JAVA: AddressBook Case Study Using Sevlets

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Web Design & Development CS506

Lesson 33

AddressBook Case Study

Using Sevlets

Design Process

In this handout, we will discuss the design process of a simple address book. A step by step procedure of

creating a simple address book is given below.

Layers & Web Application

As discussed previously, normally web applications are partitioned into logical layers. Each layer performs

a specific functionality which should not be mixed with other layers. For example data access layer is used

to interact with database and we do not make any direct calls to database from the presentation layer.

Layers are isolated from each other to reduce coupling between them but they provide interfaces to

communicate with each other.

Simplified view of a web application and its layers

-Presentation Layer

Provides a user interface for client to interact with application. This is the only part of application

visible to client.

-Business Layer

The business or service layer implements the actual business logic or functionality of the application.

For example in case of online shopping systems this layer handles transaction management.

- Data Layer

This layer consists of objects that represent real-world business objects such as an Order,

OrderLineItem, Product, and so on. It also encapsulates classes which are used to interact with the

data providing services such as databases, other web services etc.

In our case study of address book, we will also try to make use of the layered architecture. We will create a

separate layer for working with data, and our presentation and business logic will be merged into servlets. It

means that we will not have separate layers for presentation and business rather one layer (formed by

servlets) will do the job of both presentation and business logic. The extent to which you divide your

application into layers depends upon the size of the application and some other factors such as scalability,

portability etc.

Step 1

Create a database (AddressBook)

Make a table named Person according to the figure shown below. It has columns name, address,

phomeNum

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Step 2

The next step is to create a class that can hold the information of a single person. Remember we have stored

the information in the database, now when we extract this information from the database as a result of some

search, we will require some object to store the data for that particular person. The PersonInfo class will be

used at that point to store the retrieved data and transport it to presentation layer. Also we extend this

application and add the functionality of "AddingNewContacts" in the database. The PersonInfo class can be

used to transport data from front end to the database.

Make a PersonInfo class with the following consideration

It has three three attributes: name, address, ph. No.

It has a parameterized constructor which takes in the above mentioned parameters

Override the toString() method

//File: PersnInfo.java

public class PersonInfo {

String name;

String address;

String phoneNum;

public PersonInfo(String n, String a, String pn) {

name = n;

address = a;

phoneNum = pn;

}

public String toString( ){

return "Name: " + name + " Address: " + address + " Phone No: " + phoneNum;

}

}// end class PersonInfo

Note: To keep the code simple, attributes (name, address & phoneNum) are not declared as private,

which is indeed not a good programming approach.

Step 3

Now we will create a class that will be used to interact with the database for the search, insert, update and

delete operations. We will call it PersonDAO where DAO stands for the "data access object". The

PersonDAO along with the PersonInfo class forms the data layer of our application. As you can see that

these two classes do not contain any code related to presentation or business logic (There is not much of

business logic in this application anyway). So PersonDAO along with PersonInfo is used to retrieve and

store data in this application. If at some stage we choose to use some other way of storing data (e.g. files)

only the PersonDAO class will change and nothing else, which is a sign of better design as compared to a

design in which we put every thing in a single class.

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So, Make a PersonDAOclass which contains:

a searchPerson(String name) method that first establishes a connection to the database and returns

PersonInfo object after searching the information of the specified person from the database.

//File: PersonDAO.java

import java.sql.*;

public class PersonDAO {

// method searchPerson

public PersonInfo searchPerson(String sName){

PersonInfo person = null;

try {

Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");

String url = "jdbc:odbc:AddressBookDSN";

Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url);

String sql = "SELECT * FROM Person WHERE name = ?";

PreparedStatement pStmt = con.prepareStatement(sql);

pStmt.setString(1, sName);

ResultSet rs = pStmt.executeQuery();

if (rs.next( ) ) {

String name = rs.getString("name");

String add = rs.getString("address");

String pNum = rs.getString("phoneNum");

person = new PersonInfo(name, add, pNum);

}

con.close();

}catch(Exception ex){

System.out.println(ex);

}

return person;

}// end method

}

Step 4

To find what user wants to search, we need to give user an interface through which he/she can enter the

input. The SearchPesonServlet.java will do this job for us, It will collect the data from the user and submit

that data to another class. The SearchPersonServlet forms the part of our presentation layer. As you can see

that it is being used to present a form to the user and collect input.

