Web Technology A computer Science perspective

Pradeep Pocha
11th Feb 2012

What is a protocol?
Protocol An agreement about how to do something
This enables computers and software built by different people to be able to communicate in the same language

Examples that we have seen:

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Web Browser File Transfer Protocol (FTP) File transfer Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Email Internet Protocol (IP) Packets across the Internet

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Human Protocols
Sending a letter via the postal service
Shayne Evans 5501 Sennott Sq. Pittsburgh, PA. 15260 Kim Morrison Contents! St. 123 Somewhere Someplace, PA. 15555

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Computer Protocols
Sending a packet via the network
To: From: 192.168.1.1 on port 23 192.168.1.110 on port 6710

Payload: The contents of the message belong here.

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Visual Comparison
To: 192.168.1.1 on port 23 From: 192.168.1.110 on port 6710

Payload: The contents of the message belong here.

Contents!!! Shayne Evans 5501 Sennott Sq. Pittsburgh, PA. 15260 Contents! Kim Morrison

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123 Somewhere St. Someplace, PA. 15555

Textual Comparison
The address of the letter is the destination of the packet The return address of the letter is the source of the packet The content of the envelope is the payload of the packet In both protocols, if you disobey the rules your message will not be received
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Protocol Layers
Protocols can be layered on top of other protocols to enable new ways of communicating

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Example: Writing a letter

A common protocol that is followed when writing a letter is:
[Date]

Dear [Recipient],
[Body of message goes here] [Closing] [Sender signature] [Sender name]

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Example: Writing a letter

A common protocol that is followed when writing a letter is:
04/01/2008

Dear Kim,
Hey there! Whats up? Im good. Thanks. Sincerely,

Shayne Evans
Shayne Evans #1

Example: Writing a Letter

After following the protocol for writing a letter, I can use the protocol for sending a letter via the postal service:
Shayne Evans 5501 Sennott Sq. Dear Kim, Pittsburgh, PA. 15260 04/01/2008

Hey there! Whats up? Im good. Thanks. Kim Morrison 123 Somewhere St. Sincerely,Someplace, PA. 15555

Shayne Evans
Shayne Evans

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Example: Writing a letter

Thus, I have layered two protocols on top of each other.
Letter Writing Protocol

Sending a Letter via USPS Protocol

The lower protocol provides a service used by the higher protocols.

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Protocol Layering: The Internet is build this way

Internet Protocol (IP) provides a way to deliver packets to a destination

SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMTP

DNS, VoIP

TCP

UDP

Internet Protocol #1

Protocol Layering: The Internet is build this way

TCP uses packets to maintain connections across a network, and thus is layered above IP

SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMTP

DNS, VoIP

TCP

UDP

Internet Protocol #1

Protocol Layering: The Internet is build this way

UDP just sends or receives raw packets with a best-effort approach, also layered above IP

SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMTP

DNS, VoIP

TCP

UDP

Internet Protocol #1

Protocol Layering: The Internet is build this way

SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMTP and many more applications use TCP connections to communicate data back and forth
SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMTP DNS, VoIP

TCP

UDP

Internet Protocol #1

Protocol Layering: The Internet is build this way

DNS, VoIP, and many more applications use UDP packets to communicate data

SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMTP

DNS, VoIP

TCP

UDP

Internet Protocol #1

HTTP Request Messages

GET retrieve document specified by URL PUT store specified document under given URL HEAD retrieve info. about document specified by URL OPTIONS retrieve information about available options POST give information (eg. annotation) to the server DELETE remove document specified by URL TRACE loopback request message CONNECT for use by caches
CS 640 17

HTTP Response Codes

1xx Informational request received, processing 2xx Success action received, understood, accepted 3xx Redirection further action necessary 4xx Client Error bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled 5xx Server Error server failed

CS 640

18

URI,URN,URL
Uniform Resource Identifier
Information about a resource

Uniform Resource Name

The name of the resource with in a namespace

Uniform Resource Locator

How to find the resource, a URI that says how to find the resource

Using HTML/XHTML
XHTML is relatively simple. You do most of your work with about twenty tags. XHTML is orderly and structured Good references and tutorial sites are available Follow the standards and your work will be much simpler, more consistent, and your results more reliable
Plus your co-workers will like you more

Device Independence

Your audience may view your site with many different devices and browser types.

