Professional Documents
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1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1 communication protocols
A communication protocol is a set of rules that the end points in a telecom link use when they
communicate.
A protocol is specified in an industry or international standard. All internet related protocols are
defined within the frame of IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) via a mechanism called
RFC (Request For Comments).
Each (potential) protocol is defined by such a document. For a comprehensive list of all the
RFCs, check the official site www.ietf.org (which present the RFCs in .txt format) or www.cis.ohio-
state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc (which presents the RFCs in .html format, with up to date links embedded in
the documents).
OSI stands for Open System Interconnection, an ISO (International Standard Organization)
standard for worldwide communications that defines a structured framework for implementing
protocols in seven layers. Control is passed from one layer to the next, starting at the application
layer at the source node, proceeding to the lower layers, over the links to the next node and back
up the hierarchy until the destination node is reached. The structure of the message which is the
object of this exchange gets modified along the way, each step down into the layer hierarchy
adding a new wrapper around the existing message (usually, consisting of a protocol specific
header), while each step up removes the wrapper specific to the layer below.
The seven layers in the OSI model are:
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1 - INTRODUCTION
A socket is a logical entity which describes the end point(s) of a communication link between
two IP entities (entities which implement the Internet Protocol). Sockets are identified by the IP
address and the port number. Port numbers range from 0 to 65535 (2^16 – 1) and are split into 3
categories:
1. well known ports - ranging from 0 to 1023 – these ports are under the control of IANA
(Internet Assigned Number Authority), a selective list is shown in the table below:
2
1 - INTRODUCTION
69 TFTP
79 Finger
80 HTTP
107 Remote Telnet
109 Post Office Protocol 2 (POP2)
110 POP3
115 Simple FTP (SFTP)
118 SQL services
123 Network Time Protocol (NTP)
137 NetBIOS Name Service
138 NetBIOS Datagram Service
139 NetBIOS Session Service
143 Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
156 SQL service
161 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
162 SNMP Trap
179 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
194 Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
213 IPX
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1 - INTRODUCTION
To create a client socket, two calls are necessary. The first one creates a file descriptor (fd)
which is basically a number which identifies an I/O channel (not different from the file descriptor
resulted from a fopen() call which opens a file).
The prototype of this call is the following:
The family parameter specifies the address family of the socket and may take one of the
following values, the list itself depending on the implementation platform:
• AF_APPLETALK
• AF_INET – most used, indicates an IP version 4 address
• AF_INET6 - indicates an IP version 6 address
• AF_IPX
• AF_KEY
• AF_LOCAL
• AF_NETBIOS
• AF_ROUTE
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1 - INTRODUCTION
• AF_TELEPHONY
• AF_UNSPEC
The type parameter specifies the socket stream type and may take the following values:
• SOCK_STREAM
• SOCK_RAW
• SOCK_DGRM
The value of the protocol parameter is set to 0, except for raw sockets.
The second call connects the client to the server. Here is the signature of the connect() call.
int connect(int sock_fd, struct sockaddr * server_addr, int addr_len);
To create a server socket, four calls are necessary. Here are the prototypes of these calls:
int socket(int family, int type, int protocol);
int bind(int sock_fd, struct sockaddr * my_addr, int addr_len);
int listen(int sock_fd, int backlog);
int accept(int sock_fd, struct sockaddr * client_addr, int * addr_len);
A few remarks. Why not binding the client socket to a particular port, as well? Well, nobody stops
us from invoking the bind() function on a client socket, but this is not exactly relevant. While the
server port has to be known, because the client must know both the IP address (or the URL, if that
is the case) and the port of the server, it is not important to know the port of the client. The
assignment of a port to a client socket is done by the operating system, and this solution is quite
satisfactory.
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2 - HTTP
2 - HTTP
2.1 what is http
HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol while hypertext means text contatining links to
another text. HTTP was created by by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 at CERN as a mean to store
scientific data. It quickly evolved into the preferred communication protocol over the internet.
The first oficial version – HTTP 1.0 – dates from 05/95 and is the object of RFC 1945
(www.cis.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc/rfc1945.html). It is authored by Tim Berners-Lee, Roy Fielding
and Henrik Nielsen.
The second (and last, so far) version, namely HTTP 1.1, was the object of several RFCs, of
which we mention RFC 2068 (01/97), RFC 2616 (06/99), RFC 2617 (06/99) and RFC 2774
(02/00).
For a complete specification of the different HTTP versions, check the official HTTP site –
www.w3.org/Protocols . As a site for understanding how HTTP works, we recommend
www.jmarshall.com/easy/http.
HTTP follows the client – server model. The client sends a request message to the server. The
server answers with a response message. These messages may have different contents, but they
also have some common structural elements, as follows:
1. an initial line
2. zero or more header lines
3. a blank line (CR/LF)
4. an optional message body
<initial line>
Header1: value1
...
Headern: valuen
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2 - HTTP
As of HTTP 1.1, there are 8 HTTP commands (methods) that are widely supported. Here is
their list:
1. GET
2. HEAD
3. POST
4. CONNECT
5. DELETE
6. OPTIONS
7. PUT
8. TRACE
Three other commands are listed, as well, in the HTTP 1.1 specification, but lack of support
makes them obsolete. These commands are:
• LINK
• UNLINK
• PATCH
The HEAD command is identical to the GET command in all respects but one. The only
difference is that the response must not have a body. All the information requested is returned in
the header section of the response.
The GET method means retrieve whatever information (in the form of an entity) is identified by
the Request-URI. If the Request-URI refers to a data-producing process, it is the produced data
which shall be returned as the entity in the response and not the source text of the process, unless
that text happens to be the output of the process.
The POST method is used to request that the origin server accept the entity enclosed in the
request as a new subordinate of the resource identified by the Request-URI in the Request-Line.
POST is designed to allow a uniform method to cover the following functions:
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2 - HTTP
The actual function performed by the POST method is determined by the server and is usually
dependent on the Request-URI. The posted entity is subordinate to that URI in the same way that
a file is subordinate to a directory containing it, a news article is subordinate to a newsgroup to
which it is posted, or a record is subordinate to a database.
The action performed by the POST method might not result in a resource that can be identified
by a URI. In this case, either 200 (OK) or 204 (No Content) is the appropriate response status,
depending on whether or not the response includes an entity that describes the result.
1. The method GET is intended for getting (retrieving) data, while POST may involve anything,
like storing or updating data, or ordering a product, or sending E-mail
2. When used for form data submission, GET attaches this data to the URL of the request, after
the “?” character, as a sequence of “name=value” pairs, separated by the character “&” or “;”
On the other side, form data submitted by POST may be encoded either as above (using
application/x-www-form-urlencoded content type), or in the message
body, (encoded as multipart/form-data).
3. A POST request requires an extra transmission to retrieve the message body, while a GET
request allows data sent via the URL to be processed immediately.
Contains 3 elements, separated by spaces (although the reason phrase may contain spaces, as
well):
• the HTTP version of the response
• a response status code (a number)
• a response status reason phrase (a human readable response status)
Here is an example of an initial response line:
HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found
A three-digit integer, where the first digit identifies the general category of response:
• 1xx indicates an informational message only
• 2xx indicates success of some kind
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2 - HTTP
A header line consists of two parts, header name and header value, separated a semicolon.
The HTTP 1.0 version specifies 16 headers, none of them mandatory, while the HTTP 1.1 version
specifies 46 of them, out of which, one (Host) is mandatory. Although the header names are not
case sensitive, header values are.
A couple of examples of header lines:
User-agent: Mozilla/3.0Gold
Last-Modified: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 23:59:59 GMT
Header lines which begin with spaces or tabs are parts of the previous header line.
An HTTP message may have a body of data sent after the header lines. The most common use
of the message body is in a response, that is, where the requested resource is returned to the
client, or perhaps explanatory text if there's an error. In a request, this is where user-entered data
or uploaded files are sent to the server.
If an HTTP message includes a body, the header lines of the message are used to describe the
body. In particular,
• the Content-Type: header gives the MIME-type of the data in the body, such as text/html
or image/jpg.
• the Content-Length: header gives the number of bytes in the body.
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2 - HTTP
MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. Each extension consists of a type and
a subtype. RFC 1521 (www.cis.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc/rfc1521.html) defines 7 types and
several subtypes, although the list of admissible subtypes is much longer.
Here is the list of the seven types, together with the subtypes defined in this particular RFC.
1. text, with subtype plain
2. multipart, with subtypes mixed, alternative, digest, parallel
3. message, with subtypes rfc822, partial, external-body
4. application, with subtypes octet-stream, postscript
5. image, with subtypes jpeg, gif
6. audio, with subtype basic
7. video, with subtype mpeg
<html>
<body>
<h1>Happy birthday!</h1>
(more file contents)
.
.
.
</body>
</html>
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3 - HTML
3 - HTML
3.1 what is html?
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML describes how text, images and other
components are to be displayed in a browser, using a variety of tags and their related attributes.
The first version of HTML, namely HTML 1.0, appeared in summer 1991 and was supported by
the first popular web browser, Mosaic. The first official version – HTML 2.0 - was approved as a
standard in September 1995 (as RFC 1866 (www.cis.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc/rfc1866.html) and
was widely supported. A newer standard, HTML 3.2 (3.0 was not widely accepted) appeared a
W3C recommendation in January 1997.
Version 4.0 introduces the Cascading Style Sheets.
The newest version of HTML is 4.01. It is a revision of 4.0 and was accepted in December
1997. However, a working draft for a new version, namely HTML 5 was published in June 2008.
From 1999 on, HTML is part of a new specification – XHTML. The XHTML 1.0 draft was
released in 01.99. The latest version (XHTML 2.0) dates from 08.02 and is not intended to be
backwards compatible.
For a complete specification of the different HTML versions, check the official HTML site –
www.w3c.org/Markup . As a practical reference site use – www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html .
Other helpful sites - www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors, www.jmarshall.com/easy/html .
With support for the first 17 planes of ISO 10646 and increased
limits for tag and literal lengths etc.
--
CHARSET
BASESET "ISO Registration Number 177//CHARSET
ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993 UCS-4 with
implementation level 3//ESC 2/5 2/15 4/6"
DESCSET 0 9 UNUSED
9 2 9
11 2 UNUSED
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3 - HTML
13 1 13
14 18 UNUSED
32 95 32
127 1 UNUSED
128 32 UNUSED
160 55136 160
55296 2048 UNUSED -- SURROGATES --
57344 1056768 57344
CAPACITY SGMLREF
TOTALCAP 150000
GRPCAP 150000
ENTCAP 150000
SCOPE DOCUMENT
SYNTAX
SHUNCHAR CONTROLS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 127
BASESET "ISO 646IRV:1991//CHARSET
International Reference Version
(IRV)//ESC 2/8 4/2"
DESCSET 0 128 0
FUNCTION
RE 13
RS 10
SPACE 32
TAB SEPCHAR 9
NAMING LCNMSTRT
""
UCNMSTRT
""
LCNMCHAR
".-_:"
UCNMCHAR
".-_:"
NAMECASE
GENERAL YES
ENTITY NO
DELIM GENERAL SGMLREF
SHORTREF SGMLREF
NAMES SGMLREF
QUANTITY SGMLREF
ATTCNT 60 -- increased --
ATTSPLEN 65536 -- These are the largest values --
LITLEN 65536 -- permitted in the declaration --
NAMELEN 65536 -- Avoid fixed limits in actual --
PILEN 65536 -- implementations of HTML UA's --
TAGLVL 100
TAGLEN 65536
GRPGTCNT 150
GRPCNT 64
FEATURES
MINIMIZE
DATATAG NO
OMITTAG YES
RANK NO
SHORTTAG YES
LINK
SIMPLE NO
IMPLICIT NO
EXPLICIT NO
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3 - HTML
OTHER
CONCUR NO
SUBDOC NO
FORMAL YES
APPINFO NONE
>
2. A Document Type Definition (DTD) – defines the syntax of markup constructs. Check the
address http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/dtd.html for the latest version of the
HTML DTD.
