Chapter 5

How to develop servlets

Mai Anh Thơ
[email protected]

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 1

Objectives
Applied
1. Code and test servlets that require the features presented in this
chapter.
2. Use the web.xml file or an annotation to map a servlet to a URL
pattern.
3. Provide for server-side data validation in your applications.
4. Use the web.xml file to set initialization parameters. Use servlets to
get the parameters.
5. Use the web.xml file to implement custom error handling.
6. Write debugging data for a servlet to either the console or a log file.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 2

Objectives (continued)
Applied
1. Describe servlets and servlet mapping, and their use of request and response
objects.
2. Describe how parameters are passed to a servlet with the HTTP GET
method.
3. List three reasons for using the HTTP POST method instead of the HTTP
GET method.
4. Describe how the ServletContext object is used to get the path for a file.
Describe the use of the init, doGet, doPost, and destroy methods in a
servlet.
5. Explain why you should never use instance variables in servlets.
6. Describe the use of debugging data written to the console or log file.
Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 3
A servlet that returns HTML
package murach.email;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

public class TestServlet extends HttpServlet {

@Override
protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {

response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
try {
out.println("<h1>HTML from servlet</h1>");
} finally {
out.close();
}
}

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 4

A servlet that returns HTML (continued)
@Override
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {

doPost(request, response);
}
}

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 5

Servlet concepts
• The doGet method processes all HTTP requests that use the GET
method.
• The doPost method processes all HTTP requests that use the POST
method.
• The doGet and doPost methods both accept (1) the HttpServletRequest
object, or the request object, and (2) the HttpServletResponse object,
or the response object.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 6

XML tags that add servlet mapping to web.xml
<!-- the definitions for the servlets -->
<servlet>
<servlet-name>EmailListServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>murach.email.EmailListServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>TestServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>murach.email.TestServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>

<!-- the mapping for the servlets -->

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>EmailListServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/emailList</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>EmailListServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/email/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>TestServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/test</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 7

XML elements for working with servlet mapping
Element Description
<servlet-class> Specifies the class for the servlet.
<servlet-name> Specifies a unique name for servlet used to
identify the servlet within the web.xml file.
<url-pattern> Specifies URL or URLs mapped to specified
servlet.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 8

Some URL pattern examples
URL pattern Description
/emailList Specifies the emailList URL in the root directory.
/email/* Specifies any URL in the email directory.
/email/add Specifies the add URL in the email directory.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 9

An annotation that maps a servlet to a URL
package murach.email;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

@WebServlet("/test")
public class TestServlet extends HttpServlet {
...
...

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 10

How to use servlet annotations
To map a s e rvle t to multiple URLs
@WebServlet(urlPatterns={"/emailList", "/email/*"})

To s pe c ify an inte rnal name fo r the s e rvle t

@WebServlet(name="MurachTestServlet", urlPatterns={"/test"})

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 11

An HTTP request that uses the GET method

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 12

How to append parameters to a URL
emailList?action=add
emailList?firstName=John&lastName=Smith

How to append parameters to a GET request

1: Enter the URL into the browser’s address bar
http://localhost:8080/ch05email/emailList?action=add&firstName=John
http://www.murach.com/email/list?action=add&firstName=John

2: Code a form that uses the GET method

<form action="emailList">
<form action="emailList" method="get">

3: Code an anchor tag

<a href="emailList?action=join">Display Email Entry Test</a>

Note
 A servlet must implement the doGet method to process an HTTP
GET request.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 13

A URL requested with the HTTP POST method

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 14

A Form tag that use the POST method
<form action="emailList" method="post">

Use the GET method when…

 Request reads data from the server.
 Request can be executed multiple times without causing problems.

Use the POST method when…

 Request writes data to the server.
 Executing request multiple times may cause problems.
 You don’t want to include the parameters in the URL for security
reasons.
 You don’t want users to be able to include parameters when they
bookmark a page.
 You need to transfer more than 4 KB of data.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 15

A typical browser dialog that’s displayed if the user tries
to refresh a post

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 16

Two methods of the HttpServletRequest object
Method Description
getParameter(String param) Returns the value of the
specified parameter as a
string if it exists or null
if it doesn’t. Often, this
is the value defined in
the value attribute of
the control in the
HTML or JSP file.
getParameterValues(String param) Returns an array of
String objects
containing all values
that the given request
parameter has or null if
the parameter doesn’t
have any values.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 17

Servlet code that gets text from a textbox
String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName");

Servlet code that determines if a box is checked

// returns the value or "on" if checked, null otherwise.
String rockCheckBox = request.getParameter("rock");
if (rockCheckBox != null)
{
// rock music was checked
}

Servlet code that reads and processes multiple

values from a list box
// returns the values of the items selected in a list box.
String[] selectedCountries = request.getParameterValues("country");
for (String country : selectedCountries)
{
// code that processes each country
}

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 18

A method of the GenericServlet class
Method Description
getServletContext() Returns a ServletContext object
that contains information about
the application’s context.