The Browser

The browser is not print!

The Browser Is Not Print

No fixed page size No fixed page length User can change the font size User can link to her/his own local style sheet Screen size can be tiny or huge

The Adjustable Document

The Birth of HTML

Created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN Open standard developed under supervision of the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org)
Works to ensure the full potential of the Web for shared, integrated functionality is realized

The History of HTML/XHTML

1992 HTML first defined 1994 HTML 2.0 1995 Netscape specific non-standard HTML 1996 HTML 3.2, compromise version 1997 HTML 4.0, separates content from presentation 1998 XML standard for writing Web languages 2000 XHTML 1.0, XML compliant HTML 2002 XHTML 2.0

Problems With HTML

Competing versions of browsers introduced features beyond the standards Inconsistent implementations of display engines and scripting Content and presentation mixed together
Layout often done with tables Each element had many presentation attributes, resulting in laborious maintenance

The Slop Code Era

XHTML
XHTML is a version of HTML modified to conform to the XML standard Designed to separate content from presentation
Content in XHTML Presentation controlled by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Extensible Additional elements can be defined XML Compatible Other XML based languages can be embedded in XHTML documents Like a programming language
Specific syntax to use Validators help you get it right

XHTML Differences
Case is significant All elements must have begin tags and end tags <p>Hello</p> Empty elements contain their own end tag <br /> Attribute values must be enclosed in quotation marks More specfics available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#diffs

A Simple XHTML File

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html> <head> <title> My Home Page </title> </head> <body> <h1>My Home Page </h1> <p> Welcome to my home page </p> </body> </html>

Hierarchical Structure

Well formed xhtml forms a hierarchy

Content Types

Documents are made up of logical types of content.

Semantic Structure

Content of the same type usually is formatted to look the same.

Semantic Markup

HTML markup is based on logical content types

Hierarchy

The resulting hierarchy

The DOCTYPE Statement

Declares the specific version of HTML or XHTML being used on the page Used by the browser to decide how to process the page Three types
Transitional - Forgiving Strict Requires adherence to standards Frameset Use if page has frames

Always first in file

Strict DOCTYPE
Enter exactly as below
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Using Strict encourages standards based coding
Validators will flag logical errors in your methods Your CSS will work better and more predictably

Elements
Consist of three parts
Begin tag, which can contain attributes Contents End tag

Example: <p id=intro>Welcome</p> W3schools specifications for <p> http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_p.asp

Attributes
Always only used in the element begin tag Three types
Optional attributes: Varies with element type Standard attributes: id, class, title, style, dir, lang, xml:lang Event attributes: onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup
Used in scripting

Empty Elements
Some elements have no content and therefore also have no end tag
<img src=photo.jpg /> <br /> <hr /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=main.css" />

In XHTML, which requires end tags on all elements, a single tag represents both the begin and end tag

<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.

Headings on the page Represent the main topic, subtopics, subsubtopics, etc. of the page Important to use they in a logical manner, which greatly helps assistive technology like voice browsers present the page content intelligibly

<p>
Paragraph Important for presentation control to put text in an element. When in doubt, put text in a paragraph Blockquotes (<blockquote>) except they have wider left and right margins

Lists
Unordered lists (bulleted lists) <ul> <li>One</li> <li>Two</li> </ul> Ordered lists (numbered lists) <ol> <li>One</li> <li>Two</li> </ol>