3. A specification that describes the semantics to be ascribed to the markup and character
entity references. This specification adds new syntactic restrictions which cannot be
defined within the frame of the DTD.
4. Document instances containing data (content) and markup. Each instance contains a
reference to the DTD to be used to interpret it.
Overall, the specification of HTML 4.0 contains an SGML declaration, three DTDs (HTML 4.0
Strict DTD, HTML 4.0 Transitional DTD, HTML 4.0 Frameset DTD) and a list of character
references. If you wonder what a character reference is, look at these examples: “<”, “"”,
"水" (in hexadecimal) - the chinese character for water. You get the point.
One exception, though; the element <BR> has no content and no end tag.
There are 91 elements defined in the HTML 4.01 specification. This section deals with some of
the most common elements.
The start tag of the element contains the values of the (required or optional) attributes of the
element. An example:
declares an image element, with the required (mandatory) attributes SRC and ALT and the
optional attributes HEIGHT and WIDTH. Other optional attributes of the <IMG> element,
like ALIGN, BORDER, CONTROLS, DYNSRC, …, VSAPCE are omitted.
A comment section in an HTML document starts with <!-- and end at the first occurrence of -->.
An example:
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3 - HTML
Example:
<A HREF=”http://web.info.uvt.ro/webmail/src/login.php”>Login to
web mail</A>
All HTML documents start with the <HTML> tag and end with the corresponding end tag
</HTML>. An HTML document consists of the parts:
• the <HEAD> part
• the <BODY> part
3.5 tables
A table is a visual rectangular object consisting of several rows and columns. The intersection
of any row and any column is called a cell. Usually, the cells in the first row contain are called
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3 - HTML
headers and consist of a brief description of the content of the corresponding column. Here is a
an example of a table:
The specific elements defining a table, its rows, columns, headers and cells are <TABLE>,
<THEAD>, <TR>, <TH> and <TD>. Here is their description and attributes.
the <TABLE> element
attributes:
• BORDER
• CELLSPACING
• CELLPADDING
• WIDTH
• ALIGN
• VALIGN
• TBODY
• BORDERCOLOR
• FRAME
• RULES
• COLORGROUP
• BACKGROUND
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3 - HTML
• SCOPE
3.7 forms
A form is a basic component container, allowing user input and paarmeter submittal.
The <FORM> element has the following attributes:
• ACTION - required, specifies the URL of the server side process that will receive the data
• METHOD - required, may have the values GET or POST, specifies how data will be sent to
the server. Possible values for this attribute:
• "POST"- sends the form values in 2 steps: contacts first the server then the form values are
sent in a separate transmission.
• "GET" - sends the form values in a single transmission, the browser appends the values to
the URL, after a quotation mark - ?. The pairs name=value are separated by ampersand - &
or (sometimes) by semicolon - :.
Example:
http://web.info.uvt.ro/servlet/MyServlet?a=12&b=25
• ENCTYPE - specifies the encoding type of the of the form content. Default value:
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3 - HTML
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3 - HTML
18
4 - JAVA PRIMER
4 - JAVA PRIMER
4.1 history
The initial name of this language was OAK and was developed as part of the GREEN project at
Sun, project started in 12.90. Early versions of Java were released in 12.94 and was officially
announced at Sun World in 05.95. The first commercial version was delivered to the first
customer (Netscape, Inc.) in 08.95. The current version (as of 10.2004) of Java 2 Platform
Standard Edition is J2SE 5.0, following the 1.4.2 version. The current version of Java 2 Platform
Enterprise Edition is J2EE 1.4 Update 1.
From source to execution, A java program goes thru the following phases:
1. Java source – a file with extension .java
2. Java bytecode – a file with extension .class
3. The Java interpreter (which is part of the Java Virtual Machine) parses and executes the
Java bytecode.
Example:
Edit the file prog1.java. The java compiler (javac) translates it to bytecode – prog1.class. The
java interpreter (as part of the JVM) parses and executes the prog1.class file.
In terms of execution time, a Java interpreted program is about 10 times slower than a
compiled and linked one. To overcome this significant shortage, a tool named Just In Time
compiler, allows the compilation of the Java source into machine-dependent binary executable.
The first time a class is loaded, the compilation process occurs, which accounts for a pretty slow
execution, but next time execution is much faster, pretty much comparable to that of a binary
executable.
The java compiler is (in general) a command line tool, with the following main options:
• -classpath <path>
• -sourcepath <path>
• -d <directory> : specifies where to put the .class file.
• -g : generate all debugging info.
One example of command line compilation:
javac -classpath .;C:\TW\mySource;C:\TW\myPackages -g login.java
TThere exist 2 types of programs that can be written in Java. The first type are embedded in
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4 - JAVA PRIMER
web pages – applets, the others are the standalone programs – Java applications.
A java applet is java class that extends the standard Applet class.
In general, an applet is inserted in a HTML page by an <APPLET> tag or by an <OBJECT> tag.
The <APPLET> element has 3 mandatory attributes, namely:
• CODE – identifies the (compiled) class file of the applet
• WIDTH
• HEIGHT
A java application is a collection of java classes. Generally, each class is implemented in a
source file having the same name as the class itself and whose extension is .java. Exactly one of
these classes must implement a method called main(). This method is the entry point in the
application and must have the following signature:
A compiled java application (class) may be executed from the command line using an executable
called java (the java interpreter), as follows:
4.4.1 encapsulation
This is a fancy word for the tendency of hiding the implementation of the methods of some class
and exposing only the interface of its public (and to some degree – its protected) methods.
4.4.2 inheritance
Inheritance is a partial order relation in the set of all Java classes. A Java class B inherits
another class A (or is a subclass of A, or is derived from A, or that it extends A). This binary
relation is specified in the declaration of the derived class B using the keyword extends. An
example:
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4 - JAVA PRIMER
In this case, all variables and methods of the base class A are automatically variables and
methods of the derived class B.
The derived class B can use (for free) all the methods of the base class, but it also can override
the implementation of any method in the base class, providing its own implementation.
While C++ allows multiple inheritance, a Java class can extend a single base class. That means
that the graph of the direct inheritance relation is a forest (its connected components are trees). In
fact, all classes in Java are (by default) subclasses of a universal base class, called Object.
Therefore, the forest we mentioned is actually a tree, with the root the class Object.
4.4.3 Polymorphism
Polymorphism means the ability of a variable of a given (base) type (class) to be used to
reference objects of different (derived) types (classes), and automatically call the method specific
to the type (derived class) of the object that the variable references.
All basic types have associated classes which extend their functionality, namely: Byte, Short,
Integer, Long, Float, Double, Boolean, Character.
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4 - JAVA PRIMER
The access attributes of a member variable or method of a class are specified by the access
specifiers. Except for the "package" concept, they have the same basic meaning as in C++.
• no specifier - the default value allows access from any class in the same package
• public - access from any class anywhere
• private - no access from outside the class itself
• protected - accessible from any class in the same package an any subclass anywhere
While the above specifiers apply to the variables and the methods of a class, the specifiers for
the class itself can be taken from the following list:
• no specifier - the default value makes the class visible only to the classes in the same
package
• public - the class is visible from any class, anywhere
• abstract - the class is abstract (some of its methods (inherited or specified by some
interface) are to be implemented by some of its subclasses)
An example. The declaration:
abstract class myFirstClass extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
implements Serializable
{
...
}
declares an abstract class, which is visible only to the classes in the same package, which
extends the class javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet and which implements the
Serializable interface.
The modifiers of the variables and methods of a class specify their range and stability. A static
variable or method is one which is implemented at class level, rather than at class instance. A
final variable (method, class) is one which cannot be modified (overridden, inherited). More
precisely:
A static (or class):
• variable - one which is defined at class level, has the same value for all class instances.
• method - all variables referenced in the function body are static variables.
Static variables and methods can be referenced (invoked) using either the name of the class or
the name of a class instance.
A final:
• variable - one which is constant
• method - the method implementation cannot be overriden by some subclass.
• class - does not have any subclasses.
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4 - JAVA PRIMER
23
4 - JAVA PRIMER
A Java package is a named collection of classes. Each class belongs to a package (even if a
package name is not specified, the default package is used). The names in a package are
qualified by the package name, therefore, they have to be unique inside a package.
package com.bank11.ccards.servlets;
import javax.sql.*;
import.java.util.Properties;
...
The name of the package is directly linked to the directory structure in which it is stored. In the
example above, the class (the .class file, rather) defined in the java source must be stored in a
directory called servlets, which is a subdirectory of ccards (which itself, is a subdirectory of a
directory called bank11).
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4 - JAVA PRIMER
4.10 interfaces
An interface in Java corresponds to the abstract class concept in C++. While multiple
inheritance is forbidden in Java (a class can be the subclass of a single base class), Java classes
can implement zero or more interfaces.
An interface is a collection of constants and "abstract" functions.
All variables (actually, constants) of an interface are automatically (by default) public, static and
final. All methods declared in an interface are (by default) public and abstract.
If a class is declared as implementing an interface but omits some of its methods, it must be
declared as abstract.
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5 - javaScript
5 - JAVASCRIPT
5.1 so what is JavaScript?
• JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool - HTML authors are normally
not programmers, but JavaScript is a scripting language with a very simple syntax!
Almost anyone can put small "snippets" of code into their HTML pages
• JavaScript can put dynamic text into an HTML page - A JavaScript statement like this:
document.write("<h1>" + name + "</h1>") can write a variable text into an HTML page
• JavaScript can react to events - A JavaScript can be set to execute when something
happens, like when a page has finished loading or when a user clicks on an HTML
element
• JavaScript can read and write HTML elements - A JavaScript can read and change the
content of an HTML element
• JavaScript can be used to validate data - A JavaScript can be used to validate form
data before it is submitted to a server. This saves the server from extra processing
• JavaScript can be used to detect the visitor's browser - A JavaScript can be used to
detect the visitor's browser, and - depending on the browser - load another page
specifically designed for that browser
• JavaScript can be used to create cookies - A JavaScript can be used to store and
retrieve information on the visitor's computer
JavaScripts in a page will be executed immediately while the page loads into the browser. This
is not always what we want. Sometimes we want to execute a script when a page loads, other
times when a user triggers an event.
<html>
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5 - javaScript
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
....
</script>
</head>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
....
</script>
</body>
To use the external script, point to the .js file in the "src" attribute of the <script> tag:
<html>
<head>
<script src="myScript.js">
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
A variable is a "container" for some information whose value can change during the script.
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5 - javaScript
or
strnum = "2157 Sunrise Blvd";
Apart from the usual flow control constructs, namely – if ... else, switch(), for(), while(), break,
continue, while() it is worth mentioning the for ... in and the try ... catch constructs.
The variable argument can be a named variable, an array element, or a property of an object.
Example
Using for...in to loop through an array:
<html>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
var x;
var mycars = new Array();
mycars[0] = "Saab";
mycars[1] = "Volvo";
mycars[2] = "BMW";
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5 - javaScript
for (x in mycars)
{
document.write(mycars[x] + "<br />");
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
try
{
//Run some code here
}
catch(err)
{
//Handle errors here
}
Example
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var txt=""
function message()
{
try
{
adddlert("Welcome guest!");
}
catch(err)
{
txt="There was an error on this page.\n\n";
txt+="Error description: " + err.description + "\n\n";
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5 - javaScript
txt+="Click OK to continue.\n\n";
alert(txt);
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" value="View message" onclick="message()" />
</body>
</html>
5.6 operators
The only new one is the comparison operator === (equal values and same type). Also, strings can
be added (concateneted) using the + operator.
