Application Architectures for Interactive Web Applications:

Java JSP and Model/View/Controller

Techniques

Jeff Schmitt

November 16, 2001

ABSTRACT

This talk is the report of my sabbatical leave during Spring 2001 in

which I explored some new techniques in using the Java language to

develop interactive web applications.

Java Server Pages technology (JSP) facilitates the development of

interactive websites with dynamically generated content. JSP programs

contain ordinary HTML tags mixed with Java code. Custom tag libraries

and Template processing are techniques which allow the Java code to be

isolated from the HTML. This application architecture is

based on the principles of Model/View/Controller.

Web Application Components• Client -- typically a Web Browser

• HTTP -- request, response protocol between client and server

• HTML files -- static web content

• Webserver -- serves HTML files and

– looks for certain request patterns, then forwards request to servlet engine, for example: /servlet/*

• Servlet Engine -- supports execution of servlets

• Servlet -- handles request from client, generates response to client

• JSP Engine -- supports the compilation of files into Servlets

• Web Application -- a collection of HTML files, Servlets and JSP pages to implement an information system on the web.

Tiered SystemsSingle Tier -- Mainframe

LAN

Two Tier- Client-Server

INTERNET

Database

ServerApplication

Server

Web

Server

N-Tier -- Web Application

Servlet Lifecycle

init() destroy()

service()

Servlet Sequence Diagram

Client Webserver Servlet

request() init()

destroy()

service()

Process requestresponseresponse

Servlet Multithreading

Client 1 Servlet

request

Client 2

request

response

response

ServletsAdvantages Disadvantages• Scalable• Persistent• Simple• Flexible• Support• Stable API• Run in separate

memory space from Server

• Servlet mapping(servlet is not a web page)

• Hard for Web Designer to change the HTML part of the code

• HTML (presentation) and Java code (business logic) mixed together

XML Notation

• Begin and end within same tag:<something/>

• Begin and end as two separate tags:<something>

…</something>

• Document Type Definition<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.2//EN""http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-app_2_2.dtd">

JSP -- Java Server Pages

• Similar to servlets, but they resemble HTML pages

• Placed in web folders mixed with HTML files, acts like an HTML file

• Compiled automatically to a servlet when first referenced or when the file is changed by programmer.

• Intended to help separate the presentation (HTML response) from the logic (processing logic).

• Similar to Microsoft's Application Server Pages (ASP)

JSP Lifecycle

Client Webserver Servlet

request

service()

init()

Process requestresponse

response

JSP

request JSP to ServletCompile Servletservlet

JSP scripting elements• JSP Comments

<%-- jsp comment --%>

• Declarations: placed in static part of servlet<%! String filePath="/users";%>

• Expressions: evaluate to a string<%= request.getParameter("NAME")%>

• Scriptlets: any Java statements<% (java statements) %>

• Template Text: inserted into response<TABLE BORDER=1><TR><TH>Name:<TD><INPUT NAME="NAME" size=50 MAXLENGTH=50>

JSP Default ObjectsObject Class Scope Commentsrequest HttpServletReq

uestRequest The client request

response HttpServletResponse

Page The servlet response

out JspWriter page An object for writing to the output stream

session HttpSession Session Created to track same user as they visit and return to pages in web application

application ServletContext Application Allows servlets to communicate with each other

JSP Object Scope

Scope Meaning

Page Available to the handling page only

Request Available to the handling page and to any servlelt or JSP that control is forwarded to or included

Session Available to any servlet or JSP within the same session (across repeat visits to web application)

Application Available to any servlet or JSP within the same web application

Custom JSP tags

• Assemble reusable JSP code for easy use• An XML-like front end to access Java

programming• Designed to bridge the intersection between java

programmers and web designers• Tag library holds definitions of custom tags

<%@ taglib uri="jakarta-taglib/dbtags" prefix="sql" %>

• Custom tags save in Tag Library File .tld• Many useful Tag Libraries exist for the common

tasks such as database access, email, file access

DBTags

• From Apache Jakarta project• Allow use of JDBC with Java details hidden• Easy to use • Invisible exception handling

<sql:connection>

• establish connection to server

<%-- open a database connection --%> <sql:connection id="conn1"> <%-- required --%> <sql:url>jdbc:mysql://localhost/test</sql:url>

<%-- optional --%> <sql:driver>org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver</sql:driver>

<%-- optional --%> <sql:userId>root</sql:userId>

<%-- optional --%> <sql:password>notVerySecure</sql:password>

</sql:connection>

Statement and Query

• The "escapeSql" tag can be used inside a SQL query to SQL-escape your input values if they contain single quotes.