Text Markup
Bolding
<b>text</b> <strong>text</strong>

Italics
<i>text</i> <em>text</em>

Other
_text subscript ^text superscript <del>text</del> deleted text

Tables
<table border cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10"> <caption>People on the team</caption> <tr> <th>Name</th> <th>Position</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Mary</td> <td>Analyst</td> </tr> <tr> <td>John</td> <td>Technician</td> </tr> </table>

Graphics
Graphics are placed by using an img element The alt attribute provides alternative text describing the graphic in case the graphic itself cannot be shown or the user cannot see the graphic <img src="picture.gif" alt="Suzzallo">

Anchors
Anchors can link your page to any file on the Web

<a href="http://www.washington.edu/"> University of Washington </a>

Divs
Divs enclose a set of elements
<div style=text-align: center;> <h2> News</h2> <p><a href=budget.html>Budget</a></p> <p><a href=invest.html>Investment</a></p> </div>

Spans
Spans enclose objects (text, graphics) within an element
<p>Call me Ishmael. Some years ago <span style=font-style: italic;>never mind how long precisely</span> having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore,

Cascading Style Sheets

Are used to control how elements are presented in the Web page Use a different syntax that HTML/XHTML Work with the common visual browsers (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera) Used properly, can great simplify visual design, site management and content maintenance

A Style
Selector Property Value p { font-family: times; } Note the punctuation: The property is followed by a colon (:) and the value is followed by a semicolon(;)

Using CSS

Styles can be set in a stylesheet, in a style element in the head or in a style attribute

Selectors
Simple selectors p { color: blue } h1, h2, h3, h4 { font-style: italic; } Contextual selectors ul li { font-weight: bold; } #main img { border: solid black 5px; } p.intro { font-family: verdana, sans-serif;}

The Box Model

Each element has padding, border, and margin

Vertical Margins

The larger of the two vertical margins will determine the distance between elements

Visual Formatting Model

Pages are built as a series of blocks stacked from the top down

Controlling Layout
Styles can control size and placement of elements Example: #nav { width: 12em; float: left; } #news { width: 12em; float: right; } #main { margin: 1em 13em 1em 13em;

Nav Div Float Left

Nav Div Float Right

Nav Across Top

Items in the Nav bar are anchors within a div

HTML-Kit

HTML-Kit (Windows) is free editor that makes it easy to make standards compliant XHTML

HTML-Kit Has Tidy

Press F9 and your XHTML is validated and tidied for easy reading

Resources
HTML-Kit editor http://chami.com/ Amaya editor http://www.w3c.org/Amaya W3schools XHTML and CSS tutorials http://www.w3schools.com/ Web Head Start tutorials http://www.webheadstart.org/ Tidy Web Interface - http://www.washington.edu/webinfo/tidy.cgi CSS Validator - http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ Dave Raggett XHTML and CSS tutorials http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Overview.html Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM) - http://www.webaim.org/ Color contrast analyzer http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=628 Stylin With CSS, A Designers Guide, Second Edition by Charles Wyke-Smith

Web Application

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Model 1 Architecture
Model 1 Architecture

Model 2 Architecture
Model 2 Architecture

Model-View-Controller

Servlet
A servlet is a JavaTM technology-based Web component, managed by a container, that generates dynamic content. --- Servlet API Specification, Version 2.4 The servlet container is a part of a Web server or application server that provides the network services over which requests and responses are sent, decodes MIME-based requests, and formats MIME-based responses. A servlet container also contains and manages servlets through their lifecycle

Web App Processing with Servlet

URL
Request

Client

Web Server App (e.g. Apache)

Web Container App (e.g. Tomcat)

Web Server Machine Servlet

Web App Processing with Servlet

Apache forwards HTTP request to Tomcat Using AJP protocol URL
Request

Client

Web Server App (e.g. Apache)

Web Container App (e.g. Tomcat)

Web Server Machine Servlet

Web App Processing with Servlet

Tomcat uses the mapping info in a configuration file called web.xml of the web application to find the right servlet