Syntax:
alert("sometext")
Syntax:
confirm("sometext")
Syntax:
prompt("sometext","defaultvalue")
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5 - javaScript
5.8 functions
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function displaymessage() { alert("Hello World!") }
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="button" value="Click me!"
onclick="displaymessage()" >
</form>
</body>
</html>
If the line: alert("Hello world!!"), in the example above had not been written within a function, it
would have been executed as soon as the line was loaded. Now, the script is not executed before
the user hits the button. We have added an onClick event to the button that will execute the
function displaymessage() when the button is clicked.
More about JavaScript events in the JS Events chapter.
var1, var2, etc are variables or values passed into the function. The { and the } defines the start
and end of the function.
Note: A function with no parameters must include the parentheses () after the function name:
Note: Do not forget about the importance of capitals in JavaScript! The word function must be
written in lowercase letters, otherwise a JavaScript error occurs! Also note that you must call a
function with the exact same capitals as in the function name.
When you call the function above, you must pass along two parameters:
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5 - javaScript
product=prod(2,3)
The returned value from the prod() function is 6, and it will be stored in the variable called
product.
5.9.2 Properties
Properties are the values associated with an object.
In the following example we are using the length property of the String object to return the number
of characters in a string:
<script type="text/javascript">
var txt="Hello World!";
document.write(txt.length);
</script>
5.9.3 Methods
Methods are the actions that can be performed on objects.
In the following example we are using the toUpperCase() method of the String object to display a
text in uppercase letters:
<script type="text/javascript">
var str="Hello world!";
document.write(str.toUpperCase());
</script>
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5 - javaScript
Properties
FF: Firefox, N: Netscape, IE: Internet Explorer
Property Description FF N IE
constructor A reference to the function that created the object 1 4 4
length Returns the number of characters in a string 1 2 3
prototype Allows you to add properties and methods to the object 1 2 4
Methods
Method Description FF N IE
anchor() Creates an HTML anchor 1 2 3
big() Displays a string in a big font 1 2 3
blink() Displays a blinking string 1 2
bold() Displays a string in bold 1 2 3
charAt() Returns the character at a specified position 1 2 3
charCodeAt() Returns the Unicode of the character at a specified position 1 4 4
concat() Joins two or more strings 1 4 4
fixed() Displays a string as teletype text 1 2 3
fontcolor() Displays a string in a specified color 1 2 3
fontsize() Displays a string in a specified size 1 2 3
fromCharCode() Takes the specified Unicode values and returns a string 1 4 4
indexOf() Returns the position of the first occurrence of a specified string 1 2 3
value in a string
italics() Displays a string in italic 1 2 3
lastIndexOf() Returns the position of the last occurrence of a specified string 1 2 3
value, searching backwards from the specified position in a
string
link() Displays a string as a hyperlink 1 2 3
match() Searches for a specified value in a string 1 4 4
replace() Replaces some characters with some other characters in a 1 4 4
string
search() Searches a string for a specified value 1 4 4
slice() Extracts a part of a string and returns the extracted part in a 1 4 4
new string
small() Displays a string in a small font 1 2 3
split() Splits a string into an array of strings 1 4 4
strike() Displays a string with a strikethrough 1 2 3
sub() Displays a string as subscript 1 2 3
substr() Extracts a specified number of characters in a string, from a 1 4 4
start index
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5 - javaScript
Properties
FF: Firefox, N: Netscape, IE: Internet Explorer
Property Description FF N IE
constructor Returns a reference to the Date function that created the 1 4 4
object
prototype Allows you to add properties and methods to the object 1 3 4
Methods
Method Description FF N IE
Date() Returns today's date and time 1 2 3
getDate() Returns the day of the month from a Date object (from 1 2 3
1-31)
getDay() Returns the day of the week from a Date object (from 0-6) 1 2 3
getFullYear() Returns the year, as a four-digit number, from a Date 1 4 4
object
getHours() Returns the hour of a Date object (from 0-23) 1 2 3
getMilliseconds() Returns the milliseconds of a Date object (from 0-999) 1 4 4
getMinutes() Returns the minutes of a Date object (from 0-59) 1 2 3
getMonth() Returns the month from a Date object (from 0-11) 1 2 3
getSeconds() Returns the seconds of a Date object (from 0-59) 1 2 3
getTime() Returns the number of milliseconds since midnight Jan 1, 1 2 3
1970
getTimezoneOffset() Returns the difference in minutes between local time and 1 2 3
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
getUTCDate() Returns the day of the month from a Date object according 1 4 4
to universal time (from 1-31)
getUTCDay() Returns the day of the week from a Date object according 1 4 4
to universal time (from 0-6)
getUTCMonth() Returns the month from a Date object according to 1 4 4
universal time (from 0-11)
34
5 - javaScript
35
5 - javaScript
Properties
FF: Firefox, N: Netscape, IE: Internet Explorer
Property Description FF N IE
constructor Returns a reference to the array function that created the object 1 2 4
index 1 3 4
input 1 3 4
length Sets or returns the number of elements in an array 1 2 4
prototype Allows you to add properties and methods to the object 1 2 4
Methods
Method Description FF N IE
concat() Joins two or more arrays and returns the result 1 4 4
join() Puts all the elements of an array into a string. The elements are 1 3 4
separated by a specified delimiter
pop() Removes and returns the last element of an array 1 4 5.5
push() Adds one or more elements to the end of an array and returns 1 4 5.5
the new length
reverse() Reverses the order of the elements in an array 1 3 4
shift() Removes and returns the first element of an array 1 4 5.5
slice() Returns selected elements from an existing array 1 4 4
sort() Sorts the elements of an array 1 3 4
splice() Removes and adds new elements to an array 1 4 5.5
toSource() Represents the source code of an object 1 4 -
toString() Converts an array to a string and returns the result 1 3 4
unshift() Adds one or more elements to the beginning of an array and 1 4 6
returns the new length
36
5 - javaScript
Properties
FF: Firefox, IE: Internet Explorer
Property Description FF IE
constructor Returns a reference to the Number function that created the 1 4
object
MAX_VALUE Returns the largest possible value in JavaScript 1 4
MIN_VALUE Returns the smallest possible value in JavaScript 1 4
NaN Represents "Not-a-number" value 1 4
NEGATIVE_INFINITY Represents a value that is less than MIN_VALUE 1 4
POSITIVE_INFINITY Represents a value that is greater than MAX_VALUE 1 4
prototype Allows you to add properties and methods to the object 1 4
Methods
Method Description FF IE
toExponential() Converts the value of the object into an exponential notation 1 5.5
toFixed() Formats a number to the specified number of decimals 1 5.5
toLocaleString()
toPrecision() Converts a number into an exponential notation if it has more 1 5.5
digits than specified
toString() Converts the Number object into a string 1 4
valueOf() Returns the value of the Number object 1 4
Properties
FF: Firefox, N: Netscape, IE: Internet Explorer
Property Description FF N IE
constructor Returns a reference to the Boolean function that created the 1 2 4
object
prototype Allows you to add properties and methods to the object 1 2 4
37
5 - javaScript
Methods
Method Description FF N IE
toSource() Returns the source code of the object 1 4 -
toString() Converts a Boolean value to a string and returns the result 1 4 4
valueOf() Returns the primitive value of a Boolean object 1 4 4
Properties
FF: Firefox, N: Netscape, IE: Internet Explorer
F
Property Description N IE
F
E Returns Euler's constant (approx. 2.718) 1 2 3
LN2 Returns the natural logarithm of 2 (approx. 0.693) 1 2 3
LN10 Returns the natural logarithm of 10 (approx. 2.302) 1 2 3
LOG2E Returns the base-2 logarithm of E (approx. 1.442) 1 2 3
LOG10E Returns the base-10 logarithm of E (approx. 0.434) 1 2 3
PI Returns PI (approx. 3.14159) 1 2 3
SQRT1_2 Returns the square root of 1/2 (approx. 0.707) 1 2 3
SQRT2 Returns the square root of 2 (approx. 1.414) 1 2 3
Methods
Method Description FF N I
E
abs(x) Returns the absolute value of a number 1 2 3
acos(x) Returns the arccosine of a number 1 2 3
asin(x) Returns the arcsine of a number 1 2 3
atan(x) Returns the arctangent of x as a numeric value between -PI/2 1 2 3
and PI/2 radians
atan2(y,x) Returns the angle theta of an (x,y) point as a numeric value 1 2 3
between -PI and PI radians
ceil(x) Returns the value of a number rounded upwards to the nearest 1 2 3
integer
cos(x) Returns the cosine of a number 1 2 3
exp(x) Returns the value of Ex 1 2 3
floor(x) Returns the value of a number rounded downwards to the 1 2 3
nearest integer
log(x) Returns the natural logarithm (base E) of a number 1 2 3
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5 - javaScript
An object is just a special kind of data, with a collection of properties and methods.
Let's illustrate with an example: A person is an object. Properties are the values associated with
the object. The persons' properties include name, height, weight, age, skin tone, eye color, etc. All
persons have these properties, but the values of those properties will differ from person to person.
Objects also have methods. Methods are the actions that can be performed on objects. The
persons' methods could be eat(), sleep(), work(), play(), etc.
5.11.1 Properties
The syntax for accessing a property of an object is:
objName.propName
You can add properties to an object by simply giving it a value. Assume that the personObj
already exists - you can give it properties named firstname, lastname, age, and eyecolor as
follows:
personObj.firstname="John";
personObj.lastname="Doe";
personObj.age=30;
personObj.eyecolor="blue";
document.write(personObj.firstname);
5.11.2 Methods
An object can also contain methods.
You can call a method with the following syntax:
objName.methodName()
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5 - javaScript
personObj=new Object();
personObj.firstname="John";
personObj.lastname="Doe";
personObj.age=50;
personObj.eyecolor="blue";
Adding a method to the personObj is also simple. The following code adds a method called eat()
to the personObj:
personObj.eat=eat;
function person(firstname,lastname,age,eyecolor)
{
this.firstname=firstname;
this.lastname=lastname;
this.age=age;
this.eyecolor=eyecolor;
}
Notice that the template is just a function. Inside the function you need to assign things to
this.propertyName. The reason for all the "this" stuff is that you're going to have more than one
person at a time (which person you're dealing with must be clear). That's what "this" is: the
instance of the object at hand.
Once you have the template, you can create new instances of the object, like this:
myFather=new person("John","Doe",50,"blue");
myMother=new person("Sally","Rally",48,"green");
You can also add some methods to the person object. This is also done inside the template:
function person(firstname,lastname,age,eyecolor)
{
this.firstname=firstname;
this.lastname=lastname;
this.age=age;
this.eyecolor=eyecolor;
this.newlastname=newlastname;
}
Note that methods are just functions attached to objects. Then we will have to write the
newlastname() function:
function newlastname(new_lastname)
{
this.lastname=new_lastname;
}
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5 - javaScript
The newlastname() function defines the person's new last name and assigns that to the person.
JavaScript knows which person you're talking about by using "this.". So, now you can write:
myMother.newlastname("Doe").
New to HTML 4.0 was the ability to let HTML events trigger actions in the browser, like starting a
JavaScript when a user clicks on an HTML element.
Every element on a web page has certain events which can trigger JavaScript functions. For
example, we can use the onClick event of a button element to indicate that a function will run
when a user clicks on the button. We define the events in the HTML tags.
