Java Web Applications

WAR Web Archive Introduced with servlet 2.2 specification Portable deployment mechanism for web applications Defines directory structure –Jar’d into a.war file for deployment Uses XML deployment descriptor

Directory Structure find./webbasics -print./webbasics./webbasics/WEB-INF./webbasics/WEB-INF/classes./webbasics/WEB-INF/classes/ejava./webbasics/WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets./webbasics/WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/webbasics./webbasics/WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/webbasics/BonusServlet.class./webbasics/WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/webbasics/PurchaseServlet.class./webbasics/WEB-INF/web.xml./webbasics/WEB-INF/weblogic.xml./webbasics/FormExample.html./webbasics/MenuExample.html

Directory Structure (Cont) WEB-INF –Contains web.xml deployment descriptor –Contains class files for web app (classes) –Contains.jar files for web app (lib) –Contains Tag Library Descriptors (tlds) –Cannot be served to client Other directories store web content i.e. jsp/html files, images, sound, etc.

Deployment Descriptor (web.xml) HTML Basics weblogic.httpd.servlet.reloadCheckSecs 1 PurchaseServlet ejava.servlets.webbasics.PurchaseServlet param1 value1 BonusServlet ejava.servlets.webbasics.BonusServlet...

Mapping Servlets to URLs (web.xml) … PurchaseServlet PurchaseAlias BonusServlet BonusAlias...

Declaring Default Pages (web.xml) … /welcome.html...

Creating the.war file %cd c:\\weblogic/myserver/public_html/webbasics; \ %//c/jdk1.3/bin/jar cvf /webbasics.war * added manifest adding: FormExample.html(in = 467) (out= 257)(deflated 44%) adding: MenuExample.html(in = 486) (out= 274)(deflated 43%) adding: WEB-INF/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%) adding: WEB-INF/classes/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%) adding: WEB-INF/classes/ejava/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%) adding: WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%) adding: WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/webbasics/(in = 0) (out= 0)(stored 0%) adding: WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/webbasics/BonusServlet.class(in = 2403) ( out= 1260)(deflated 47%) adding: WEB-INF/classes/ejava/servlets/webbasics/PurchaseServlet.class(in = 2585 ) (out= 1449)(deflated 43%) adding: WEB-INF/web.xml(in = 1843) (out= 587)(deflated 68%) adding: WEB-INF/weblogic.xml(in = 412) (out= 227)(deflated 44%) adding: WEB-INF/web.xml~(in = 1071) (out= 366)(deflated 65%) adding: welcome.html(in = 183) (out= 103)(deflated 43%)

Summary The web application format should be used for all web deployments Standardized mechanism for web tier deployments

Java Servlets

Servlet Definition “Web component, managed by a container, that generates dynamic content” Request-Response mechanism modeled after HTTP Required by J2EE v1.2 specification Web Server configured to invoke servlets when specified URLs are accessed (servlet mapping) –HTML Forms –Java programs

Architecture Web Server Web Browser Servlet Container Servlet Get/Post Request HTML Page Request Reply

Servlet Benefits Efficiency –run as threads vs. CGI processes Written in Java –can use any Java API such as JDBC, EJB, RMI, etc. Portability –supported by many web/application servers Simplicity –Provides support for common operations including session management

Servlet Container Provides the execution environment for a servlet Must support HTTP as the request/response protocol –HTTP 1.1 support strongly recommended by spec –May support HTTPS (HTTP over SSL) Can be installed directly in a web server or as an add-on using web server extension mechanisms May impose security constraints on servlet

My First Servlet import java.io.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet { public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); out.println(“Hello World”); }

Notes Default return mime type is text/plain Can also implement doPost –Same arguments –What if you want to answer to both? Running the servlet –Compile You will need the java 2 enterprise edition jar in your classpath –Put class into WEB-INF/classes –Put in servlet mapping and class info in WEB-INF/web.xml –Invoke 

Key Servlet Classes

Another Example import java.io.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet { public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { response.setContentType(“text/html”); PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); out.println(“ \n” + “ Hello WWW \n” + “ \n” + “ Hello World! \n” + “ ”); }