A method of the ServletContext class

Method Description
getRealPath(String path) Returns a String object for the
absolute path of the specified
relative path.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 19

Code that gets the absolute path for a file
ServletContext sc = this.getServletContext();
String path = sc.getRealPath("/WEB-INF/EmailList.txt");

A more concise way to write the same code

String path = this.getServletContext()
.getRealPath("/WEB-INF/EmailList.txt");

A possible value for the real path variable

C:\murach\servlet_and_jsp\netbeans\book_apps\ch05email\
build\web\WEB-INF\EmailList.txt

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 20

How to work with the ServletContext object
• Because servlets inherit the GenericServlet class, the
getServletContext method is available to all servlets.
• You can use the ServletContext object to read global initialization
parameters, to work with global variables, and to write data to log
files.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 21

Two methods of the HttpServletRequest object
Method Description
setAttribute(String name, Stores any object in the request
Object o) as an attribute and specifies a
name for the attribute. Attributes
reset between requests.
getAttribute(String name) Returns value of the specified
attribute as an Object type. If no
attribute exists for specified
name, method returns a null
value.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 22

How to set a request attribute
User user = new User(firstName, lastName, email);
request.setAttribute("user", user);

How to get a request attribute

User user = (User) request.getAttribute("user");

How to set a request attribute for a primitive type

int id = 1;
request.setAttribute("id", new Integer(id));

How to get a request attribute for a primitive type

int id = (Integer) request.getAttribute("id");

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 23

A method of the ServletContext object
Method Description
getRequestDispatcher( Returns a RequestDispatcher object
String path) for specified path.

A method of the RequestDispatcher object

Method Description
forward(ServletRequest request, Forwards the request and
ServletResponse response) response objects to
another resource on the
server (usually a JSP or
servlet).

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 24

How to forward the request to an HTML page
String url = "/index.html";
getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(url)
.forward(request, response);

How to forward the request to a JSP

String url = "/thanks.jsp";
getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(url)
.forward(request, response);

How to forward the request to a servlet

String url = "/cart/displayInvoice";
getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(url)
.forward(request, response);

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 25

A method of the HttpServletResponse class
Method Description
sendRedirect(String path) Sends a temporary redirect
response to the client using the
specified redirect location URL.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 26

How to redirect a response…
…relative to the current directory
response.sendRedirect("email");

…relative to the servlet engine

response.sendRedirect("/musicStore/email/");

…to a different web server

response.sendRedirect("http://www.murach.com/email/");

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 27

The JSP displayed when an entry isn’t made

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 28

The code for the JSP
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Murach's Java Servlets and JSP</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles/main.css" type="text/css"/>
</head>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 29

The code for the JSP
<body>
<h1>Join our email list</h1>
<p>To join our email list, enter your name and
email address below.</p>
<p><i>${message}</i></p>
<form action="emailList" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="add">
<label class="pad_top">Email:</label>
<input type="email" name="email" value="${user.email}"><br>
<label class="pad_top">First Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="firstName"
value="${user.firstName}"><br>
<label class="pad_top">Last Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="lastName"
value="${user.lastName}"><br>
<label>&nbsp;</label>
<input type="submit" value="Join Now" class="margin_left">
</form>
</body>
</html>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 30

A doPost method that validates data
@Override
protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {

String url = "/index.jsp";

// get current action

String action = request.getParameter("action");
if (action == null) {
action = "join"; // default action
}

// perform action and set URL to appropriate page

if (action.equals("join")) {
url = "/index.jsp"; // the "join" page
}
else if (action.equals("add")) {
// get parameters from the request
String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName");
String lastName = request.getParameter("lastName");
String email = request.getParameter("email");

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 31

A doPost method that validates data (continued)
// store data in User object
User user = new User(firstName, lastName, email);