Examples of events:
● A mouse click
● A web page or an image loading
● Mousing over a hot spot on the web page
● Selecting an input box in an HTML form
● Submitting an HTML form
● A keystroke
Note: Events are normally used in combination with functions, and the function will not be
executed before the event occurs!
Tne following table contains an exhaustive list of events together with the support version of
FireFox, Netscape an Internet Explorer for each such event.
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5 - javaScript
The onload event is often used to check the visitor's browser type and browser version, and load
the proper version of the web page based on the information.
Both the onload and onUnload events are also often used to deal with cookies that should be set
when a user enters or leaves a page. For example, you could have a popup asking for the user's
name upon his first arrival to your page. The name is then stored in a cookie. Next time the visitor
arrives at your page, you could have another popup saying something like: "Welcome John Doe!".
5.12.3 onSubmit
The onSubmit event is used to validate ALL form fields before submitting it.
Below is an example of how to use the onSubmit event. The checkForm() function will be called
when the user clicks the submit button in the form. If the field values are not accepted, the submit
should be cancelled. The function checkForm() returns either true or false. If it returns true the
form will be submitted, otherwise the submit will be cancelled:
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5 - javaScript
In addition to the built-in JavaScript objects, you can also access and manipulate all of the HTML
DOM objects with JavaScript. Besides the generic objects listed bellow, the bulk of the HTML
DOM objects will be discussed in the next chapter.
Object Description
Window The top level object in the JavaScript hierarchy. The Window object
represents a browser window. A Window object is created automatically
with every instance of a <body> or <frameset> tag
Navigator Contains information about the client's browser
Screen Contains information about the client's display screen
History Contains the visited URLs in the browser window
Location Contains information about the current URL
43
6 - Html dom
6 - HTML DOM
44
7 - AJAX
7 - AJAX
7.1 what is ajax?
Ajax is only a name given to a set of tools that were previously existing. It is not a
technology in itself, but rather a collection of technologies bound together by JavaScript.
Allows to interact with the servers, thanks to its methods and attributes.
Attributes
ReadyState the code successively changes value from 0 to 4 that means for "ready".
200 is ok
Status
404 if the page is not found.
ResponseText Holds loaded data as a string of characters.
ResponseXml Holds a Xml loaded file, DOM's method allows to extract data.
Onreadystatechange Onreadystatechange
Methods
mode: type of request, GET or POST
Open(mode, url, url: the location of the file, with a path.
boolean) boolean: true (asynchronous) / false (synchrous).
Optionally, a login and a password may be added to arguments.
Send("string") null for a GET command.
45
7 - AJAX
7.5 specifications
Ajax is based on these specifications:
● XML 1, HTML 4.0, DOM 2, from W3C
● ECMAScript 1.5 (standard for JavaScript) from ECMA
● W3C draft specification for XMLHttpRequest.
46
8 - WEB APPLICATIONS
8 - WEB APPLICATIONS
A web application is a collection of Java servlets, JSP pages, other helper classes and class
libraries, other static resources (HTML, images, etc.) and an xml file, the deployment descriptor.
A web application consists of 4 parts:
1. a public directory – containing html, jsp files and other public resources. This is the root
directory of the application.
2. a WEB-INF/web.xml file – the deployment descriptor.
3. a WEB-INF/classes directory.
4. a WEB-INF/lib directory.
Example:
Assume that we use a Tomcat web server and that the environment variable
%TOMCAT_HOME% is set to C:\TW\Tomcat. Then, the root directory of some web application
can be:
C:\TW\Tomcat\webapps\bank11\ccards
and the mandatory directories are:
C:\TW\Tomcat\webapps\bank11\ccards\WEB-INF\classes
C:\TW\Tomcat\webapps\bank11\ccards\WEB-INF\lib
A web container is a Java runtime providing implementation of the Java servlet API and some
other facilities to the JSP pages. It responsible for initializing, invoking and managing the life
cycle of servlets and JSPs.
A web container may either implement the basic HTTP services or delegates these services to
an external web server.
Web containers can be part of an application or web server or a separate runtime. Here is a
description of these situations.
47
8 - WEB APPLICATIONS
the web server. Typical integration scenarios are Tomcat with Apache and JRun (of Allaire)
with most of the J2EE application servers.
Java
Classes
The deployment descriptor is an xml file (namely, web.xml) which allows the customization of
the web application at deployment time.
The deployment descriptor serves several purposes, like:
1. Initialization of parameters for servlets, JSPs and JavaServer Faces.
2. Servlet, JSPs and JavaServer Faces definitions, servlet classes, precompiled JSP entities are
declared (names, classes, descriptions).
3. Servlet, JSPs and JavaServer Faces mappings.
4. MIME types used by the web application.
5. Security related entries – may specify which pages require login and the roles different users
may have.
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8 - WEB APPLICATIONS
6. Others, like what pages are error, welcome pages, entries related to session configuration.
There are several issues with the web applications deployment. Behind a very benign URL, like
"http://localhost:8080/ccards/servlet/Enroll" there are 3 things which have to be fixed in order to
make things work properly.
Assume that we work with Tomcat and that the environment variable %TOMCAT_HOME% (or
$TOMCAT_HOME, in an UNIX environment) is set to "C:\TW\Tomcat".
1. The "/servlet" part of the URL tells the web server (Tomcat, in our case) to execute the
invoker servlet. This association is made in the file "%TOMCAT_HOME%\conf\web.xml".
Unfortunately, the lines which deal with this issue are commented out in the latest version
of Tomcat (for so-called "security issues"). To make anything work:
• de-comment the following section:
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>invoker</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/servlet/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
2. The "/ccards" part of the URL is, basicly, the name of the web application. In general, the
base directory of an application is a subdirectory of the "%TOMCAT_HOME%\webapps"
directory. This subdirectory has (in general) the same name as the application itself.
However, for flexibility, the location of the base directory of a web application may be any
sub(sub)directory of "%TOMCAT_HOME%\webapps". The association between the name
of the web application and the location of its base directory is made by a <context>
element in the "%TOMCAT_HOME%\conf\server.xml" file. For example, if the base
directory of the "/ccards" web application is "%TOMCAT_HOME
%\webapps\vdumitrascu\cc", then the corresponding <context> element in the
"%TOMCAT_HOME%\conf\server.xml" file looks like:
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8 - WEB APPLICATIONS
3. The "/Enroll" part of the URL identifies the servlet. Basicly, it is the alias of the real servlet
class, whose name is rather long. Let's say that this class is "EnrollServlet.class" and that it
is part of the package "com.bank11.ccards.servlets". Then the "EnrollServlet.class" file
must be located in the directory "%TOMCAT_HOME%\webapps\vdumitrascu\cc\WEB-INF\
classes\com.bank11.ccards.servlets". This association between the (short) alias of the
servlet and its real (long) name is made in the web.xml file of the web application. More
exactly the corresponding <servlet> element should look like:
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Enroll</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>
com.bank11.ccards.servlets.EnrollServlet
</servlet-class>
</servlet>
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9 - SERVLETS
9 - SERVLETS
9.1 the servlets as part of web applications
Java servlets – small, platform independent programs, which extend the functionality of the
web server.
Technically speaking, a servlet is a Java class that extends the GenericServlet (or, more often,
the HttpServlet) class.
The Java servlet API provides a simple frame for building web applications on web servers.
The current Java Servlet specification (as of 10.2007) is 2.5 and is in maintenance state.
Version 2.4 of the specification is in its final state. Java EE 5 SDK contains an implementation of
the Java Servlet 2.5 specification.
The Java servlet API consists of 2 packages, which are part of the J2 SDK, Enterprise Edition.
These packages are:
• javax.servlet
• javax.servlet.http
The classes and interfaces defined in the javax.servlet package are protocol independent, while
the second one, the javax.servlet.http contains classes and interfaces which are HTTP specific.
The classes an interfaces of the Java servlet API can be divided in several categories, namely:
• servlet implementation
• servlet configuration
• servlet exceptions
• request and responses
• session tracking
• servlet context
• servlet collaboration
• miscellaneous
The Servlet interface is part of the javax.servlet package. It declares the following
methods:
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9 - SERVLETS
After instantiating the servlet, the web container calls its init() method. The method
performs all initialization required, before the servlet processes any HTTP request. The servlet
specification insures that the init() method is called just once for any given instance of the
servlet.
The web container calls the service() method in response to any incoming request. This
method has two arguments, arguments which implement the ServletRequest and
ServletResponse interfaces, respectively.
More on the servlet lifecycle, in a different section.
This class provides a basic implementation of the Servlet interface. Since this class
implements the ServletConfig interface, as well, the developer may call ServletConfig
methods directly, without having to obtain a ServletConfig object first. All classes extending
the GenericServlet class should provide an implementation for the service() method.
It is very likely that the only implementation of the Servlet interface we'll ever use is one that
processes an HTTP request. The servlet API provides such a specific class, namely the
HttpServlet class.
52
9 - SERVLETS
The HttpServlet provides an HTTP specific implementation of the Servlet interface. This
abstract class specifies the following methods:
javax.servlet.ServletException
javax.servlet.UnavailableException
53
9 - SERVLETS
The UnavailableException indicates to the web container that the servlet instance is
unavaialble. It also extends the java.lang.Exception class.
The container creates a servlet instance as first response to an incoming (HTTP) request or at
container startup. Typically, the web container creates a single instance of the servlet, which will
service all incoming requests. If the servlet does not implement the
javax.servlet.SingleThreadModel, concurrent requests are serviced in more than one
service thread, which requires that the service() method be thread safe.
After instantiation, the container calls the init() method of the servlet, method which
performs the initialization of the servlet. Typically, this method contains JDBC driver loading, DB
connection opening, etc.
The web container makes sure that the init() method of the servlet will be completed before
invoking its service() method. Also, the servlet's destroy() method will be called before the
servlet itself is destroyed.
Most of the above methods are self explanatory. But what is the difference between a
parameter and an attribute? While the parameters of the request are part of the request itself, the
attributes of the request are attached by the web containers or by the servlets/JSPs.
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9 - SERVLETS
There are 3 different ways for attaching and retrieving attributes. The first one is to attach
attributes to the request object. The other two use the HttpSession and ServletContext objects,
respectively. The purpose of attributes is to allow the container to provide additional data to a
servlet or JSP or to allow sending data from a servlet to another.
This interface contains HTTP specific methods. One has to take in account the structure of an
HTTP request when overviewing the most important methods of this interface. Here are some of
them:
55
9 - SERVLETS
This interface extends the ServletResponse interface and defines methods specific for
constructing responses to HTTP requests.
Here are the most important ones:
A servlet context defines servlet's view of the web application and provides access to resources
common to all servlets of the web application. Each servlet context is rooted at a specific path in
the web server. The deployment of a web application involves adding an application specific
<context> tag which associates the the name of the application with its root directory. This is
done in server's (container's) server.xml file.
The ServletContext interface abstracts the context of a web application. A reference to an
object of this type can be obtained by invoking the getServletContext() method of the
HttpServlet object.
The Enroll servlet services the request sent by the web browser when we submit the Enroll form
56
9 - SERVLETS
(file Enroll.html)
Here is its abbreviated form (topics which are DB related are postponed) of the
"EnrollServlet.java" file:
package com.bank11.ccards.servlets;
import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
57
10 - JDBC
10 - JDBC
10.1 what is jdbc?
JDBC stands for Java Data Base Connectivity and is the Java version of ODBC (Open Data
Base Connectivity). It offers an API for SQL-compliant relational databases access. It abstracts
the vendor-specific details and offers support for the most common database access functions.
