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Java web development: transfer control from one servlet to another while passing the request object [duplicate]

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Design Patterns web based applications [closed]
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EDIT: I have posted a somewhat shorter and revised question here: Java web development: transfer control from one servlet to another while passing the request object (Version 2)
As more or less a beginner at Java web development, I’m unsure about how I should structure the flow between servlets/pages when a form is submitted (POST). It’s an elementary issue, I suspect this may be an easy question to answer for the experts. (Still, my book and some googling didn’t deliver a clear answer.) My question is a bit long, and that's because I want to make it clear where I'm coming from. Thanks for you patience.
Let’s say we have two servlets A en B, with each having its ‘own’ .jsp-page; let’s call those pages a.jsp and b.jsp respectively. Now as long as there are no forms on either page (i.e., no POST method used), it’s clear how things should go. That is, before any .jsp-page is shown, the corresponding servlet is activated, doing some preparation for the .jsp-page by setting the relevant data elements (most notably, as attributes of the request object) that the .jsp-page needs, then forwarding the request object (etc.) to the .jsp-page, which then actually displays the page with the data. So for example, a link on page a.jsp may link to the servlet B, and on clicking that link a GET-request for servlet B is triggered, which then does some preparation (setting some request attributes), before forwarding to its ‘own’ .jsp-page (i.e. b.jsp).
But now let’s assume that page a.jsp displays a form with a submit button, method=”POST” and action=”B”. Then yes, servlet B is activated, and this servlet has to determine whether the data entered by the user is valid. If the data is in fact valid, we can simply forward to b.jsp, no problem there. But what if the data is NOT valid?
In that case, we obviously want to show a.jsp (the form page) again, with the data that the user entered the first time still present. One way to achieve this, is to simply have servlet B forward to a.jsp (thus bypassing servlet A). However, there is a big problem with that: the URL shown to the user, in the address bar, will still read “……/B”. So the user will see the correct page (i.e., a.jsp, containing the form), but with the wrong URL (/B). So for example, if we take “Register” and “ThanksForRegistering” instead of “A” and “B”, the user will see register.jsp – but with URL “……/ThanksForRegistering”! Not good.
And calling ‘include()’ instead of ‘forward()’ on the request-dispatcher doesn’t seem to work either. If we do that, not only does it result in a GET-request (as opposed to the POST-request we want), but we actually lose the whole (original) request-object with its attributes (which we need, after all, to re-populate the form). At least, that’s what my own experimentation seems to show. So using ‘include()’ doesn’t seem like a viable option at all.
Another obvious idea is to have "action=A" (instead of "action=B") for the submit. Then the servlet A itself can handle the validation, and if validation fails it can simply forward to a.jsp again, no problem. BUT then what if validation succeeds? Then we want to show the follow-up page b.jsp, but that page may well need the attributes from the original request-object (from the form-submit) again; for example, to have the user check that his entered data was in fact all correct. So basically we have the same problem as before, but with the roles of A and B (and their respective .jsp-pages) reversed. So this doesn't seem like a real solution either.
And I don’t see any other alternatives.
So basically, I’d simply like to be able have one servlet give control back to another servlet, but with the request object being passed from the former to the latter servlet. Or, if that’s not possible, I’d want to be able to forward from servlet B to a.jsp directly, but with the correct URL shown to the user. Or any other way to accomplish what I want.
Many thanks.

I think that the assumption that there has to be one page per servlet is causing the problem here....have one servlet which based on input redirects,forwards or includes a particular page....you dont really need to always invoke a different servlet for a page.....you can have a single front controller with a view resolver the combination of which will redirect or forward to a page.

You can use filters to achieve the same thing or think of setting attributes in HttpSession if validation is successful and retrieve the data in all the pages whenever it is required.
session.setAttribute("object", object);
I hope this is what you are looking for.

Asynchronous JSP Tag

Is there a JSP tag that allows that part of the page to process asynchronously? If not is there a way to create one?
Something like the following:
<Util:Asynchronous>
<%
DataSource source = ...
%>
</Util:Asynchronous>
... rest of page
I don't want to have to wait for the data source to finish before processing the rest of the page.
Thanks.

You need to use AJAX. Also it is bad coding practice to put your data access commands in your JSP pages. Very susceptible to hacks, not to mention performance hits.

The servlet container must wait that you are page is entirely rendered before sending it back to the client. Thus your requirement makes no sense for me.
If a part of the page takes too much time to process, you could use Ajax to load a portion of your page. There is already pages at StackOverflow about Ajax.