// validate the parameters

String message;
if (firstName == null || lastName == null ||
email == null ||
firstName.isEmpty() || lastName.isEmpty() ||
email.isEmpty()) {

message = "Please fill out all three text boxes.";

url = "/index.jsp";
} else {
message = "";
url = "/thanks.jsp";
UserDB.insert(user);
}
request.setAttribute("user", user);
request.setAttribute("message", message);
}
getServletContext()
.getRequestDispatcher(url)
.forward(request, response);
}

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 32

A complete web.xml file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="3.0" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd">

<context-param>
<param-name>custServEmail</param-name>
<param-value>[email protected]</param-value>
</context-param>

<servlet>
<servlet-name>EmailListServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>murach.email.EmailListServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>relativePathToFile</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/EmailList.txt</param-value>
</init-param>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>EmailListServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/emailList</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 33

A complete web.xml file
<!-- you can comment out these error tags
when the app is in development -->
<error-page>
<error-code>404</error-code>
<location>/error_404.jsp</location>
</error-page>
<error-page>
<exception-type>java.lang.Throwable</exception-type>
<location>/error_java.jsp</location>
</error-page>

<session-config>
<session-timeout>30</session-timeout>
</session-config>

<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 34

Concepts about the web.xml file
• The web.xml file is stored in the WEB-INF directory. When Tomcat
starts, it reads the web.xml file.
• If elements in the web.xml aren’t nested correctly, Tomcat displays an
error message when it reads the web.xml file.
• After you modify the web.xml file, redeploy the application so the
changes take effect. Or, restart Tomcat.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 35

Initialization parameters in a web.xml file
<context-param>
<param-name>custServEmail</param-name>
<param-value>[email protected]</param-value>
</context-param>

<servlet>
<servlet-name>AddToEmailListServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>email.AddToEmailListServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>relativePathToFile</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/EmailList.txt</param-value>
</init-param>
</servlet>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 36

XML elements for initialization parameters
Element Description
<context-param> Defines a parameter that’s available to all
servlets within an application.
<servlet> Identifies a specific servlet within the
application.
<servlet-name> Defines the name for the servlet that’s used in
the rest of the web.xml file.
<servlet-class> Identifies the servlet by specifying the servlet’s
package and class name.
<init-param> Defines a name/value pair for an initialization
parameter for a servlet.
<param-name> Defines the name of a parameter.
<param-value> Defines the value of a parameter.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 37

An annotation that sets initialization parameters
for a servlet
@WebServlet(urlPatterns={"/emailList"},
initParams={@InitParam(name="relativePathToFile",
value="/WEB-INF/EmailList.txt")})

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 38

Initialization parameters
• To create an initialization parameter available to all servlets (called a
context initialization parameter), code the param-name and param-
value elements within the context-param element.
• To create an initialization parameter available to a specific servlet
(called a servlet initialization parameter), code the param-name and
param-value elements within the init-param element. But first, identify
the servlet by coding the servlet, servlet-name, and servlet-class
elements.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 39

Two methods of the GenericServlet class
Method Description
getServletContext() Returns a ServletContext object that
contains information about the entire web
application's context.
getServletConfig() Returns a ServletConfig object that
contains information about a single
servlet’s configuration.

A method of the ServletContext and ServletConfig

interfaces
Method Description
getInitParameter( Returns a String object that contains the
String name) value of the specified initialization
parameter. If the parameter doesn’t exist, this
method returns a null value.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 40

Code that gets an initialization parameter that’s…
…available to all servlets
String custServEmail = this.getServletContext()
.getInitParameter("custServEmail");

…available to the current servlet only

String relativePath = this.getServletConfig()
.getInitParameter("relativePathToFile");

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 41

XML elements for working with error handling
Element Description
<error-page> Specifies an HTML page or JSP displayed when
the application encounters an uncaught
exception or a certain type of HTTP status code.
<error-code> Specifies the number of a valid HTTP status
code.
<exception-type> Uses the fully qualified class name to specify a
Java exception.
<location> Specifies the location of the HTML page or JSP
that’s displayed.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 42

How to provide error-handling for an HTTP 404 status
code

The XML tags

<error-page>
<error-code>404</error-code>
<location>/error_404.jsp</location>
</error-page>

The error_404.jsp file

<h1>404 Error</h1>
<p>The server was not able to find the file you requested.</p>
<p>To continue, click the Back button.</p>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 43

The JSP page for the 404 error

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 44

How to provide error-handling for all Java exceptions

The XML tags

<error-page>
<exception-type>java.lang.Throwable</exception-type>
<location>/error_java.jsp</location>
</error-page>