Each database vendor offers its own version of DB access API. A JDBC driver is a middleware
layer that translates JDBC calls into vendor specific calls. These drivers fall into four standard
categories, as recognised by the DB industry.
58
10 - JDBC
JDBC JDBC
API driver
59
10 - JDBC
There are two main steps in connecting to an existing database. The first one is
loading a database driver.
A database driver is specified by the driver name. Here are some examples of actual database
driver names:
• com.borland.datastore.jdbc.DataStoreDriver
• com.sybase.jdbc.SybDriver
• com.ibm.db2.jdbc.net.DB2Driver
• oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
• sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
The Java code to load the driver name is somewhat obscure, but let's take it for granted:
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;
try
{
Class.forName("org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver").newInstance();
} catch (Exception e) {
// driver not found
e.printStackTrace();
}
The actual location of the database is specified by its URL (also known as connection URL).
The driver URL has 3 parts separated by colons, as follows:
jdbc:<subprotocol>:subname
• jdbc is the protocol name (actually, the only protocol allowed in JDBC).
• the sub-protocol is used to identify the JDBC driver, as specified by the driver vendor.
• subname – the syntax of this field is vendor specific and allows the identification
• jdbc:sybase:localhost:2025
• jdbc:db2://db2.bank11.com:50002/ccards
• jdbc:oracle:thin:@loclahost:1521:ORCL
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10 - JDBC
The second step in connecting to an existing database is to open the connection, by using the
connection URL.
Here is some sample code which shows how this is done:
Since we just used it, let's have a better look in the next section at the DriverManager class.
This class belongs to the javax.sql package and offers a common access layer on top of
different JDBC drivers. Each driver used by the application must be registered (loaded) before the
DriverManager class tries to obtain a connection.
There are 3 versions of the getConnection() method of the DriverManager class. Here
they are:
While the first two forms of getConnection() are pretty straightforward, let's see an example of
hou to use the last of the three forms.
The Connection interface is part of then javax.sql package. Once we get the hold of a
Connection object, we can use it for various purposes, but we will restrict ourselves to creating
SQL statements. Public methods for creating statements:
61
10 - JDBC
62
10 - JDBC
6. other methods:
• setQueryTimeout()
• getQueryTimeout()
• setMaxFieldSize()
• getMaxFieldSize()
• cancel()
• getConnection()
The Statement interfaces also support the same methods for transaction support as the
Connection objects.
Objects implementing the Connection interface are mainly used for SQL queries execution.
Here is a typical example:
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10 - JDBC
• getDouble()
• getLong()
• getBigDecimal()
• getMetaData()
• getClob()
• getWarnings()
• getBlob()
Most of these methods require the column index (which in SQL starts at 1, not at 0) or the
column name, as the argument.
The usage of these rertrieval methods assumes the prior knowledge of the type and the index
(or name) of a particular column. What if we don't have this knowledge? Fortunately, all this data
about the DB schema (or metadata) can be retrieved using the ResultSetMetaData interface.
The invokation of the getMetaData() method of a ResultSet object returns an object of
ResultSetMetaData type.
Here are the most important methods specified by the ResultSetMetaData interface:
• getCatalogName()
• getTableName()
• getSchemaName()
• getColumnCount()
• getColumnName()
• getColumnLabel()
• getColumnType()
• getColumnTypeName()
• getColumnClassName()
• getColumnDisplaySize()
• getScale()
• getPrecision()
• isNullable()
• isCurrency()
• isSearchable()
• isCaseSensitive()
• isSigned()
• isAutoIncrement()
• isReadOnly()
• isDefinitelyWritable()
64
10 - JDBC
If an SQL statement is used several times and its different forms differ only with respect to the
data they specify, a better choice is the usage of a PreparedStatement object. Prepared
statements are parametrized and each parameter (usually, a field (column) value or name) is
represented by a question mark '?'.
The following lines of Java code give an example of how to use PreparedStatement objects:
10.9 jdbc and sql types and their corresponding java classes
65
10 - JDBC
In the JDBC 2.0 optional package, the DriverManager interface is replaced by the
DataSource interface as main method of obtaining DB connections.
While the DriverManager interface was used at run time to load explicitly a JDBC driver, the
new mechanism uses a centralized JNDI service to locate a javax.sql.DataSource object.
This interface is, basicly, a factory for creating DB connections. It is part of the javax.sql
package.
Main methods:
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11 - JSP
11.1 java server pages as part of web applications
A Java Server Page (JSP) is a standard HTML or XML file which contains new scripting tags.
A JSP is loaded by a JSP container and is converted (to servlet code). If the JSP is modified,
the servlet code is regenerated.
The current JSP specification is JSP 2.1 and is related to the 2.5 Java Servlet specification.
The JSP specific interfaces, classes and exceptions are part of two packages, namely
javax.servlet.jsp and javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.
The javax.servlet.jsp package contains a number of classes and interfaces that describe and
define the contracts between a JSP page implementation class and the runtime environment
provided for an instance of such a class by a conforming JSP container.
The package javax.servlet.jsp defines two interfaces – JspPage and HttpJspPage. The
interface HttpJspPage is the interface that a JSP processor-generated class for the HTTP protocol
must satisfy. The JspPage interface is the interface that a JSP processor-generated class must
satisfy.
The package javax.servlet.jsp.tagext contains classes and interfaces for the definition of
JavaServer Pages Tag Libraries.
/*
* NewBean.java
*/
import java.beans.*;
import java.io.Serializable;
/**
* @author sm
*/
public class NewBean extends Object implements Serializable {
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public NewBean() {
propertySupport = new PropertyChangeSupport(this);
}
The implementation of this method is generated by the web container – never by the developer.
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The JSP directives are messages sent by the Java Server Page to the JSP container. These
directives do not produce any client output and affect the whole JSP file.
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The include directive instructs the container to include inline the content of the resource
specified by "fileName". The format of this directive:
<%@include file="fileName" %>
The taglib directive allows the usage of custom tags (tag extensions). It has the following
format:
<%@taglib uri="tagLibUri" prefix="tagPrefix" %>
11.6.1 declarations
Basicly, a bloc of java code used to define class-wide variables and methods in the generated
servlet.
11.6.2 scriptlets
Block of java code which is executed during request processing. In Tomcat, this code goes to
inside the service() method.
11.6.3 expressions
A scriptlet that sends a value of a Java expression to back to the client. It is evaluated at
request processing time and the result is converted to a string which is then displayed.
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Tags that affect the runtime behaviour of the JSP and the response to the client. A tag can be
embedded into a JSP page. The standard actions are detailed in the next paragraphs.
<jsp:useBean>
Used to instantiate a Java bean or locate a bean instance. Assigns it to available name or id.
<jsp:setProperty>
Used in conjunction with the <jsp:useBean> action to set the value of the bean properties.
Attributes description:
• name - the name of a bean instance, already defined in a <jsp:useBean>
• property -
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<jsp:getProperty>
Used to access the properties of a bean, converts them to string and displays the output to the
client.
Attributes description:
• name - the name of a bean instance whose property is to be retrieved
• property - name of the property to be retrieved
<jsp:param>
Provide other tags with additional information in the form of name:value pairs. It is used in
conjunction with the <jsp:include>, <jsp:forward>, <jsp:plugin> actions.
<jsp:include>
Used for the inclusion of a static or dynamic resource into the current JSP page at request
processing time. An included page has access only to the JspWriter object and cannot set
headers or cookies. While the <%@include> directive is executed at compile time and has static
content, the <jsp:include> action is executed at request processing time and has static or dynamic
content.
Attributes description:
• page - the URL of the page, same format as the <%@include> directive.
• flush - only the "true" value is supported.
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<jsp:forward>
Used to forward the the request to another JSP, servlet or to a static resource..
The action may include several <jsp:param> tags, as well. It is used mainly, when we want to
separate the application into different views, depending on request.
<jsp:plugin>
Used in pages to generate client browser specific HTML tags (<OBJECT> or <EMBED>) that
result in download of Java plugins(if required), followed by the execution of the applet or
JavaBeans component specified by the tag.
...
</jsp:params>
</jsp:plugin>
Attributes description:
• name - the name of a bean instance, already defined in a <jsp:useBean>
JSP provides several implicit objects, based on the servlet API, objects which are automaticly
available.
1. request - represents the object that triggered the service() method invokation and has type
HttpServletRequest with scope request
2. response - represents server's response to the request, it has HttpServletResponse type and
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page scope
3. pageContext - provides a single point of access to attributes and shared data within the page,
it has type PageContext with scope page
4. session - it has HttpSession type and session scope
5. application - represents the servlet context, it has type ServletContext and scope
application
6. out - it represents the buffered version of java.io.PrintWriter, writes to the output
stream to the client, it has javax.servlet.jsp.JspWriter type and scope page
7. config - it is the SevletConfig for the current JSP page, it is of type ServletConfig and has
page scope
8. page - it is an instance of the page's implementation of the servlet class, it has
java.lang.Object type and scope page
11.15 scopes
1. request - an object with request scope is bound to the HttpServletRequest object; the
object can be accessed by invoking the getAttribute() method on the implicit request
object; the generated servlet binds the object to HttpServletRequest object using the
setAttribute(String key, Object value) method
2. session - an object with session scope is bound to the HttpSession object; the object can
be accessed by invoking the getValue() method on the implicit session object; the
generated servlet binds the object to HttpSession object using the setAttribute(String
key, Object value) method
3. application - an object with application scope is bound to the ServletContext object; the
object can be accessed by invoking the getAttribute() method on the implicit application
object; the generated servlet binds the object to the ServletContext object using the
setAttribute(String key, Object value) method
4. page - an object with page scope is bound to the PageContext object; the object can be
accessed by invoking the getAttribute() method on the implicit pageContext object; the
generated servlet binds the object to PageContext object using the setAttribute(String
key, Object value) method
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12 - JAVASERVER FACES
12.1 what is javaServer faces?
JavaServer Faces technology is a server-side user interface component framework for Java
based web applications. This technology includes:
1. A set of APIs for:
2. A JavaServer Pages (JSP) custom tag library for expressing a JavaServer Faces
interface within a JSP page.
The latest version of JavaServer Faces technology is version 1.2, the final version of which has
been released through the Java Community Process under JSR-252.
The latest implementation of version 1.2 is the patch release, version 1.2_04.
There are 2 JSF specific tag libraries defined in this specification, namely the core JSF tags and
the html JSF tags.
This tag library contains JavaServer Faces component tags for all UIComponent + HTML
RenderKit Renderer combinations defined in the JavaServer Faces Specification.
The core JavaServer Faces tags define custom actions that are independent of any particular
RenderKit.
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Here is a typical directory structure for a JSP application. The directory myJSFapp is the base
directory of the application.
myJSFapp
/ant
build.xml
/JavaSource
/WebContent
/WEB-INF
/classes
/lib
jsf-impl.jar
jsf-api.jar
faces-config.xml
web.xml
/pages
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12.6.2 navigation
Navigation is the heart of JavaServer Faces. The navigation rule for this application is described
in the faces-config.xml file. This file already exists in the skeleton directory structure. You just
need to create its contents.
In our application, we just want to go from inputname.jsp to greeting.jsp. As a diagram, it would
look something like this:
This is, of course, a very simple navigation rule. You can easily create more complex ones. To
read more about navigation rules, visit the JSP Navigation Example forum item.
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bean with one attribute and setter/getter methods. The bean simply captures the name entered by
a user after the user clicks the submit button. This way the bean provides a bridge between the
JSP page and the application logic. (Please note that the field name in the JSP file must exactly
match the attribute name in the bean.)