SendRedirect vs. Forward Use Case in Java Servlets

I have a simple html page with the purpose of performing changes to an entity which is written to the database. The page has two forms:
GET: select the entity to change
POST: process the changes to the entity and write it to the database
When the POST action is performed I want to display the same page again, in addition I want to keep the entity parameter as set by the GET action. Currently I am doing the following at the end of the doPost method:
response.sendRedirect(path + "?entity=" + entityValue);
Which works perfectly fine, but after reading the differences between forward and sendRedirect I thought I have to use forward, but that won't work since the doGet method will not be executed as with sendRedirect. So is my approach correct or should this solved in another way?

Your approach is excellent. It uses the post-redirect-get pattern, which has several advantages:
clean URL that is bookmarkable and can be sent by email for example
no risk of resubmitting the modification by hitting the Refresh button
clean navigation through the browser history
separation of responsibilities between the get and the post URLs
So keep everything as it is. A forward is a less optimal solution than a redirect in this case.

Java Web Application

I am interested in creating a simple web application that will take in user input, convert it to an XML file and send the file to a database.
Coding wise I feel I am okay, it is just the general setup and what implementation to use I am a bit unsure of.
At the moment I have a JSP page containing a form, the user fills out the form and on submit a POST method is sent to a servlet, in the servlet doPost() method the servlet is instantiating a java object and passing it the user inputted data. The java object then writes that data to an XML file and sends it to the database via REST.
All I would be interested to know is if this the standard/optimal way of creating such a web application.
Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Thanks

For a "simple webapplication" this high level approach looks fine in general. However, if you want more critical feedback, you'd need to give more details about the low-level approach. It may for example happen that it isn't memory efficient and thus may break when the webapp is been used by over 10 users concurrently, just to give an example.
I only question the choice for the GET method. You'd normally only use it to retrieve data (SELECT), not to create/alter data (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE). For that you'd normally use POST, so that no one can execute it "accidently" by just clicking a (bookmarked) link. Changing GET to POST isn't that hard, add method="post" to the <form> element and rename doGet() to doPost().

Passing parameter without use of HTML forms in JSP

I have done some research, and majority of the examples I have found use forms (obviously for user input) to collect data which is then passed to another JSP page through the request object.
My question is: Is it possible to pass a parameter between JSP pages if the parameter hasn't been set in HTML <form> tags?

There are a few ways to pass information from one JSP page to another.
1. Hidden values.
Simply write the data to an input field within a form with the type 'hidden', e.g.
<input type="hidden" name="mydata" value="<%=thedata%>">
Data written thus will get posted back when the relevant form is submitted. This can be a useful way to 'carry along' information as the user fills out a series of dialogs as all state is user side and the back and forward buttons will work as expected.
2. URL writing.
Attach parameters to URLs in links on the page, e.g.
<a href="another.jsp?mydata=<%=thedata>>Go!</a>
This also maintains the state with the client while removing the need for a form element to be submitted.
3. Cookies.
Should speak for itself.The state is still user side but is now handled by a cookie. More fragile in some ways since some people disable cookies. Also the back and forward buttons may do unexpected things if you are not careful
4. Server side (session)
Finally you could store the data in a session variable on one JSP and retrieve it on the next, e.g.
session.setAttribute(String key, Object value)
and
session.getAttribute(String key)
Here the state is kept server side which has some benefits (the user can browse away and return without losing his place, but tends to make the back and forward buttons in the browser a bit unreliable unless you are careful. Also the value is available to all pages.
It does however have the advantage that the information is never sent to the client and is thus more secure and more tamper proof.

There's no way a JSP page can tell the difference between a manually constructed GET url, e.g.:
Go to the next JSP page, versus something like:
<form method="get" action="/foo.jsp">
<input name="bar" value="baz">
</form>
Either way it can be accessed through getParameter or getParameterValues
Is that what you're asking?

You usually pass data between servlet/JSP or JSP pages in scoped attributes (in request, session or application). E.g. request.setAttribute("key", data) can set "key" attribute in one JSP, and request.getAttribute("key") gets you this data in other JSP (if multiple JSPs are processing same request).
It is possible to create fake parameters by wrapping your request, and overriding getParameter and similar method, if that is what you really need.
Update: my answer is talking about passing data between several parties which all process same request. This may or may not be what you want, as your question isn't clear.