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Building Web Apps in Java: Servlet: A Servlet's Job

The document discusses servlets and how to build dynamic web pages in Java. It provides information on: 1. The role of servlets in reading client data, generating results, and sending data back to the client. 2. Why web pages are built dynamically using data submitted by users or derived from frequently changing or server-side data sources. 3. How to define servlets and their mappings to URLs using annotations or a web.xml file. 4. The basics of writing servlet code to generate HTML output in the doGet or doPost methods using the HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, and a PrintWriter.

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114 views10 pages

Building Web Apps in Java: Servlet: A Servlet's Job

The document discusses servlets and how to build dynamic web pages in Java. It provides information on: 1. The role of servlets in reading client data, generating results, and sending data back to the client. 2. Why web pages are built dynamically using data submitted by users or derived from frequently changing or server-side data sources. 3. How to define servlets and their mappings to URLs using annotations or a web.xml file. 4. The basics of writing servlet code to generate HTML output in the doGet or doPost methods using the HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, and a PrintWriter.

Uploaded by

abuuub
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Building Web Apps in Java: Servlet

Reference: http://courses.coreservlets.com

Last lecture/lab we have installed and used Eclipse with Tomcat to deploy simple
servlets.

A Servlet’s Job
 Read explicit data sent by client (form data)
 Read implicit data sent by client (request headers)
 Generate the results
 Send explicit data back to client (HTML)
 Send implicit data to client (status codes and response headers)

Why Build Web Pages Dynamically?


 The Web page is based on data submitted by the user
- E.g., results page from search engines and order confirmation
pages at on-line stores
 The Web page is derived from data that changes frequently
- E.g., a weather report or news headlines page
 The Web page uses information from databases or other server-side
sources
- E.g., an e-commerce site could use a servlet to build a Web
page that lists the current price and availability of each item that
is for sale

Ten Most Popular Web Sites (Alexa.com, Summer 2010)

# Web site Technology


1 Google Java (Web), C++ (indexing)
2 Facebook PHP
3 YouTube Flash, Python, Java
4 Yahoo PHP and Java
5 Microsoft Live.com .NET
6 Baidu Unknown
7 Wikipedia PHP
8 Blogger Java
9 MSN .NET
10 Twitter Ruby on Rails, Scala, Java

Keywords in Job Postings

Extending the Power of Servlets: JavaServer Pages (JSP)


 Idea:
- Use regular HTML for most of page
- Mark dynamic content with special tags

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">


<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Welcome to Our Store</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Welcome to Our Store</H1>
<SMALL>Welcome,
<!-- User name is "New User" for first-time visitors -->
<%= coreservlets.Utils.getUserNameFromCookie(request) %>
To access your account settings, click
<A HREF="Account-Settings.html">here.</A></SMALL>
<P>
Regular HTML for rest of on-line store’s Web page
</BODY></HTML>
Making New Apps in Eclipse

Make empty project


 File  New  Project  Web  Dynamic Web Project
 For “Target runtime”, choose “Apache Tomcat v7.0”
 Give it a name (e.g., “test”)
 Accept all other defaults
Shortcut
If you have made Dynamic Web Project recently in workspace, you can just do File 
New  Dynamic Web Project

Adding Code to Eclipse Projects

Simple Servlets
1. A Servlet That Generates Plain Text (HelloWorld.java)

package testPackage; // Always use packages.


import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.annotation.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

@WebServlet("/hello")
public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet {
@Override
public void doGet (HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out.println("Hello World");
}
}

Understanding HelloWorld Servlet


 @WebServlet("/address")
- This is the URL relative to the app name. More later.
 doGet
- Code for an HTTP GET request. doPost also common.
 HttpServletRequest
- Contains anything that comes from the browser
 HttpServletResponse
- Used to send stuff to the browser. Most common is getWriter for a
PrintWriter that points at browser.
 @Override
- General best practice when overriding inherited methods
2. A Servlet That Generates HTML (Structure)
 Tell the browser that you’re sending it HTML
- response.setContentType("text/html");
 Modify the println statements to build a legal Web page
- Print statements should output HTML tags
 Check your HTML with a formal syntax validator
- http://validator.w3.org/
- http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/