12.6.3.1 PersonBean.java
Put this code in the file:
package myJFSapp;
String personName;
/**
* @return Person Name
*/
public String getPersonName() {
return personName;
}
/**
* @param Person Name
*/
public void setPersonName(String name) {
personName = name;
}
}
Later you will see how to "connect" this bean with the JSP page.
12.6.3.3 faces-config.xml
Your final faces-config.xml file should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE faces-config PUBLIC
"-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD JavaServer Faces Config 1.1//EN"
"http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-facesconfig_1_1.dtd">
<faces-config>
<navigation-rule>
<from-view-id>/pages/inputname.jsp</from-view-id>
<navigation-case>
<from-outcome>greeting</from-outcome>
<to-view-id>/pages/greeting.jsp</to-view-id>
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</navigation-case>
</navigation-rule>
<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>personBean</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>myJFSapp.PersonBean</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean>
</faces-config>
12.6.4.1 messages.properties
Put this text in the properties file:
inputname_header=JSF KickStart
prompt=Tell us your name:
greeting_text=Welcome to JSF
button_text=Say Hello
sign=!
12.6.5.1 inputname.jsp
Put the following coding into this file:
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f" %>
<f:loadBundle basename="myJFSapp.bundle.messages" var="msg"/>
<html>
<head>
<title>enter your name page</title>
</head>
<body>
<f:view>
<h1>
<h:outputText value="#{msg.inputname_header}"/>
</h1>
<h:form id="helloForm">
<h:outputText value="#{msg.prompt}"/>
<h:inputText value="#{personBean.personName}" required=”true”>
<f:validateLength minimum="2" maximum="10"/>
</h:inputText>
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Now, let's explain the important sections in this file after displaying the code for each section
starting from the top.
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f" %>
<f:loadBundle basename="myJFSapp.bundle.messages" var="msg"/>
The first line of these three is a directive that tells us where to find JSF tags that define HTML
elements and the second directive tells us where to find JSF tags that define core JSF elements.
The third line loads our properties file (resource bundle) that holds messages that we want to
display in our JSP page.
<h:inputText value="#{msg.inputname_header}" required=”true”>
This tag simply tells us to look in the resource bundle that we defined at the top of the page. The
required attribute of the h:inputText tag insures that an empty name will not be sent. One can
also add a line like
<f:validateLength minimum="2" maximum="10"/>
Then, look up the value for inputname_header in that file and print it here.
1 <h:form id="helloForm">
2 <h:outputText value="#{msg.prompt}"/>
3 <h:inputText value="#{personBean.personName}" required=”true”>
4 <f:validateLength minimum="2" maximum="10"/>
5 </h:inputText>
6 <h:commandButton action="greeting" value="#{msg.button_text}" />
7 </h:form>
12.6.5.2 greeting.jsp
Put this coding inside the second JSP file:
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f" %>
<f:loadBundle basename="myJFSapp.bundle.messages" var="msg"/>
<html>
<head>
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<title>greeting page</title>
</head>
<body>
<f:view>
<h3>
<h:outputText value="#{msg.greeting_text}" />,
<h:outputText value="#{personBean.personName}" />
<h:outputText value="#{msg.sign}" />
</h3>
</f:view>
</body>
</html>
This page is very simple. The first three lines are identical to our first page. Theses lines import
JSF tag libraries and our properties file (resource bundle) with the messages.
The main code of interest to us is between the <h3>..</h3> tags. The first line will take a
message from the resource bundle and print it on the page. The second line will access a Java
bean, specifically the bean attribute personName, and also print its contents on the page.
Once this page is displayed in a Web browser, you will see something like this:
Welcome to JSF, name!
If you look at the path for the forward, you'll notice the file suffix is .jsf and not .jsp. This is used
here, because in the web.xml file for the application *.jsf is the URL pattern used to signal that
the forwarded page should be handled by the JavaServer Faces servlet within Tomcat.
We are almost done with this example.
12.6.7 Compiling
An Ant build script is provided for you. To build the application run the build.xml script from the
ant folder:
ant build
12.6.8 Deploying
Before you can run this application within the servlet container, we need to deploy it. We will use
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null (link) deployment to deploy the application in-place. To do this we need to register a context
in Tomcat's {TomcatHome}\conf\server.xml file.
To do this, insert this code:
<Context debug="0"
docBase="Path_to_WebContent"
path="/myJFSapp" reloadable="true"/>
near the end of the server.xml file within the Host element just before the closing </Host> tag.
Of course, Path_to_WebContent needs to be replaced with the exact path on your system to the
WebContent folder inside the myJFSapp folder (for example,
C:/examples/myJFSapp/WebContent).
12.6.9 Running
Next, start the Tomcat server (probably using the script startup.bat in Tomcat's bin directory).
When Tomcat is done loading, launch a web browser and enter:
http://localhost:8080/myJFSapp. (Port 8080 is the default port in Tomcat. Your setup, though,
might possibly be different).
12.7.1 Overview
This is a tutorial in which we create a simple JSF application to demonstrate FacesIDE's
functionality. This is a "login" application, which asks an user for an ID and password, verifies the
information, and forwards the user to a success or error page.
The application will use a few JSP pages with JSF elements, and a session-scoped managed
bean to coordinate their interactions. Along the way we'll use the following FacesIDE functionality:
• add JSF support to a project
• use the New JSF/JSP file wizard
• use the JSP Editor (see HTML/JSP/XML Editor)
• use the faces-config.xml Editor (see faces-config.xml Editor)
As a prerequisite for the tutorial, make sure FacesIDE and required plugins have been installed;
see Installing & Uninstalling. We don't assume that a J2EE server-specific plugin, such as the
Sysdeo Tomcat plugin has been installed.
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"functional" pages.
6. Use FacesIDE to add JSF support: we use a FacesIDE wizard to create J2EE-
prescribed folders and files in webroot, and to add JSF libraries to the project.
a. in Package Explorer select the jsf-login project
b. from the menubar select File/New/Other...
c. in the wizard that appears, select Amateras/JSF/Add JSF Support; click Next
d. in the Add JSF Support page, for Web Application Root enter /jsf-
login/webroot; make sure all checkboxes are checked; click Next.
7. From the menubar open Project/Properties
8. Select the Amateras node; note that Root: has automatically been set to /webroot;
make sure HTML validation and DTD/XSD validation are enabled.
9. Create the source folder: select the Java Build Path node; select the Source tab; click
Add Folder...; in the dialog that appears create a folder named src directly under the
project folder (jsf-login); click Yes through messages that appear.
10.Set the output folder: in the Default output folder textbox at the bottom, enter jsf-
login/webroot/WEB-INF/classes; click OK to dismiss the properties dialog.
// LoginManager.java
package login;
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if ( _uid.equalsIgnoreCase("foo") &&
_pwd.equalsIgnoreCase("bar") )
action = "loginPass";
else
action = "loginFail";
return action;
}
}
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<html>
<head>
<title>jsf-login</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Success!</h2>
</body>
</html>
4. Create login.jsp:
a. in Package Explorer select webroot/pages; from its context menu select New/
Other...; the New wizard appears.
b. select Amateras/JSF/Faces JSP File; click Next
c. for File name enter login.jsp; make sure that Container is set to /jsf-
login/webroot/pages, and that Use MyFaces Tomahawk components and
Use MyFaces SandBox components are unchecked, and choose default for
Template; click Finish; the FacesIDE JSP Editor opens, with the following
template code.
We will now edit this page to contain our input widgets, etc.
d. place the cursor between the <title></title> elements; enter jsf-login
e. Open the JSF palette, and dock it along the right. (See Show View Dialog)
f. create a few blank lines between the <h:form> elements; place your cursor in
one of these lines, expand the JSF HTML panel in the palette, and click on the
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icon for <h:inputText>; this inserts the corresponding JSF element at the
cursor location.
Note: the JSP editor is aware of referenced tag libraries, and uses them for code
completion as well. Thus if you were to type <h: and hit CTRL + Spacebar, you
would get a popup window of JSF HTML elements.
g. now we want to add attributes to this element, and the JSP Editor can help with
code- completion. To see this in action, place the cursor inside the <h:inputText>
element, and hit CTRL + Spacebar; a code-completion window pops up, as
shown below.
h. in the code-completion window scroll down to value, and hit Enter; this inserts
value="" at the cursor. We will now bind this to the userID property of
LoginManager; FacesIDE can provide code completion here as well.
i. place the cursor between the quotes in value="", enter #{mgr., and hit CTRL +
Spacebar; a code-completion window pops up, with bean properties available in
mgr. This is shown below:
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Note that the icon has a small triangle overlay--this indicates that something is wrong,
specifically that FacesIDE could not locate a page at path /page1.jsp
4. in the Properties view, change the value of path to /index.jsp. You can also change
it on the diagram directly (select the page and click once more); notice that the warning
triangle disappears.
5. add 3 more pages, and set them to /pages/login.jsp, /pages/success.jsp and /
pages/error.jsp. Arrange them as shown below:
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7. in the Properties view (or direct editing on the diagram), change the value of from-
outcome to loginPass. Recall that this is the success-value returned by
LoginManager's loginAction method. You can also change values by direct-editing
(select once and re-click) in the diagram
8. Similarly add a forward-action from login.jsp to error.jsp, and set its from-
outcome to loginFail
We're done with setting up navigation rules. We'll set some properties in web.xml, and we'll then
be ready to deploy the application.
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The classes and interfaces of the JavaServer Faces API are grouped in several packages,
namely:
• javax.faces
• javax.faces.application
• javax.faces.component
• javax.faces.component.html
• javax.faces.context
• javax.faces.convert
• javax.faces.el
• javax.faces.event
• javax.faces.lifecycle
• javax.faces.model
• javax.faces.render
• javax.faces.validator
• javax.faces.webapp
FactoryFinder implements the standard discovery algorithm for all factory objects specified in the
JavaServer Faces APIs. For a given factory class name, a corresponding implementation class is
searched for based on the following algorithm. Items are listed in order of decreasing search
precedence:
• If the JavaServer Faces configuration file bundled into the WEB-INF directory of the
webapp contains a factory entry of the given factory class name, that factory is used.
• If the JavaServer Faces configuration files named by the javax.faces.CONFIG_FILES
ServletContext init parameter contain any factory entries of the given factory class
name, those factories are used, with the last one taking precedence.
• If there are any JavaServer Faces configuration files bundled into the META-INF directory
of any jars on the ServletContext's resource paths, the factory entries of the given
factory class name in those files are used, with the last one taking precedence.
• If a META-INF/services/{factory-class-name} resource is visible to the web
application class loader for the calling application (typically as a result of being present in
the manifest of a JAR file), its first line is read and assumed to be the name of the factory
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Defines both a set of interfaces and classes. The interfaces defined in this package are:
• ActionSource - an interface that may be implemented by any concrete UIComponent
that wishes to be a source of ActionEvents, including the ability to invoke application
actions via the default ActionListener mechanism.
• ActionSource2 - extends ActionSource and provides a JavaBeans property analogous
to the "action" property on ActionSource. The difference is the type of this property is
a MethodExpression rather than a MethodBinding. This allows the ActionSource
concept to leverage the new Unified EL API.
• ContextCallBack - A simple callback interace that enables taking action on a specific
UIComponent (either facet or child) in the view while preserving any contextual state for
that component instance in the view.
• EditableValueHolder - an extension of ValueHolder that describes additional features
supported by editable components, including ValueChangeEvents and Validators.
• NamingContainer - an interface that must be implemented by any UIComponent that
wants to be a naming container.
• StateHolder - interface implemented by classes that need to save their state between
requests.
