The Example JSP Pages
This chapter illustrates JSTL using excerpts from the JSP version of the Duke's Bookstore application discussed in Chapter 4. Here, they are rewritten to replace the JavaBeans component database access object with direct calls to the database via the JSTL SQL tags. For most applications, it is better to encapsulate calls to a database in a bean. JSTL includes SQL tags for situations where a new application is being prototyped and the overhead of creating a bean may not be warranted.
The source for the Duke's Bookstore application is located in the
<
INSTALL
>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/
directory created when you unzip the tutorial bundle (see About the Examples).To deploy and run the application using NetBeans 5.5, follow these steps:
- Perform all the operations described in Accessing Databases from Web Applications.
- In NetBeans 5.5, select File
Open Project.
- In the Open Project dialog, navigate to:
<INSTALL>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/
- Select the
bookstore4
folder.- Select the Open as Main Project checkbox and the Open Required Projects checkbox.
- Click Open Project Folder.
- In the Projects tab, right-click the
bookstore4
project, and select Deploy Project.- To run the application, open the bookstore URL
http://localhost:8080/bookstore4/books/bookstore
.To deploy and run the application using Ant, follow these steps:
- In a terminal window, go to
<
INSTALL
>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/
.- Run
ant
. This target will spawn any necessary compilations, copy files to the<
INSTALL
>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/build/
directory, and create a WAR file and copy it to the<
INSTALL
>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/dist/
directory.- Start the Application Server.
- Perform all the operations described in Creating a Data Source in the Application Server.
- To deploy the example, run
ant deploy
. The deploy target outputs a URL for running the application. Ignore this URL, and instead use the one shown in the next step.- To run the application, open the bookstore URL
http://localhost:8080/bookstore4/books/bookstore
.To learn how to configure the example, refer to the
web.xml
file, which includes the following configurations:
- A
display-name
element that specifies the name that tools use to identify the application.- A
context-param
element that specifies the JSTL resource bundle base name.- A set of
servlet
elements that identify the application's JSP files.- A set of
servlet-mapping
elements that define the aliases to the JSP files.- Nested inside a
jsp-config
element are twojsp-property-group
elements, which define the preludes and coda to be included in each page. See Setting JavaBeans Component Properties for more information.See Troubleshooting for help with diagnosing common problems.