The error_java.jsp file

<h1>Java Error</h1>
<p>Sorry, Java has thrown an exception.</p>
<p>To continue, click the Back button.</p>

<h2>Details</h2>
<p>Type: ${pageContext.exception["class"]}</p>
<p>Message: ${pageContext.exception.message}</p>

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 45

The JSP when a Java exception is thrown

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 46

Five common methods of a servlet
public void init() throws ServletException

public void service(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response)
throws IOException, ServletException

public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response)
throws IOException, ServletException

public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response)
throws IOException, ServletException

public void destroy()

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 47

The lifecycle of a servlet

Note
• It’s generally considered a bad practice to override the service method. Instead,
you should override a method like doGet or doPost to handle a specific type of
HTTP request.
Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 48
A servlet with an instance variable
package murach.email;

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

public class EmailListServlet extends HttpServlet {

// declare an instance variable for the page

private int globalCount; // not thread-safe

@Override
public void init() throws ServletException
{
globalCount = 0; // initialize the instance variable
}

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 49

A servlet with an instance variable (continued)
@Override
protected void doPost(
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException
{
// update global count variable
globalCount++; // this is not thread-safe

// the rest of the code goes here

}
}

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 50

Why you shouldn’t use instance variables in servlets

• An instance variable of a servlet belongs to the one instance of the

servlet and is shared by any threads that request the servlet.
• Instance variables are not thread-safe. Two threads may conflict when
they try to read, modify, and update the same instance variable at the
same time, which can result in lost updates or other problems.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 51

Common servlet problems
Problem Possible solutions
The servlet won’t compile Make sure compiler has access to
the JAR files for all necessary
APIs.
The servlet won’t run Make sure web server is running.
Make sure URL is correct.
Changes aren’t showing up Redeploy the application.
Restart the server so it reloads all
applications.
Make sure servlet reloading is on.
The page doesn’t display correctly Use browser to view the HTML
code for the page. Go through the
HTML code to identify the
problem, and fix the problem in
the servlet.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 52

Code that prints debugging data to the console
public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws IOException, ServletException
{
// code

String email = request.getParameter("email");

System.out.println("EmailListServlet email: " + email);

// more code
}

Sample output displayed on the Tomcat console

EmailListServlet email: [email protected]

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 53

How to print debugging data to the console
• Use the println method of the System.out or System.err objects to
display debugging messages on the console for the servlet engine.
• When you use debugging messages to display variable values, include
servlet name and variable name so messages are easy to interpret.
• NetBeans displays a tab for the Tomcat console within its Output
window.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 54

Two methods of the HttpServlet class
Method Description
log(String message) Writes the specified message to the
server’s log file.
log(String message, Writes the specified message to the
Throwable t) server’s log file, followed by the stack
trace for the exception.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 55

Servlet code that prints a variable to a log file
log("email=" + email);

Sample data that’s written to the log file

Jun 29, 2014 6:26:04 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext
log
INFO: EmailListServlet: [email protected]

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 56

Servlet code that prints a stack trace to a log file
try {
UserIO.add(user, path);
} catch(IOException e) {
log("An IOException occurred.", e);
}

The data that’s written to the log file

Jun 29, 2014 6:30:38 PM
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
WARNING: Servlet.service() for servlet EmailListServlet threw
exception
java.io.FileNotFoundException:
C:\murach\servlet_and_jsp\netbeans\ch05email\build\web\WEB-
INF\EmailList.txt (Access is denied)
at java.io.FileOutputStream.openAppend(Native Method)
at
java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:177)
at java.io.FileWriter.<init>(FileWriter.java:90)
at murach.data.UserIO.add(UserIO.java:11)
at
murach.email.EmailListServlet.doPost(EmailListServlet.java:38)
...
...

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 57

The location of a typical Tomcat log file
C:\tomcat-8.0\logs\localhost.2014-06-29.log

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 58

How to print debugging data to a log file
• Use the log methods of the HttpServlet class to write debugging data
to web server’s log file.
• Stack trace is the chain of method calls for any statement that calls a
method.
• Data that’s written by log methods varies from one server to another.
The name and location of the log files may also vary from one server
to another.
• NetBeans displays a tab for the server log within its Output window.

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 59

Reference
• Murach’s Java Serverlets and JSP (3st edition)

Chapter 5 - How to develop servlets 60