Request

Client

Web Server App (e.g. Apache)

Web Container App (e.g. Tomcat)

Web Server Machine Servlet

Web App Processing with Servlet

Tomcat uses the mapping info in a configuration file called web.xml of the web application to find the right servlet

Client

Web Server App (e.g. Apache)

Web Container App (e.g. Tomcat)

Web Server Machine Servlet

Response

Web App Processing with Servlet

Client

Web Server App (e.g. Apache)

Response

Web Container App (e.g. Tomcat)

Web Server Machine Servlet

Web App Processing with Servlet

Client
Response

Web Server App (e.g. Apache)

Web Container App (e.g. Tomcat)

Web Server Machine Servlet

What Container Provides?

Communication Support (to web server; no socket code) Lifecycle Management of Servlet (loading; instantiating; initializing; invoking; garbage collection; fault tolerance) Multithread Support (create threat for each servlet request) Declarative Security (use XML deployment descriptor to configure/modify security without having to hard-code it into servlet code) JSP Support (translating that JSP code into real java)

What a Simple Servlet looks Like?

import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; import java.io.*; public class SimpleServlet extends HttpServlet { public void doGet (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException { PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); java.util.Date today = new java.util.Date(); out.println("<html><body><h1>This is a simple web page generated by SimpleServlet with date info.</h1><br>Today is "+today+"</body></html>"); } }

What a Servlet Code looks Like?

package com.example.web; import com.example.model.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; import java.io.*; import java.util.*; public class BeerSelect extends HttpServlet { public void doPost (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException { String c = request.getParameter("color"); BeerExpert be = new BeerExpert(); List result = be.getBrands(c); request.setAttribute("styles", result); RequestDispatcher view = request.getRequestDispatcher("result.jsp"); view.forward(request, response); } }

How Does Container Find Right Servlet?

Using the Deployment Descriptor web.xml <web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd" version="2.4"> <servlet> <servlet-name> CS301 Simple Servlet</servlet-name> <servlet-class> SimpleServlet</servlet-class> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name> CS301 Simple Servlet</servlet-name> <url-pattern> /s1</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping> </web-app> This mapping improves flexibility and security. How?

A Simple Web Application Following ModelView-Controller Design Pattern

Servlet

Controller e.g. BeerSelect.java

<% JSP Class Beer{ //Business //Logic }

%>

View e.g. result.jsp

Model e.g., BeerExpert.java

File Structure in A Java Web Development Environment

beerV1

etc

lib

src

classes

web

<webapp> Web.xml </webapp>

com

example

<% result.jsp %>

model

web

BeerExpert.java

BeerSelect.java

File Structure in a Java Web Deployment Environment

<webapp> Web.xml </webapp>

tomcatChow

webapps

Beer-v1

WEB-INF

classes com example

lib

<% result.jsp %>

Form.html

model

web

BeerExpert.java

BeerSelect.java

Servlet with JDBC demo

import java.sql.*; import javax.sql.*; public class InventoryDBServlet extends HttpServlet { Driver D; Connection con; Statement stmt; PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); try { Class.forName("org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver").newInstance(); } catch(java.lang.ClassNotFoundException e) { System.err.print("ClassNotFoundException: +e.getMessage()); } String url="jdbc:mysql://blanca.uccs.edu:3306/"+database+"?user="+user+"&password="+passwd; con = DriverManager.getConnection(url); stmt = con.createStatement(); String sqlcmd = "select * from inventory"; ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sqlcmd); while (rs.next()) { StringBuffer itemName = new StringBuffer(rs.getString(1)); StringBuffer amount = new StringBuffer(rs.getString(2)); out.println("<tr bgcolor=\"#FFBBDD\"><td align=center>"+itemName+"</td><td align=right> "+amount+"</tr>"); } }