• ValueHolder - an interface that may be implemented by any concrete UIComponent that
wishes to support a local value, as well as access data in the model tier via a value
binding expression, and support conversion between String and the model tier data's
native data type.
The classes in this package are all UI related. Here they are:
• UIColumn - a UIComponent that represents a single column of data within a parent
UIData component.
• UICommand - a UIComponent that represents a user interface component which, when
activated by the user, triggers an application specific "command" or "action". Such a
component is typically rendered as a push button, a menu item, or a hyperlink.
• UIComponent - the base class for all user interface components in JavaServer Faces.
The set of UIComponent instances associated with a particular request and response are
organized into a component tree under a UIViewRoot that represents the entire content
of the request or response.
• UIComponentBase - a convenience base class that implements the default concrete
behavior of all methods defined by UIComponent.
• UIData - a UIComponent that supports data binding to a collection of data objects
represented by a DataModel instance, which is the current value of this component itself
(typically established via a ValueBinding). During iterative processing over the rows of
data in the data model, the object for the current row is exposed as a request attribute
under the key specified by the var property.
• UIForm - a UIComponent that represents an input form to be presented to the user, and
whose child components represent (among other things) the input fields to be included
when the form is submitted.
• UIGraphic - a UIComponent that displays a graphical image to the user. The user cannot
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• ExternalContext - allows the Faces API to be unaware of the nature of its containing
application environment. In particular, this class allows JavaServer Faces based
appications to run in either a Servlet or a Portlet environment.
• FacesContext - contains all of the per-request state information related to the processing
of a single JavaServer Faces request, and the rendering of the corresponding response. It
is passed to, and potentially modified by, each phase of the request processing lifecycle.
• FacesContextFactory - a factory object that creates (if needed) and returns new
FacesContext instances, initialized for the processing of the specified request and
response objects.
• ResponseStream - an interface describing an adapter to an underlying output
mechanism for binary output.
• ResponseWriter - an abstract class describing an adapter to an underlying output
mechanism for character-based output.
• ResponseWriterWrapper - provides a simple implementation of ResponseWriter that
can be subclassed by developers wishing to provide specialized behavior to an existing
ResponseWriter instance. The default implementation of all methods is to call through
to the wrapped ResponseWriter.
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• ByteConverter
• CharacterConverter
• DateTimeConverter
• DoubleConverter
• EnumConverter
• FLoatConverter
• IntegerConverter
• LongConverter
• NumberConverter
• ShortConverter
Contains classes and interfaces for evaluating and processing reference expressions.
Classes:
Exceptions:
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Contains interfaces describing events and event listeners, and concrete event implementation
classes.
Interfaces:
Classes:
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Contains the interface DataModelListener and several classes providing standard model data
beans for JavaServer Faces. Classes:
• Renderer - converts the internal representation of UIComponents into the output stream
(or writer) associated with the response we are creating for a particular request. Each
Renderer knows how to render one or more UIComponent types (or classes), and
advertises a set of render-dependent attributes that it recognizes for each supported
UIComponent.
• RenderKit - represents a collection of Renderer instances that, together, know how to
render JavaServer Faces UIComponent instances for a specific client. Typically,
RenderKits are specialized for some combination of client device type, markup
language, and/or user Locale. A RenderKit also acts as a Factory for associated
Renderer instances, which perform the actual rendering process for each component.
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Interface defining the validator model, and concrete validator implementation classes.
A Validator implementation is a class that can perform validation (correctness checks) on a
EditableValueHolder.
Implementation classes:
• DoubleRangeVlidator - a Validator that checks the value of the corresponding
component against specified minimum and maximum values
• LengthValidator - a Validator that checks the number of characters in the String
representation of the value of the associated component.
• LongRangeValidator - a Validator that checks the value of the corresponding
component against specified minimum and maximum values.
The package contains an exception, as well.
A ValidatorException is an exception thrown by the validate() method of a Validator to
indicate that validation failed.
Contains classes required for integration of JavaServer Faces into web applications, including a
standard servlet, base classes for JSP custom component tags, and concrete tag implementations
for core tags.
• AttributeTag - Tag implementation that adds an attribute with a specified name and
String value to the component whose tag it is nested inside, if the component does not
already contain an attribute with the same name.
• ConverterTag - a base class for all JSP custom actions that create and register a
Converter instance on the ValueHolder associated with our most immediate
surrounding instance of a tag whose implementation class is a subclass of
UIComponentTag.
• FacesServlet - a servlet that manages the request processing lifecycle for web
applications that are utilizing JavaServer Faces to construct the user interface.
• FacetTag - the JSP mechanism for denoting a UIComponent is to be added as a facet
to the component associated with its parent.
• UIComponentBodyTag - a base class for all JSP custom actions, related to a
UIComponent, that need to process their tag bodies.
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• UIComponentTag - the base class for all JSP custom actions that correspond to user
interface components in a page that is rendered by JavaServer Faces.
• ValidatorTag - a base class for all JSP custom actions that create and register a
Validator instance on the EditableValueHolder associated with our most
immediate surrounding instance of a tag whose implementation class is a subclass of
UIComponentTag.
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The Java Message Service (JMS) API is a Java Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) API for
sending messages between two or more clients. JMS is a part of the Java Platform, Enterprise
Edition, and is defined by a specification developed under the Java Community Process as JSR
914.
The following are JMS elements:
• JMS provider - An implementation of the JMS interface for a Message Oriented
Middleware (MOM). Providers are implemented as either a Java JMS implementation or
an adapter to a non-Java MOM.
• JMS client - an application or process that produces and/or consumes messages.
• JMS producer - a JMS client that creates and sends messages.
• JMS consumer - a JMS client that receives messages.
• JMS message - an object that contains the data being transferred between JMS clients.
• JMS queue - a staging area that contains messages that have been sent and are waiting
to be read. As the name queue suggests, the messages are delivered in the order sent. A
message is removed from the queue once it has been read.
• JMS topic - a distribution mechanism for publishing messages that are delivered to
multiple subscribers.
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subscription. In that case, messages published while the subscriber is not connected will
be redistributed whenever it reconnects.
Using Java, JMS provides a way of separating the application from the transport layer of
providing data. The same Java classes can be used to communicate with different JMS providers
by using the JNDI information for the desired provider. The classes first use a connection factory
to connect to the queue or topic, and then use populate and send or publish the messages. On the
receiving side, the clients then receive or subscribe to the messages.
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At the beginning of a JMS client program, you usually perform a JNDI lookup of a connection
factory, then cast and assign it to a ConnectionFactory object.
For example, the following code fragment obtains an InitialContext object and uses it to look
up a ConnectionFactory by name. Then it assigns it to a ConnectionFactory object:
Context ctx = new InitialContext();
ConnectionFactory connectionFactory = (ConnectionFactory)
ctx.lookup("jms/ConnectionFactory");
In a J2EE application, JMS administered objects are normally placed in the jms naming
subcontext.
Before an application completes, you must close any connections that you have created. Failure
to close a connection can cause resources not to be released by the JMS provider. Closing a
connection also closes its sessions and their message producers and message consumers.
connection.close();
Before your application can consume messages, you must call the connection's start()
method. If you want to stop message delivery temporarily without closing the connection, you call
the stop method.
The following line of code looks up a queue named jms/MyQueue and casts and assigns it to a
Queue object:
Queue myQueue = (Queue) ctx.lookup("jms/MyQueue");
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After you register the message listener, you call the start() method on the Connection to
begin message delivery. (If you call start() before you register the message listener, you are
likely to miss messages.)
When message delivery begins, the JMS provider automatically calls the message listener's
onMessage() method whenever a message is delivered. The onMessage() method takes one
argument of type Message, which your implementation of the method can cast to any of the other
message types.
A message listener is not specific to a particular destination type. The same listener can obtain
messages from either a queue or a topic, depending on the type of destination for which the
message consumer was created. A message listener does, however, usually expect a specific
message type and format. Moreover, if it needs to reply to messages, a message listener must
either assume a particular destination type or obtain the destination type of the message and
create a producer for that destination type.
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You must first create the messages; if you created an unidentified producer, use an overloaded
send method that specifies the destination as the first parameter. For example:
MessageProducer anon_prod = session.createProducer(null);
anon_prod.send(myQueue, message);
At the consuming end, a message arrives as a generic Message object and must be cast to the
appropriate message type. You can use one or more getter methods to extract the message
contents. The following code fragment uses the getText method:
Message m = consumer.receive();
if (m instanceof TextMessage) {
TextMessage message = (TextMessage) m;
System.out.println("Reading message: " + message.getText());
} else {
// Handle error
}
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using a rollback operation. A session allows users to create message producers to send
messages, and message consumers to receive messages.
Sessions implement the Session interface. After you create a Connection object, you use it to
create a Session:
Session session = connection.createSession(false,
Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
The first argument means that the session is not transacted; the second means that the session
automatically acknowledges messages when they have been received successfully.
To create a transacted session, use the following code:
Session session = connection.createSession(true, 0);
Here, the first argument means that the session is transacted; the second indicates that message
acknowledgment is not specified for transacted sessions.
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14 - ENTERPRISE JAVA BEANS
(Ordinary) Java beans provide a format for general-purpose components, while the EJB
(Enterprise Java Beans) architecture provides a format for highly specialized business logic
components.
What are Enterprise Java Beans? A collection of Java classes together with an xml file,
bundled into a single unit. The Java classes must follow certain rules and must offer certain
callback methods.
The EJBs will run in an EJB container which is part of an application server.
Version 1.1 of EJB specification provides two EJB types:
• session beans - intended to be used by a single client (client extension on the server);
bean's life span can be no longer than client's
• entity beans - object oriented representation of data in a DB; multiple clients can access it
simultaneously while its life-span is the same as the data it represents
The 2.0 EJB specification adds another bean type:
• message-driven beans
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The EJB container provides an execution environment for a component. The component lives
inside a container, container which offers services to the component. On the other side, the
container lives (in general) in an application server, server which provides an execution
environment for containers.
The main reason for using EJBs is to take advantage of the services provided by the container.
The home interface of an ejb is an interface that extends the EJBHome interface. It provides
methods named create() with application specific arguments, returning the remote interface and
throwing CreateException and RemoteException. It uses only argument types allowed by
the RMI standard.
Handle – abstraction for a network reference to an EJB.
The methods specified by the EJBHome interface (not implemented (in general) by the
programmer) are the following:
package myBeans;
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import.javax.ejb.*;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
public interface MyBeanHome extends EJBHome
{
MyBeanObject create() throws CreateException,
RemoteException;
The remote interface of a bean is a standard Java interface that extends EJBObject and
Remote and declares the business logic methods of the bean. The developer does not
implement this interface.
While the Remote interface declares no methods, the EJBObject declares the following ones:
package myBeans;
import.javax.ejb.*;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
public interface MyBeanObject extends EJBObject
{
// assume that we have two business logic methods
void processEntry(String firstName, String lastName, int custId)
throws RemoteException;
void deleteEntry(int custId) throws RemoteException;
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The client is able to create an EJB thru an object implementing an interface called EJBHome.
This object acts like a factory for EJBs, creating them for the client application.
The client gains access to the EJB through a remote interface, implemented by an object built
by the EJB host in the deployment process.
authentication
Client's authentication is done in a way which is server specific. In the case of an web
application, this can be done (for example) thru SSL.