Write SearchPersonServlet.java

Will take input for name to search in address book

Submits the request to ShowPersonServlet

//File: SearchPersonServlet.java

import java.io.*;

import java.net.*;

import javax.servlet.*;

import javax.servlet.http.*;

public class SearchPersonServlet extends HttpServlet {

protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse

esponse)

throws ServletException, IOException {

response.setContentType("text/html");

PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

out.println("<html>" + "<body>" +"<h1> Address Book </h1>" +"<form action=showperson >"

+ // showperson is alias or

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// url pattern of

// ShowPersonServlet"<h2> Enter name to

search </h2> <br/>" +"<input type=text name=pName /> <br/>" +"<input type=submit

value=Search Person />" +"</form>" +"</body>" +"</html>"

);

out.close();

}

// Handles the HTTP GET method.protected void

doGet(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response)

throws ServletException, IOException {

processRequest(request, response);}

// Handles the HTTP POST method protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest

request,HttpServletResponse response)

throws ServletException, IOException {

processRequest(request, response);

}

Step 5

The data submitted by the SearchPersonServlet will be submitted to another servlet i.e. ShowPersonServlet,

which will interact with the DataLayer(Business logic processing) collects the output and show it to the

user. The ShowPersonServlet forms the part of our presentation layer and business layer. As you can see

that it is being used to do processing on the incoming data and giving it to data layer (business layer) and

present data/output to the user (presentation layer)

. Write ShowPersonServlet.java

. Receives request from SearchPersonServlet

. Instantiate objects of PersonInfo and PersonDAO class

. Call searchPerson() method of PersonDAOclass

. Show results

//File : ShowPersonServlet.java

import java.io.*;

import java.net.*;

import javax.servlet.*;

import javax.servlet.http.*;

public class ShowPersonServlet extends HttpServlet {

protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws

ServletException, IOException {

response.setContentType("text/html");

PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

String name = request.getParameter("pName");

// creating PersonDAO object, and calling searchPerson() method

PersonDAO personDAO = new PersonDAO();

PersonInfo person = personDAO.searchPerson(name);

out.println("<html>");

out.println("<body>");

out.println("<h1>Search Results</h1>");

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if (person != null){

out.println("<h3>"+ person.toString() +"</h3>" );

}

else{

out.println("<h3>Sorry! No records found</h3>" );

}

out.println("</body>");

out.println("</html>");

out.close();

}

// Handles the HTTP GET method.protected void

doGet(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse

response)throws ServletException, IOException

{processRequest(request, response);}

// Handles the HTTP POST method.protected void

doPost(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse

response)throws ServletException, IOException

{processRequest(request, response); }

} // end ShowPersonServlet

Sequence Diagram: Address Book (search use case)

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Package

Many times when we get a chance to work on a small project, one thing we intend to do is to put all java

files into one single directory (folder). It is quick, easy and harmless. However if our small project gets

bigger, and the number of files is increasing, putting all these files into the same directory would be a

nightmare for us. In java we can avoid this sort of problem by using Packages.

What is a package?

In simple terms, a set of Java classes organized for convenience in the same directory to avoid the name

collisions. Packages are nothing more than the way we organize files into different directories according to

their functionality, usability as well as category they should belong to. An obvious example of packaging is

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the JDK package from SUN (java.xxx.yyy) as shown below:

Figure. Basic structure of JDK package

Basically, files in one directory (or package) would have different functionality from those of another

directory. For example, files in java.io package do something related to I/O, but files in java.net package

give us the way to deal with the Network.