JSP with JSTL SQL Tag Demo

<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %> <%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix="sql" %> <sql:query var="rs" dataSource="jdbc/InventoryDB"> select price.item, price.unitPrice, inventory.amount from price, inventory where price.item = inventory.item </sql:query> <html> <head> <title>DBcatalog</title> </head> <body> <h2>DB Catalog Retrieval Results</h2> <table border=1> <tr bgcolor="#EEDDCC"> <th>item</th><th>unitPrice</th><th>amount</th></tr> <c:set var="counter" value="1" /> <c:forEach var="row" items="${rs.rows}"> <c:choose> <c:when test="${counter mod 2 == 0}"> <tr bgcolor="#99EEFF"> </c:when> <c:otherwise> <tr bgcolor="#99FFAA"> </c:otherwise> </c:choose> <td align=center>${row.item}</td> <td align=right>${row.unitPrice}</td> <td align=right>${row.amount}</td> </tr> <c:set var="counter" value="${counter+1}" /> </c:forEach> </table> </body> </html>

JSP with SQL:UPDATE Parameter Access

Demo http://windom.uccs.edu:9888/sql/passwd.jsp Source <%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %> <%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix="sql" %> <!-- c:set tag need to terminate with /> --> <c:set var="login" value="${param.login}" /> <c:set var="password" value="${param.password}" /> <c:if test="${!empty login and !empty password}"> <sql:update var="result" dataSource="jdbc/InventoryDB" sql="insert into password values (?, ?)" > <sql:param value="${login}" /> <sql:param value="${password}" /> </sql:update> </c:if> Note that we really do not need to set login/password variable. Just use directly in <sql:param value="${param.login}" /> and in <c:if>

JDBC
Load the driver class Get a connection Create a statement Execute the query, returns ResultSet Iterate through ResultSet

JDBC Example
// Load the Oracle JDBC driver Class.forName ("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver"); //Connect to DB server as authorized user Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection ("jdbc:oracle:thin:@orion.towson.edu:1521:cosc", account, password); // Create a JDBC Statement to hold SQL query Statement stmt = conn.createStatement (); ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select ticker from stocks"); // Iterate through the result and print the employee names while (rset.next ()) { out.println (rset.getString (1)); }

Storing and Sharing Data

Persistent Database, Flat files Temporary Class level variable, Session, Application context Session cookie

Server side

Client side

Persistent cookie

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HTTP State and Session

What is a session?
A serial of consecutive and related requests from and responses to a single client, in a certain duration and scope

What is state?
State is the information to describe or identify a session at a certain point of time Stateful: each request/response can maintain its state at different points of times
Phone calls are stateful

Stateless: each request/response cannot maintain its state at different points of times
HTTP protocol is stateless, i.e., HTTP itself does not provide mechanisms to maintain state information for each request/response. In other words, HTTP does not remember.
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Applications
Where is session/state needed?
User sign-in status A transaction involving multiple steps (requests/responses), such as
shopping (cart) multi-page survey or multi-page test auto insurance quote

User preferences, personalization, customization

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Making HTTP Stateful

HTTP itself is not stateful. Application level statement management is needed. How to manage state (with Java platform)?
Cookie (persistent cookie and session cookie) Java session API URL rewriting Using form hidden variables

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Cookies
Cookie is a small piece of textual information stored on the client computer which web servers can interact with
Cookie facts
Cookie is pure text information Cookie is sent with HTTP headers Cookie has restrictions (number, size, domain, path)

For more cookie informaiton

http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2109/rfc2109.txt http://kristol.org/cookie/
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Cookie Life Cycle

Server side
Response to set cookies

Client Computer
Persistent Cookie

Servlets or JSPs

Response to set cookies

Session Cookie

Subsequent requests: Cookie is sent with HTTP header

Cookie expires at certain duration

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Java Cookie API

javax.servlet.http.Cookie
Creating a cookie
Cookie cookie=new Cookie(cookieName, cookieValue); cookie.setMaxAge(int seconds); //only for persistent cookie response.addCookie(cookie); //sending cookie to client