• if the client is another EJB executing in the same container and the bean to be used is
declared as a resource in the deployment descriptor, the InitialContext is already available:
• if the client executes outside the container, getting the InitialContext requires the usage of
some server-side properties. Here is an example:
try
{
Properties prop = new Properties();
prop.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
"org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory";
prop.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL,
"localhost:1099");
Context ctx = new InitialContext(prop);
}
• for a client executing inside the container, the code may look like:
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• if the client executes outside the container, the bean can be associated to any name in the
JNDI name space. It is JNDI's task to identify the resource associated to the name provided:
To make sure that the client works with the underlying communication protocol, the client
should use the narrow() method of javax.rmi.PortableRemoteObject:
MyBeanHome home =
(MyBeanHome)PortableRemoteObject.narrow(homeRef,
MyBeanHome.class);
The instance of the bean is created on the server. The client only has a remote interface to this
instance (i.e. the client has a stub).
Here is the code:
myBeanObject.remove();
An EJB consists of (at least) 3 classes and an xml file. It is bean's programmer task to create
them (at least), as follows:
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1. the bean itself (the class that contains the business logic )
2. the home interface of the bean
3. the remote interface of the bean
4. the deployment descriptor, which is an xml file, called ejb-jar.xml
Since the home interface and the remote interface have been detailed in the previous sections,
we concentrate now on the bean class itself. Besides the implementation of the business methods
(which were declared in the remote interface, as well), the bean class must implement (although
the implementation itself may be empty) a certain set of methods, set which is specific to each
major type of beans (session or entity).
Assuming that our bean (called MyBean) is a session bean, the code implementing this class
may look like this:
package myBeans;
import.javax.ejb.SessionContext;
public class MyBean implements javax.ejb.SessionBean
{
public void processEntry(String firstName, String
lastName, int custId)
{
// method implementation
...
}
public void deleteEntry(int custId)
{
// method implementation
...
}
// mandatory methods for session beans
// method implementations may be empty
public void ejbCreate() {}
public void ejbRemove() {}
public void ejbActivate() {}
public void ejbPassivate() {}
public void setSessionContext(SessionContext ctx) {}
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There are two types of session beans, namely stateful and stateless beans.
A stateful session bean preserves data between client accesses. A stateless bean does not.
When an EJB server needs to conserve its resources, it can evict stateful session beans from
memory. This reduces the number of instances maintained by the server. To passivate the bean
and preserve its conversational state, the bean's state is serialized to a secondary storage. When
a client invokes a method on the EJB object, the object is activated, that is, a new stateful
instance is instantiated and populated from the passivated storage.
There are 5 mandatory callbacks for classes implementing the SessionBean interface.
public void ejbActivate()
public void ejbPassivate()
public void ejbCreate()
public void ejbRemove()
public void setSessionContext(SessionContext ctx)
The first two methods will never be called for stateless session beans, because the container
will never activate a stateless session bean.
Figure 13.1 illustrates the stages that a session bean passes through during its lifetime. The client
initiates the life cycle by invoking the create method. The EJB container instantiates the bean
and then invokes the setSessionContext and ejbCreate methods in the session bean. The
bean is now ready to have its business methods invoked.
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While in the ready stage, the EJB container may decide to deactivate, or passivate, the bean by
moving it from memory to secondary storage. (Typically, the EJB container uses a least-recently-
used algorithm to select a bean for passivation.) The EJB container invokes the bean's
ejbPassivate method immediately before passivating it. If a client invokes a business method
on the bean while it is in the passive stage, the EJB container activates the bean, calls the bean's
ejbActivate method, and then moves it to the ready stage.
At the end of the life cycle, the client invokes the remove method, and the EJB container calls the
bean's ejbRemove method. The bean's instance is ready for garbage collection.
Your code controls the invocation of only two life-cycle methods: the create and remove
methods in the client. All other methods in Figure 13.1 are invoked by the EJB container. The
ejbCreate method, for example, is inside the bean class, allowing you to perform certain
operations right after the bean is instantiated. For example, you might wish to connect to a
database in the ejbCreate method.
Because a stateless session bean is never passivated, its life cycle has only two stages:
nonexistent and ready for the invocation of business methods. Figure 13.2 illustrates the stages of
a stateless session bean.
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Every entity bean has a primary key. This primary key must be represented by a primary key
class. The requirements that must be satisfied by the primary key are different for the two main
types of entity beans.
For BMPs:
• the primary key can be any legal RMI/IIOP type
• it must provide suitable implementations for hashCode(), equals()
• must have a unique value among beans of a particular type
For CMPs:
• the container must be able to create a primary key
• the key class must have a no argument constructor
The fully qualified name of the primary key is always specified in the deployment descriptor
(except when it is not known until deployment)
An example:
<prim-key-class>com.bank11.ccards.CustomerID</prim-key-class>
or
<prim-key-class>java.lang.String</prim-key-class>
In the case of CMP using a simple type as primary key, the field is specified:
<prim-key-field>sportsTeamID</prim-key-field>
Besides the CRUD callbacks which are discusses later in this section, an entity bean must
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implement (although this implementation may be left empty) the following methods:
CRUD translates through Create, Read, Update and Delete. These methods are mandatory for
entity beans.
14.14.1 create
When a client calls a create() method on a session bean's home interface, an instance of
that bean is created. On the other side, when a client calls create() on an entity bean's home
interface, state data is stored into data store (usually, a Database) (we actually insert a record in a
database). This is transactional data that is accessible to multiple clients. We can have more
create() methods, all throwing RemoteException, CreateException.
Each create() method from the Home interface of the bean has 2 correspondent methods in
the bean implementation class, namely ejbCreate() and ejbPostCreate(), methods which
have the same parameters, in the same order, as the parameters in the original create()
method.
• the return type of the ejbCreate() is the same as the primary key, but the developer returns
null for CMP.
• for BMP, ejbCreate() must have insertion SQL code and returns an instance of the primary
key, not null.
14.14.2 read
• ejbLoad(), left empty most of the time in CMP, but needs actual SQL code in BMP
• the bean's persistence implementation may choose to defer loading until it is used
• ejbLoad() may contain processing code
14.14.3 update
• ejbStore() in CMP; the method can be used for preprocessing data to be stored, but in
general, it is empty.
• in BMP, actual SQL update code; the updated data is to be stored immediately
14.14.4 delete
• the corresponding method in the bean implementation class is ejbRemove()
• data is deleted from DB (in the CMP case), for BMPs, the programmer will create actual SQL
code.
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Figure 13.3 shows the stages that an entity bean passes through during its lifetime. After the EJB
container creates the instance, it calls the setEntityContext method of the entity bean class.
The setEntityContext method passes the entity context to the bean.
After instantiation, the entity bean moves to a pool of available instances. While in the pooled
stage, the instance is not associated with any particular EJB object identity. All instances in the
pool are identical. The EJB container assigns an identity to an instance when moving it to the
ready stage.
There are two paths from the pooled stage to the ready stage. On the first path, the client invokes
the create method, causing the EJB container to call the ejbCreate and ejbPostCreate
methods. On the second path, the EJB container invokes the ejbActivate method. While an
entity bean is in the ready stage, it's business methods can be invoked.
There are also two paths from the ready stage to the pooled stage. First, a client can invoke the
remove method, which causes the EJB container to call the ejbRemove method. Second, the
EJB container can invoke the ejbPassivate method.
At the end of the life cycle, the EJB container removes the instance from the pool and invokes the
unsetEntityContext method.
In the pooled state, an instance is not associated with any particular EJB object identity. With
bean-managed persistence, when the EJB container moves an instance from the pooled state to
the ready state, it does not automatically set the primary key. Therefore, the ejbCreate and
ejbActivate methods must assign a value to the primary key. If the primary key is incorrect,
the ejbLoad and ejbStore methods cannot synchronize the instance variables with the
database. The ejbActivate method sets the primary key (id) as follows:
id = (String)context.getPrimaryKey();
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In the pooled state, the values of the instance variables are not needed. You can make these
instance variables eligible for garbage collection by setting them to null in the ejbPassivate
method.
A message-driven bean is an enterprise bean that allows J2EE applications to process messages
asynchronously. It acts as a JMS message listener, which is similar to an event listener except
that it receives messages instead of events. The messages may be sent by any J2EE component
- an application client, another enterprise bean, or a Web component - or by a JMS application or
system that does not use J2EE technology.
Message-driven beans currently process only JMS messages, but in the future they may be used
to process other kinds of messages.
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Figure 13.4 illustrates the stages in the life cycle of a message-driven bean.
The EJB container usually creates a pool of message-driven bean instances. For each instance,
the EJB container instantiates the bean and performs these tasks:
1. It calls the setMessageDrivenContext method to pass the context object to the
instance.
2. It calls the instance's ejbCreate method.
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Like a stateless session bean, a message-driven bean is never passivated, and it has only two
states: nonexistent and ready to receive messages.
At the end of the life cycle, the container calls the ejbRemove method. The bean's instance is
then ready for garbage collection.
The deployment descriptor of an EJB contains information about the bean in relation to the
application it belongs to.
This information can be divided into two main categories:
• structural information related to a particular EJB.
• application assembly information
Although not an exhaustive one, here is a typical list of entries (elements) in a deployment
descriptor:
1. access control entries - security issues; which users can access a bean or a particular
method of a bean
2. bean home name - name under which the bean is registered under JNDI
3. control descriptors - specifies control attributes for transactions
4. EJB class name
5. environment properties
6. the home interface name
7. the remote interface name
8. session specific elements
9. entity specific elements
10. attributes - like transaction, isolation level, security
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Keeping in mind that the application assembler is to follow, here is how the deployment
descriptor may look like:
<?xnm version="1.1"?>
<ejb-jar>
<entrprise-beans>
<session>
<ejb-name>CCEnroll</ejb-name>
<home>com.bank11.ccards.ejb.CCEnrollHome</home>
<remote>com.bank11.ccards.CCEnrollObject</remote>
<ejb-class>com.bank11.ccards.CCEnroll</ejb-class>
<session-type>Stateless</session-type>
<transaction-type>Container<transaction-type>
<ejb-ref>
<ejb-ref-name>ejb/CCAccount</ejb-ref-name>
<ejb-ref-type>Entity</ejb-ref-type>
<home>com.bank11.ccards.ejb.AccountHome</home>
<remote>com.bank11.ccards.ejb.AccountObj</remote>
</ejb-ref>
<security-role-ref>
<description>
This role relates to cash advances from ATMs
</description>
<role-name>CashAdvATM</role-name>
<security-role-ref>
</session>
<entity>
<ejb-name>Account</ejb-name>
<home>com.bank11.ccards.ejb.AccountHome</home>
<remote>com.bank11.ccards.Accountbject</remote>
<ejb-class>com.bank11.ccards.Account</ejb-class>
<persistence-type>Container</persistence-type>
<prim-key-class>java.lang.Integer</prim-key-class>
<reentrant>False</reentrant>
<cmp-field>
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<field-name>accountNumber</field-name>
</cmp-field>
<cmp-field>
<field-name>userName</field-name>
</cmp-field>
<cmp-field>
<field-name>customerID</field-name>
</cmp-field>
<cmp-field>
<prim-key-field>accountNumber</prim-key-field>
</cmp-field>
<env-entry>
<env-entry-name>env/minPaymentPerc</env-entry-name>
<env-entry-type>java.lang.Float</env-entry-type>
<env-entry-value>2.5</env-entry-value>
</env-entry>
</entity>
</enterprise-beans>
</ejb-jar>
The assembly descriptor combines EJBs into a deployable application. Here is a very lean one:
</ejb-jar>
<enterprise-beans>
...
</enterprise-beans>
<assembly-descriptor>
<container-transaction>
<method>
<ejb-name>CCEnroll</ejb-name>
<method-name>*</method-name>
</method>
<trans-attribute>Required</trans-attribute>
</container-transaction>
</assembly-descriptor>
</ejb-jar>
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