Requests and Responses

The HttpServletRequest Object Form parameters –String choice=request.getParameter(“Product”); –String getParameter(String key) –String[] getParameterValues(String key) –Enumeration getParameterNames() Cookies –Cookie[] = request.getCookies() –getName(), getValue() Binary Data –InputStream is = request.getInputStream() Character Data –Reader r = request.getReader()

The HttpServletResponse Object void setContentType(String type) void setContentLength(int len) PrintWriter getWriter() ServletOutputStream getOutputStream() –Used to send binary data back to client void setHeader(String name, String value) Other methods as well

Servlet Implementation package ejava.servlets.webbasics; import javax.servlet.ServletConfig; import javax.servlet.ServletException; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse; public class PurchaseServlet extends HttpServlet { public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException { super.init(config); log("BonusServlet:init(config)"); }

Servlet (Cont) public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, java.io.IOException { response.setContentType("text/html"); java.io.PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); out.println(" "); out.println("Purchase Servlet"); out.println(" "); if (request.getParameter("BUYCMD") != null) { String product = request.getParameter("Product"); out.println(" purchased product: "+product); } out.println(" "); out.close(); }

Performance Issues Strings are immutable –New string object is created for each string –Also for each concatenation of 2 strings –  a lot of object creation and cleanup Use a single StringBuffer object –Use append() method to add text to it Use flush method to push output to client

Organizational Issues WEB-INF/classes can get crowded Use java packages to clean things up –package mypackage; //place at top of file –Put classes in WEB-INF/classes/mypackage –Set up servlet mapping in WEB-INF/web.xml –Invoke

Headers and CGI variables Request object has methods to access –String value getHeader(String name) –Others PrintEnv code – ostServlet.htmlhttp://localhost:8080/ServletsAndJSP/TestGetP ostServlet.html

Cookies Use the Cookie class Constructor –Cookie(String name, String value) Cookie Methods –String getDomain() or void setDomain(String dom) –String getName() or void setName(String name) –String getValue() or void setValue(String value) –String getPath() or void setPath(String path) –boolean getSecure() or void setSecure(boolean flag) –int getMaxAge() or void setMaxAge(int seconds)

Cookies Create a cookie –Construct it –Set values Add the cookie to the response before content type –response.addCookie(Cookie theCookie) Get Cookies from request –Cookie[] cookies = request.getCookies()

Sessions High level API –HttpSession object Built on top of cookies or URL-rewriting –You don’t have to worry which one Convenient place to store information –Arbitrary objects –Associated with each session

The Session API Get the HttpSession object –HttpSession session = request.getSession(true); –true automatically creates one if one doesn’t exist Get and Set information using HttpSession methods –Object getAttribute(String name) –void setAttribute(String name, Object value) –void removeAttribute(String name) –String[] getAttributeNames() –String getID() –boolean getId() –long getCreationTime() and long getLastAccessedTime() –int getMaxInactiveInterval() and void setMaxInactiveInterval(int sec) –void invalidate()

Example: Toy Shop hop.htmlhttp://localhost:8080/ServletsAndJSP/ToyS hop.html

The Servlet Life Cycle Initialization –void init() or –void init(ServletConfig config) Be sure to call super.init(config) on first line doXxx methods are called (doGet, doPut, etc.) –Consider if you need single thread public class YourServlet extends HttpServlet implements SingleThreadModel Destruction –void destroy() don’t rely on this. The server could crash

Servlet Context Servlet may wish to interact with the host server GenericServlet::getServletContext() –getMimeType( String file ) –getServlet(String name) : Servlet –log(Exception, String) –log(String)

Redirection Web Browser redirection –resp.sendRedirect(String url) –resp.sendError(int code, String message) Server-Side –RequestDispatcher rd = getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(urlString); –rd.forward();

Request Dispatcher

Resources Main Servlets Page – Java Servlet Specification v2.2 – Marty Hall’s servlet tutorial –