Servlets intro
- 1. Servlets Static Pages request response Web browser Web server
- 2. Dynamic Pages request request Servlet Servlet JSP JSP response response ASP ASP Web browser Web server What is a Servlet? Servlets are Java programs that can be run dynamically in a Web Server Servlets are a server-side technology A Servlet is an intermediating layer between an HTTP request of a client and the Web server
- 3. What do Servlets do? • Read data sent by the user (e.g., form data) • Look up other information about request in the HTTP request (e.g. authentication data, cookies, etc.) • Generate the results (may do this by talking to a database, file system, etc.) • Format the results in a document (e.g., make it into HTML) • Set the appropriate HTTP response parameters (e.g. cookies, content-type, etc.) • Send the document to the user Supporting Servlets The Web server must support Servlets (since it must run the Servlets): Apache Tomcat Sun’s Java System Web Server and Java System Application Server IBM's WebSphere Application Server Allaire Jrun – an engine that can be added to IIS, PWS, old Apache Web servers etc… Oracle Application Server BEA WebLogic
- 4. The Servlet Interface Java provides the interface Servlet Specific Servlets implement this interface Whenever the Web server is asked to invoke a specific Servlet, it activates the method service() of an instance of this Servlet MyServlet (HTTP) response service(request,response) (HTTP) request Servlet Hierarchy service(ServletRequest, Servlet ServletResponse) Generic Servlet doGet(HttpServletRequest , HttpServletResponse) HttpServlet doPost(HttpServletRequest HttpServletResponse) doPut YourOwnServlet doTrace …
- 5. Class HttpServlet Class HttpServlet handles requests and responses of HTTP protocol The service() method of HttpServlet checks the request method and calls the appropriate HttpServlet method: doGet, doPost, doPut, doDelete, doTrace, doOptions or doHead This class is abstract Creating a Servlet Extend the class HTTPServlet Implement doGet or doPost (or both) Both methods get: HttpServletRequest: methods for getting form (query) data, HTTP request headers, etc. HttpServletResponse: methods for setting HTTP status codes, HTTP response headers, and get an output stream used for sending data to the client Usually implement doPost by calling doGet, or vice-versa
- 6. Returning HTML By default a text response is generated (text/plain) In order to generate HTML Tell the browser you are sending HTML, by setting the Content-Type header (text/html) Modify the printed text to create a legal HTML page You should set all headers before writing the document content. import java.io.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet { public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res) throws ServletException, IOException { res.setContentType("text/html"); PrintWriter out = res.getWriter(); out.println("<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Hello World</TITLE></HEAD>"); out.println(“<BODY><H1>Hello World </H1></BODY></HTML>"); out.close(); } }
- 7. Configuring the Server After you code your servlet, you need to compile it to generate class files. When your Servlet classes are ready, you have to configure the Web server to recognize it. This includes: Telling the Server that the Servlet exists Placing the Servlet class file in a place known to the server Telling the server which URL should be mapped to the Servlet These details are server specific.