Packaging also helps us to avoid class name collision when we use the same class name as that of others.

For example, if we have a class name called "ArrayList", its name would crash with the ArrayList class

from JDK. However, this never happens because JDK use java.util as a package name for the ArrayList

class (java.util.ArrayList). So our ArrayList class can be named as "ArrayList" or we can put it into another

package like com.mycompany.ArrayList without fighting with anyone. The benefits of using package

reflect the ease of maintenance, organization, and increase collaboration among developers. Understanding

the concept of package will also help us manage and use files stored in jar files in more efficient ways.

How to create a package

Suppose we have a file called HelloWorld.java, and we want to put this file in a package world. First thing

we have to do is to specify the keyword package with the name of the package we want to use (world in

our case) on top of our source file, before the code that defines the real classes in the package, as shown in

our HelloWorld class below:

// only comment can be here

package world;

public class HelloWorld {

public static void main(String[] args) {

System.out.println("Hello World");}

}

One thing you must do after creating a package for the class is to create nested subdirectories to represent

package hierarchy of the class. In our case, we have the world package, which requires only one directory.

So, we create a directory (folder) world and put our HelloWorld.java into it.

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Figure: HelloWorld in world package (C:\world\HelloWorld.java)

How to use package

By using "import" keyword, all class files reside only in that package can be imported. For example,

// we can use any public classes inside world package

import world.*;

// import all public classes from java.util package

import java.util.*;

// import only ArrayList class (not all classes in

// java.util package)

import java.util.ArrayList;

Note: While working with IDEs, You don't have to create folders (packages) and to place classes at right

locations. Many IDEs (like netBeans® 4.1) performs this job on your behalf.

JavaServer Pages (JSP)

Like Servlets, JSP is also a specification. JSP technology enables Web developers and designers to rapidly

develop and easily maintain, information-rich, dynamic Web pages that leverage existing business systems.

As part of the Java technology family, JSP technology enables rapid development of Web-based

applications that are platform independent. JSP technology separates the user interface from content

generation, enabling designers to change the overall page layout without altering the underlying dynamic

content.

The Need for JSP

With servlets, it is easy to

Read form data

Read HTTP request headers

Set HTTP status codes and response headers

Use cookies and session tracking

Share data among servlets

Remember data between requests

Get fun, high-paying jobs

But, it sure is a pain to

Use those println()statements to generate HTML

Maintain that HTML

The JSP Framework

Use regular HTML for most of the pages

Mark servlet code with special tags

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Entire JSP page gets translated into a servlet (once), and servlet is what actually gets

invoked (for each request)

The Java Server Pages technology combine with Java code and HTML tags in the same

document to produce a JSP file.

Advantages of JSP over Competing Technologies

Versus ASP or ColdFusion

JSPs offer better language for dynamic part i.e. java

JSPs are portable to multiple servers and operating systems

Versus PHP

JSPs offer better language for dynamic part

JSPs offer better tool support

Versus pure servlets

JSPs provide more convenient way to create HTML

JSPs can use standard front end tools (e.g., UltraDev)

JSPs divide and conquer the problem of presentation and business logic.

Setting Up Your Environment

In order to create a web-application that entirely consists of JSP pages and Html based pages, the setup

is fairly simple as compared to a servlet based webapplication.

Set your CLASSPATH.

No.

Compile your code.

No.

Use packages to avoid name conflicts. No.

Put JSP page in special directory, like WEB-INF for servlets No.

tomcat_install_dir/webapps/ROOT

jrun_install_dir/servers/default/default-app

Use special URL to invoke JSP page. No

However

o If you want to use java based classes in an application along with JSPs, previous rules

about CLASSPATH, install dirs, etc, still apply to regular classes used by JSP

References:

Java A Lab Course by Umair Javed

Java Package Tutorial by Patrick Bouklee

http://jarticles.com/package/package_eng.html

JavaServer Pages Overview

http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/overview.html

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