<%-- insert a row into the database --%><sql:statement id="stmt1" conn="conn1">

<%-- set the SQL query --%> <sql:query> insert into test_books (id, name) values (3, '<sql:escapeSql> <%=request.getParameter("book_title")%></sql:escapeSql>')</sql:query>

<%-- execute the query --%> <sql:execute/>

</sql:statement>

<sql:resultset>

<table>

<sql:statement id="stmt1" conn="conn1">

<sql:query>

select id, name, description from test_books order by 1

</sql:query>

<%-- loop through the rows of your query --%>

<sql:resultSet id="rset2">

<tr> <td><sql:getColumn position="1"/></td>

<td><sql:getColumn position="2"/></td>

<td><sql:getColumn position="3"/>

<%-- print out a comment if the book has no description --%>

<sql:wasNull>[no description]</sql:wasNull></td>

</tr>

</sql:resultSet>

</sql:statement>

</table>

JSP Action Elements

• Control Tags for request-time include

• Optional parameters for Control tags

• Allow JSP programs to implement the Controller aspect of the Model-View-Controller architecture

<jsp:include page="header.jsp"/>

<jsp:forward page="html.jsp/>

<jsp:forward page="html.jsp">

<jsp:param name="page" value="guestview"/>

</jsp:forward>

JSP Forward

Client Webserver Servlet 1

request

service()

Process request

responseresponse

JSP

request JSP to ServletCompile Servletservlet

Servlet 2

request JSP to ServletCompile Servletservlet

Process request

service()

Classical Model-View-Controller Architecture

View

Controller

Model

Example: A Clock Application

Change Notification

User Events

Select a ViewModel Changes

Model Queries

Problems with JSP

• Although intended to help separate the presentation logic (VIEW) from the business logic (MODEL), JSP does not go far enough

• JSP programs are often a mix of HTML and business logic, which creates a problem if the design of the page (VIEW) needs to be changed

• HTML changes need to be made by web designers who are not necessarily programmers

• Solutions to this problem include WebMacro, Struts, FreeMarker, Velocity

FreeMarker Template Processing

• Makes substitutions of text in a template based on a set of identifiers in a table ModelRoot)

• Works with any form of text files including HTML, XML. and Data files

Template

CacheFreemarkerModelRoot

Resulting

web page

FreeMarker Data Structures

• SimpleHash -- a random access table of words.Each word is associated with a value which can be any of the three Freemarker structures

• SimpleList -- a sequential access list of any of the three Freemarker structures

• SimpleScalar -- a String of text

ModelRoot -- the root of the structuremust be a SimpleHash

Freemarker RootHashrootHash

guestbook

NAME

AFF1

AFF2

EMAIL

NAME

AFF1

AFF2

EMAIL

NAME

AFF1

AFF2

EMAIL

Joe

Towson U

COSC

joe@towson

Freemarker Template Scripting

• Value Substitution from rootHash${request.NAME}

• Freemarker Comments<comment> . . . </comment>

• List iteration<loop guestbook as entry> . . . </list>

• Conditional<if> . . . <else> . . . </if>

• Text inclusion from another template file<include "footer.html">

FreeMarker Template Cache

• Manages the folder where templates are stored• Loads and compiles templates into tokenized form

for efficiency• Recognizes changes to templates while application

is running

Guestbook: Java Web Applicationhtml.jsp?page=guestbook

html.jsp?page=login.jsp

html.jsp?page=guestsign html.jsp?page=guestview

guestview.jspguestsign.jsp

guestview.jsp

checklogin.jsp

guestview.jsp

delete?id=34

jsp:forward action

or link

Guestbook Demo

http://www.mycgiserver.com/~fontanini/introfm/html.jsp?page=guestbook

I18N• Internationalization• Language and Cultural differences• Dates Times• Browser sends header: Accept-language: en-us• First two characters choose template file:

– guestbook_en.html– guestbook_it.html

• Example: http://www.mycgiserver.com/~fontanini/fm/guestbook.

jsp

Conclusion

• JSP is Java that looks like HTML• Custom Tags make programming “easy”• Separation of business logic and presentation is

desirable for larger “Enterprise” projects• JSP alone does not achieve this separation• EJB, and other technologies are complicated• Template processing provides the desired

separation, rather easily and elegantly.• Thank you for attending. Any questions?