Beginning JavaServer Pages

1297 Pages·2005·21.964 MB·English

by  Vivek Chopra, Jon Eaves, Rupert Jones, Sing Li, John T. Bell

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Beginning JavaServer Pages
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Beginning JavaServer Pages
Vivek Chopra
Sing Li
Rupert Jones
Jon Eaves
John T. Bell
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Beginning JavaServer Pages™
Published by
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Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 0-7645-7485-X
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beginning JavaServer pages / Vivek Chopra ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7645-7485-X (paper/website)
1. JavaServer pages. 2. Web sites--Design. 3. Web site development. I. Chopra, Vivek.
TK5105.8885.J38B45 2005
006.7 6--dc22
2004024591
Trademarks:Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, Wrox, the Wrox logo, Programmer to Programmer, and related trade
dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States
and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. JavaServer Pages is a trademark of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not
associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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About the Authors
Vivek Choprahas over ten years of experience as a software developer, architect, and team lead, with
extensive experience with Web services, J2EE, and middleware technologies. He has worked and con-
sulted at a number of Silicon Valley companies and startups and has (pending) patents on Web services.
Vivek actively writes about technology and has coauthored half a dozen books on topics such as open-
source software, Java, XML, and Web services. He contributes to open source, too, and has developed
parts of the uddi4j library, an open-source Java API for UDDI.
Sing Li, first bit by the microcomputer bug in 1978, has grown up with the microprocessor age. His first
personal computer was a do-it-yourself Netronics COSMIC ELF computer with 256 bytes of memory,
mail-ordered from the back pages of Popular Electronicsmagazine. Currently, Sing is a consultant, system
designer, open-source software contributor, and freelance writer. He writes for several popular technical
journals and e-zines and is the creator of the Internet Global Phone,one of the very first Internet phones
available. He has authored and coauthored numerous books across diverse technical topics, including
JSP, Tomcat, servlets, XML, Jini, and JXTA.
Rupert Jonesis a Technical Lead for J2EE projects at Internet Business Systems. Over the past six years,
Rupert has provided software development and consulting services for blue-chip companies, both in
Australia and internationally. He lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. Rupert can be contacted at
[email protected].
Jon Eaveshas been developing software in a variety of languages and domains for over 15 years. He is
currently employed by ThoughtWorks, developing large-scale enterprise systems using J2EE. When he
can find spare time, he develops J2ME/MIDPapplications and works on the BouncyCastle Crypto APIs
(www.bouncycastle.org). Jon can be reached at [email protected].
John T. Bellhas more than 20 years of software development experience and currently serves as the lead
software architect for the Web site of a major hospitality company based in Bethesda, Maryland. He is
also an adjunct professor, teaching server-side Java technologies for the Center for Applied Information
Technology at Towson State University. He has a master’s degree in Computer Systems Management
and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Maryland. This is Mr.
Bell’s third contribution to a Wrox title. He is also the author of The J2EE Open Source Toolkit.
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Credits
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Acknowledgments
Vivek Chopra
I’d like to thank my coauthors and all the folks at Wrox for the effort and the long hours—thank you,
Rupert, Sing, Jon, John, Sydney, James, and Bob! I’d especially like to thank my wife, Rebecca, for her
patience and support, especially since I spent most weekends working on this book.
Sing Li
Thanks to the virtual Beginning JavaServer Pagesteam, top professionals from all corners of the globe.
Itwas wonderful working with you throughout 2003 and 2004.
To my wife, Kim—your inspiration and support are the high-octane fuel that keeps me running, looking
joyfully forward to each brave new day.
Rupert Jones
First of all, I’d like to thank my coauthors for their dedication to this book. It’s not easy holding down a
full-time job in this industry and fitting in time for such a venture. I am constantly amazed we all still
have friends and family who will talk to us, let alone recognize us. It’s been a pleasure undertaking this
task with a group of such consummate professionals.
To the Wrox crew—in particular, Sydney Jones, our developmental editor, and our tech reviewers at
DreamTech—thanks for all your hard work in getting us across the line. I know its difficult working
with technical people at the best of times, especially when they are geographically remote.
Thanks also to my colleagues at Internet Business Systems: Steve Hayes, Rob Mitchell, and Shane
Clauson. These guys provided me with much-needed help, advice, and encouragement, even in my
grumpier moments. It really is a pleasure to work with each of you.
And last but certainly not least, thanks to my loving family: Julia, Michael, Nick, and Caroline.
Jon Eaves
I’d like to thank my coauthors and the team at Wrox for the hard work they put in while creating this
book. Closer to home, I’d like to thank my family for their encouragement, patience, and support. Mum
and Dad, everything I can do is because of your love. My wonderful wife, Sue, you rock my world more
and more every day. Boo and Maddy, your purring late at night kept me going when the words
wouldn’t come. Thank you, all.
John T.Bell
To Tammy, my loving and patient wife, maybe someday I will write a book that you can read, and to my
grandmother, Valmai Locklair, who slipped away from us as I was writing my chapters.
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Contents
About the Authors v
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction xxv
The Right Way to Do Web Development xxv
Approach xxvi
How This Book Is Structured xxvi
Conventions xxix
Source Code xxx
Errata xxx
p2p.wrox.com xxx
Part I: JSP Fundamentals 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with JavaServer Pages 3
Creating Applications for the Internet 4
Limitations of the basic Web server model 5
Dynamic HTML generation via CGI 5
Shortcomings of CGI 7
Improving Java-based CGI: servlets 7
Summary 28
Exercises 29
Chapter 2: JSP Basics 1: Dynamic Page Creation for Data Presentation 31
The Anatomy of a JSP Page 31
Directives 32
XML-compatible syntax 33
Template data 33
Action 34
Scripting elements 35
Handling HTML form submission with JSP 36
Web site personalization 60
Summary 70
Exercises 71
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