Reading a cookie
Cookie cookies[]=request.getCookies() getName() and getValue()
93 and Listing 8.2 See example cookieset.jsp, cookieread.jsp

Session Cookie
Session cookie is not saved to the disk; it only exist in the memory for the duration of the browser
Session cookie expires when the browser window is closed

Dont set maxAge when creating a session cookie Note: a session cookie JSESSIONID is automatically set by the server
94 See example cookieset.jsp and cookieread.jsp

Cookie Practices
Cookies only handle simple data
Numbers, characters, strings

Persistent cookies save data on client computers for a certain period of time
A unique feature that can be utilized Often used to save user preferences or convenience information
See example cookieset.jsp and cookieread.jsp

Client computers might block cookies

See IE privacy settings How to detect that? See section 8.3
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Web Application Server Session

State information can also be saved on the server side (in server memory)
How to relate each visit/client with a specific session (server memory storage)?
Each visit/session is identified by a unique ID (session id), which is passed with every request What are the ways to pass this ID to server?

Session duration
On the server side, session duration is set by the server. Session expires when there is no activity for a certain amount of time.
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Session Life Cycle

Server side
Session Created Server Memory

Client Browser
1st request
First response: session id is set

Session Cookie

Put data into memory

Servlets or JSPs Subsequent requests: session id is sent to server

Read data from memory

Session ends after a certain idle period

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Session ends after browser is closed*

Servlet Session API

Session class
javax.servlet.http.HttpSession object represents a session

To get a session object

Servlet
Session session=request.getSession();

JSP: session is given as an implicit object

Properties
Session ID: session.getId() Creation time Is it a new session?
98 See example sessioninfo1.jsp and sessioninfo2.jsp; or Listing 9.1

Using Session API

Web server settings
Session is automatically created by web server Session ID is automatically generated by web server Session ID is sent to client (either as session cookie or URL parameter) automatically

Store data in session

session.setAttribute()

Read data from session

session.getAttribute()
needs type casting if an object is stored in the session
99 See example sessioninfo1.jsp and sessioninfo2.jsp; or Listing 9.1

Session Practice
What data to put in session?
Information that should be shared during a users visit of multiple requests
User preferences, choices User status, e.g. login information Shopping cart information Temporary data between page transition

How much data to put in session?

Use session only for necessary and frequently accessed data
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Servlet Class Variables

Class level variable is accessed and shared by all requests to the same servlet (JSP page)
For JSP page, it is the variable defined in the declaration element

The value of the variable remains in the memory until the servlet is reloaded

Example
Counter of the servlet/JSP page How to prevent count cheating?
See example classvariable.jsp
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Application Context API

To share the data application wide (across all sessions), use the ServletContext class
javax.servlet.ServletContext class

To get the application context object

Servlet
ServletContext application=this.getServletContext();

JSP: application is given as an implicit object

Usage
A counter of user visits (sessions)
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Web Application Events

A J2EE web application (context), and every session, has its own life cycle
Usage
How to count website (application) visits? How to perform some operations every time a user issues the first request (for any file)

For more information

http://www.stardeveloper.com/articles/display.html?article=2001111901
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Summary: Data Sharing and Access

JSP/Servlet JSP/Servlet JSP/Servlet ServletContext / application
Class Level Variable shares information across all computers, but within that JSP/servlet Request/Response Session / session cookie shares information only for that session

Computer A

Computer B
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Persistent cookie shares information for all sessions on one computer

References:
www.cs.pitt.edu/~sevans/cs110/protocols.ppt(#1)
XHTML and CSS:Rick Ells UW Technology
http://staff.washington.edu/rells/

Java Web Application Framework (WAF)

Melek OKTAY 50050403 [email protected] Servlet and JSP C Edward Chow

Data Sharing and State Management -Jack G. Zheng

CS 640

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