URL it sends it as a separate message. This message comes to the backend program in the form of the standard input which you can parse and use for your processing. JSP handles this type of requests using getParameter() method to read simple parameters and getInputStream() method to read binary data stream coming from the client.

Reading Form Data using JSP

JSP handles form data parsing automatically using the following methods depending on the situation:

getParameter(): You call request.getParameter() method to get the value of a form parameter. getParameterValues(): Call this method if the parameter appears more than once and returns multiple values, for example checkbox. getParameterNames(): Call this method if you want a complete list of all parameters in the current request. getInputStream(): Call this method to read binary data stream coming from the client.

GET Method Example Using URL:

Here is a simple URL which will pass two values to HelloForm program using GET method. http://localhost:8080/main.jsp?first_name=ZARA&last_name=ALI
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Unit-7

Below is main.jsp JSP program to handle input given by web browser. We are going to use getParameter() method which makes it very easy to access passed information:
<html> <head> <title>Using GET Method to Read Form Data</title> </head> <body> <center> <h1>Using GET Method to Read Form Data</h1> <ul> <li><p><b>First Name:</b> <%= request.getParameter("first_name")%> </p></li> <li><p><b>Last Name:</b> <%= request.getParameter("last_name")%> </p></li> </ul> </body> </html>

Now type http://localhost:8080/main.jsp?first_name=Malige&last_name=Gangappain your browser's Location:box. This would generate following result:

Using GET Method to Read Form Data

First Name: Malige Last Name: Gangappa

GET Method Example Using Form:

Here is a simple example which passes two values using HTML FORM and submit button. We are going to use same JSP main.jsp to handle this imput.
<html> <body> <form action="main.jsp" method="GET"> First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name"> <br /> Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name" /> <input type="submit" value="Submit" /> </form> </body> </html>

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Keep this HTML in a file Hello.htm and put it in <Tomcat-installationdirectory>/webapps/ROOT directory. When you would access http://localhost:8080/Hello.htm, here is the actual output of the above form. First Name: Last Name:

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Try to enter First Name and Last Name and then click submit button to see the result on your local machine where tomcat is running. Based on the input provided, it will generate similar result as mentioned in the above example.

POST Method Example Using Form:

Let us do little modification in the above JSP to handle GET as well as POST methods. Below is main.jsp JSP program to handle input given by web browser using GET or POST methods. Infact there is no change in above JSP because only way of passing parameters is changed and no binary data is being passed to the JSP program. File handling related concepts would be explained in separate chapter where we need to read binary data stream.
<html> <head> <title>Using GET and POST Method to Read Form Data</title> </head> <body> <center> <h1>Using GET Method to Read Form Data</h1> <ul> <li><p><b>First Name:</b> <%= request.getParameter("first_name")%> </p></li> <li><p><b>Last Name:</b> <%= request.getParameter("last_name")%> </p></li> </ul> </body> </html>

Following is the content of Hello.htm file:

<html> <body>

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<form action="main.jsp" method="POST"> First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name"> <br /> Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name" /> <input type="submit" value="Submit" /> </form> </body> </html>

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Now let us keep main.jsp and hello.htm in <Tomcat-installationdirectory>/webapps/ROOT directory. When you would access http://localhost:8080/Hello.htm, below is the actual output of the above form. First Name: Last Name: Try to enter First and Last Name and then click submit button to see the result on your local machine where tomcat is running. Based on the input provided, it would generate similar result as mentioned in the above examples.

Passing Checkbox Data to JSP Program

Checkboxes are used when more than one option is required to be selected. Here is example HTML code, CheckBox.htm, for a form with two checkboxes
<html> <body> <form action="main.jsp" method="POST" target="_blank"> <input type="checkbox" name="maths" checked="checked" /> Maths <input type="checkbox" name="physics" /> Physics <input type="checkbox" name="chemistry" checked="checked" /> Chemistry <input type="submit" value="Select Subject" /> </form> </body> </html>

The result of this code is the following form Maths Physics Chemistry 33

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Unit-7

Below is main.jsp JSP program to handle input given by web browser for checkbox button.
<html> <head> <title>Reading Checkbox Data</title> </head> <body> <center> <h1>Reading Checkbox Data</h1> <ul> <li><p><b>Maths Flag:</b> <%= request.getParameter("maths")%> </p></li> <li><p><b>Physics Flag:</b> <%= request.getParameter("physics")%> </p></li> <li><p><b>Chemistry Flag:</b> <%= request.getParameter("chemistry")%> </p></li> </ul> </body> </html>

For the above example, it would display following result:

Reading Checkbox Data

Maths Flag : : on Physics Flag: : null Chemistry Flag: : on

Reading All Form Parameters:

Following is the generic example which uses getParameterNames() method of HttpServletRequest to read all the available form parameters. This method returns an Enumeration that contains the parameter names in an unspecified order. Once we have an Enumeration, we can loop down the Enumeration in the standard manner, using hasMoreElements() method to determine when to stop and using nextElement() method to get each parameter name.

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<%@ page import="java.io.*,java.util.*" %> <html> <head> <title>HTTP Header Request Example</title> </head> <body> <center> <h2>HTTP Header Request Example</h2> <table width="100%" border="1" align="center"> <tr bgcolor="#949494"> <th>Param Name</th><th>Param Value(s)</th> </tr> <% Enumeration paramNames = request.getParameterNames(); while(paramNames.hasMoreElements()) { String paramName = (String)paramNames.nextElement(); out.print("<tr><td>" + paramName + "</td>\n"); String paramValue = request.getHeader(paramName); out.println("<td> " + paramValue + "</td></tr>\n"); } %> </table> </center> </body> </html>

Unit-7

Following is the content of Hello.htm:

<html> <body> <form action="main.jsp" method="POST" target="_blank"> <input type="checkbox" name="maths" checked="checked" /> Maths <input type="checkbox" name="physics" /> Physics <input type="checkbox" name="chemistry" checked="checked" /> Chem <input type="submit" value="Select Subject" /> </form> </body> </html>

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