A Servlet That Generates HTML (Code)

@WebServlet("/test1")

public class TestServlet extends HttpServlet {

public void doGet ( HttpServletRequest request,


HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out.println
("<!DOCTYPE html>\n" +
"<html>\n" +
"<head><title>A Test Servlet</title></head>\n" +
"<body bgcolor=\"#fdf5e6\">\n" +
"<h1>Test</h1>\n" +
"<p>Simple servlet for testing.</p>\n" +
"</body></html>");
}
}

A Servlet That Generates HTML (Result)

Using Helper Classes

Idea

 All Java code goes in the same place


- In Eclipse, it is src/packageName
 It does not matter if code is for a servlet, helper class, filter, bean, custom tag
class, or anything else
 Don’t forget OOP principles
- If you find you are doing the same logic multiple times, put the logic in a
helper class and reuse it
 Simple example here
- Generates HTML. Building HTML from a helper class is probably not
really worth it for real projects, but we haven’t covered logic in servlets
yet. But the general principle still holds: if you are doing the same thing in
several servlets, move the code into shared helper class.

A Simple HTML-Building Utility

public class ServletUtilities {


public static String headWithTitle(String title) {
return("<!DOCTYPE html>\n" +
"<html>\n" +
"<head><title>" + title + "</title></head>\n");
}
...
}
}
 Don’t go overboard
- Complete HTML generation packages usually work poorly
 The JSP framework is a better solution
- More important is to avoid repeating logic. ServletUtilities has a few
methods for that, as will be seen later
TestServlet2
...
@WebServlet("/test-with-utils")

public class TestServlet2 extends HttpServlet {

public void doGet ( HttpServletRequest request,


HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
String title = "Test Servlet with Utilities";
out.println (ServletUtilities.headWithTitle(title) +
"<body bgcolor=\"#fdf5e6\">\n" +
"<h1>" + title + "</h1>\n" +
"<p>Simple servlet for testing.</p>\n" +
"</body></html>");
}
}

TestServlet2: Result
Custom URLs and web.xml
Tomcat 7 or Other Servlet 3.0 Containers

 Give address with @WebServlet

@WebServlet("/my-address")
public class MyServlet extends HttpServlet { … }

- Resulting URL
 http://hostName/appName/my-address
 Omit web.xml entirely
- You are permitted to use web.xml even when using @WebServlet, but the
entire file is completely optional.
 In earlier versions, you must have a web.xml file even if there were no tags other
than the main start and end tags (<web-app …> and </web-app>).

Example: URLs with @WebServlet


package testPackage;
…
@WebServlet("/test1")
public class TestServlet extends HttpServlet {
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out.println ("<!DOCTYPE html>\n" +
…);
}
}

Defining Custom URLs in web.xml (Servlets 2.5 & Earlier)


 Java code
package myPackage; ...
public class MyServlet extends HttpServlet { ... }
 web.xml entry (in <web-app...>...</web-app>)
- Give name to servlet
<servlet>
<servlet-name>MyName</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>myPackage.MyServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
- – Give address (URL mapping) to servlet
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>MyName</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/my-address</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
 Resultant URL
- http://hostname/appName/my-address

Defining Custom URLs: Example


Defining Custom URLs: Result

 Eclipse details
- Name of Eclipse project is “test-app”
- Servlet is in src/testPackage/TestServlet.java
- Deployed by right-clicking on Tomcat, Add and Remove Projects, Add,
choosing test-app project, Finish, right-clicking again, Start (or Restart)

Summary
 Main servlet code goes in doGet or doPost:
- The HttpServletRequest contains the incoming information
- The HttpServletResponse lets you set outgoing information
 Call setContentType to specify MIME type
 Call getWriter to obtain a Writer pointing to client (browser)
 Make sure output is legal HTML
 Give address with @WebServlet or web.xml
@WebServlet("/some-address")
public class SomeServlet extends HttpServlet { … }
 Resulting URL
- http://hostName/appName/some-address

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