- 8. The Big Picture J2EE Web Component (WAR file) J2EE Enterprise Application (EAR file) .class .class .html .jpeg .jar .jsp Getting Information From the Request
- 9. Getting HTTP Data Values of the HTTP request can be accessed through the HttpServletRequest object Get the value of the header hdr using getHeader("hdr") of the request argument Get all header names: getHeaderNames() Methods for specific request information: getCookies, getContentLength, getContentType, getMethod, getProtocol, etc. import java.io.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; import java.util.*; public class ShowRequestHeaders extends HttpServlet { public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { response.setContentType("text/html"); PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); String title = "Servlet Example: Showing Request Headers";
- 10. out.println("<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>" + title + "</TITLE></HEAD>" + "<BODY BGCOLOR="#AACCAA" TEXT="#990000">n" + "<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>" + title + "</H1>n" + "<B>Request Method: </B>" + request.getMethod() + "<BR>n" + "<B>Request URI: </B>" + request.getRequestURI() + "<BR>n" + "<B>Request Protocol: </B>" + request.getProtocol() + "<BR><BR>n" + "<TABLE BORDER=1 ALIGN=CENTER>n" + "<TR BGCOLOR="#88AA88">n" + "<TH>Header Name<TH>Header Value"); Enumeration headerNames = request.getHeaderNames(); while(headerNames.hasMoreElements()) { String headerName =(String)headerNames.nextElement(); out.println("<TR><TD>" + headerName); out.println("<TD>“ + request.getHeader(headerName)); } out.println("</TABLE>n</BODY></HTML>"); } public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { doGet(request, response); } }
- 11. User Input in HTML Using HTML forms, we can pass parameters to web applications <form action=… method=…> …</form> comprises a single form • action: the address of the application to which the form data is sent • method: the HTTP method to use when passing parameters to the application (e.g. GET or POST)
- 12. GET Example <HTML> <FORM method="GET" action="http://www.google.com/search"> <INPUT name="q" type="text"> <INPUT type="submit"> <INPUT type="reset"> </FORM> </HTML> http://www.google.com/search?q=servlets POST Example <HTML> <FORM method=“POST“ action="http://www.google.com/search"> <INPUT name=“q" type="text"> <INPUT type="submit"> <INPUT type="reset"> </FORM> </HTML> POST /search HTTP/1.1 Host: www.google.com … Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Content-length: 10 <empty-line> q=servlets
- 13. Getting the Parameter Values To get the value of a parameter named x: req.getParameter("x") where req is the service request argument If there can be multiple values for the parameter: req.getParameterValues("x") To get parameter names: req.getParameterNames() <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Sending Parameters</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#CC90E0"> <H1 ALIGN="LEFT">Please enter the parameters</H1> <FORM ACTION=“SetColors” METHOD=“GET”> <TABLE> <TR><TD>Background color:</TD> <TD><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="bgcolor"></TD></TR> <TR><TD>Font color:</TD> <TD><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="fgcolor"></TD></TR> <TR><TD>Font size:</TD> <TD><INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="size"></TD></TR> </TABLE> <BR> <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Show Page"> </FORM> </BODY> </HTML>
- 14. import java.io.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; public class SetColors extends HttpServlet { public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { response.setContentType("text/html"); PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); String bg = request.getParameter("bgcolor"); String fg = request.getParameter("fgcolor"); String size = request.getParameter("size");
- 15. out.println("<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Set Colors Example" + "</TITLE></HEAD>"); out.println("<BODY text='" + fg + "' bgcolor='" + bg + "'>"); out.println("<H1>Set Colors Example</H1>"); out.println("<FONT size='" + size + "'>"); out.println("You requested a background color " + bg + "<P>"); out.println("You requested a font color " + fg + "<P>"); out.println("You requested a font size " + size + "<P>"); out.println("</FONT></BODY></HTML>"); } }
- 16. Handling Post You don't have to do anything different to read POST data instead of GET data!! <FORM ACTION=“SetColors” METHOD=“POST”> … public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException { doGet(request, response); } Creating the Response of the Servlet
- 17. Setting the Response Status Use the following HttpServletResponse methods to set the response status: - setStatus(int sc) Use when there is no error, like 201 (created) - sendError(sc), sendError(sc, message) Use in erroneous situations, like 400 (bad request) The server may return a formatted message - sendRedirect(String location) Redirect to the new location Setting the Response Status Class HTTPServletResponse has static integer variables for popular status codes for example: SC_OK(200), SC_NOT_MODIFIED(304), SC_UNAUTHORIZED(401), SC_BAD_REQUEST(400) Status code 200 (OK) is the default
- 18. Setting Response Headers Use the following HTTPServletResponse methods to set the response headers: - setHeader(String hdr, String value), setIntHeader(String hdr, int value) Override existing header value - addHeader(String hdr, String value), addIntHeader(String hdr, int value) The header is added even if another header with the same title exists Specific Response Headers Class HTTPServletResponse provides setters for some specific headers: - setContentType - setContentLength automatically set if the entire response fits inside the response buffer - setDateHeader - setCharacterEncoding
- 19. More Header Methods • containsHeader(String header) Check existence of a header in the response • addCookie(Cookie) • sendRedirect(String url) automatically sets the Location header Do not write information to the response after sendError or sendRedirect Reference Representation and Management of Data on the Internet (67633), Yehoshua Sagiv, The Hebrew University - Institute of Computer Science.