Saturday, November 10, 2007

JSP Questions

JSP Questions

Question: Response has already been commited error. What does it mean?

Answer: This error show only when you try to redirect a page after you already have written something in your page. This happens because HTTP specification force the header to be set up before the lay out of the page can be shown (to make sure of how it should be displayed...content-type="text/html" or "text/xml" or "plain-text" or "image/jpg", etc...) When you try to send a redirect status (Number is line_status_402), your HTTP server cannot send it right now if it hasn't finished to set up the header. If not starter to set up the header, there are no problems, but if it 's already begin to set up the header, then your HTTP server expects these headers to be finished setting up and it cannot be the case if the stream of the page is not over... In this last case it's like you have a file started with <HTML Tag> <Some Headers> <Body> some output (like testing your variables...) ... and before you indicate that the file is over (and before the size of the page can be setted up in the header), you try to send a redirect status... It s simply impossible due to the specification of HTTP 1.0 and 1.1

Question: How do I use a scriptlet to initialize a newly instantiated bean?

Answer: A jsp:useBean action may optionally have a body. If the body is specified, its contents will be automatically invoked when the specified bean is instantiated. Typically, the body will contain scriptlets or jsp:setProperty tags to initialize the newly instantiated bean, although you are not restricted to using those alone.

The following example shows the "today" property of the Foo bean initialized to the current date when it is instantiated. Note that here, we make use of a JSP expression within the jsp:setProperty action.

<jsp:useBean id="foo" class="com.Bar.Foo" >

<jsp:setProperty name="foo" property="today" value="<%=java.text.DateFormat.getDateInstance().format(new java.util.Date()) %>"/ >

<%-- scriptlets calling bean setter methods go here --%>

</jsp:useBean >

Question: Is there a way I can set the inactivity lease period on a per-session basis?

Answer: Typically, a default inactivity lease period for all sessions is set within your JSP engine admin screen or associated properties file. However, if your JSP engine supports the Servlet 2.1 API, you can manage the inactivity lease period on a per-session basis. This is done by invoking the HttpSession.setMaxInactiveInterval() method, right after the session has been created. For example:

<%

session.setMaxInactiveInterval(300);

%>

would reset the inactivity period for this session to 5 minutes. The inactivity interval is set in seconds.

Question: How can I set a cookie and delete a cookie from within a JSP page?

Answer: A cookie, mycookie, can be deleted using the following scriptlet:

<%

//creating a cookie

Cookie mycookie = new Cookie("aName","aValue");

response.addCookie(mycookie);

//delete a cookie

Cookie killMyCookie = new Cookie("mycookie", null);

killMyCookie.setMaxAge(0);

killMyCookie.setPath("/");

response.addCookie(killMyCookie);

%>

Question: How does a servlet communicate with a JSP page?

Answer: The following code snippet shows how a servlet instantiates a bean and initializes it with FORM data posted by a browser. The bean is then placed into the request, and the call is then forwarded to the JSP page, Bean1.jsp, by means of a request dispatcher for downstream processing.

public void doPost (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {

try {

govi.FormBean f = new govi.FormBean();


 

String id = request.getParameter("id");

f.setName(request.getParameter("name"));

f.setAddr(request.getParameter("addr"));

f.setAge(request.getParameter("age"));

//use the id to compute

//additional bean properties like info

//maybe perform a db query, etc.

// . . .

f.setPersonalizationInfo(info);

request.setAttribute("fBean",f);

getServletConfig().getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher ("/jsp/Bean1.jsp").forward(request, response);

} catch (Exception ex) {

. . .

}

}

The JSP page Bean1.jsp can then process fBean, after first extracting it from the default request scope via the useBean action.

jsp:useBean id="fBean" class="govi.FormBean" scope="request"/ jsp:getProperty name="fBean" property="name" / jsp:getProperty name="fBean" property="addr" / jsp:getProperty name="fBean" property="age" / jsp:getProperty name="fBean" property="personalizationInfo" /

Question: How do I have the JSP-generated servlet subclass my own custom servlet class, instead of the default?

Answer: One should be very careful when having JSP pages extend custom servlet classes as opposed to the default one generated by the JSP engine. In doing so, you may lose out on any advanced optimization that may be provided by the JSP engine. In any case, your new superclass has to fulfill the contract with the JSP engine by:

Implementing the HttpJspPage interface, if the protocol used is HTTP, or implementing JspPage otherwise Ensuring that all the methods in the Servlet interface are declared final Additionally, your servlet superclass also needs to do the following:

The service() method has to invoke the _jspService() method

The init() method has to invoke the jspInit() method

The destroy() method has to invoke jspDestroy()

If any of the above conditions are not satisfied, the JSP engine may throw a translation error.

Once the superclass has been developed, you can have your JSP extend it as follows:

<%@ page extends="packageName.ServletName" %<

Question: How can I prevent the word "null" from appearing in my HTML input text fields when I populate them with a resultset that has null values?

Answer: You could make a simple wrapper function, like

<%!

String blanknull(String s) {

return (s == null) ? "" : s;

}

%>

then use it inside your JSP form, like

<input type="text" name="shoesize" value="<%=blanknull(shoesize)% >" >

Question: How can I get to print the stacktrace for an exception occuring within my JSP page?

Answer: By printing out the exception's stack trace, you can usually diagonse a problem better when debugging JSP pages. By looking at a stack trace, a programmer should be able to discern which method threw the exception and which method called that method. However, you cannot print the stacktrace using the JSP out implicit variable, which is of type JspWriter. You will have to use a PrintWriter object instead. The following snippet demonstrates how you can print a stacktrace from within a JSP error page:

<%@ page isErrorPage="true" %>

<%

out.println("

");

PrintWriter pw = response.getWriter();

exception.printStackTrace(pw);

out.println("

");

%>

Question: How do you pass an InitParameter to a JSP?

Answer: The JspPage interface defines the jspInit() and jspDestroy() method which the page writer can use in their pages and are invoked in much the same manner as the init() and destory() methods of a servlet. The example page below enumerates through all the parameters and prints them to the console.

<%@ page import="java.util.*" %>

<%!

ServletConfig cfg =null;

public void jspInit(){

ServletConfig cfg=getServletConfig();

for (Enumeration e=cfg.getInitParameterNames(); e.hasMoreElements();) {

String name=(String)e.nextElement();

String value = cfg.getInitParameter(name);

System.out.println(name+"="+value);

}

}

%>

Question: How can my JSP page communicate with an EJB Session Bean?

Answer: The following is a code snippet that demonstrates how a JSP page can interact with an EJB session bean:

<%@ page import="javax.naming.*, javax.rmi.PortableRemoteObject, foo.AccountHome, foo.Account" %>

<%!

//declare a "global" reference to an instance of the home interface of the session bean

AccountHome accHome=null;

public void jspInit() {

//obtain an instance of the home interface

InitialContext cntxt = new InitialContext( );

Object ref= cntxt.lookup("java:comp/env/ejb/AccountEJB");

accHome = (AccountHome)PortableRemoteObject.narrow(ref,AccountHome.class);

}

%>

<%

//instantiate the session bean

Account acct = accHome.create();

//invoke the remote methods

acct.doWhatever(...);

// etc etc...


 

%>

Question: How can my application get to know when a HttpSession is removed?

Answer: Define a Class HttpSessionNotifier which implements HttpSessionBindingListener and implement the functionality what you need in valueUnbound() method.

Create an instance of that class and put that instance in HttpSession.

Question: How do I include static files within a JSP page?

Answer: Static resources should always be included using the JSP include directive. This way, the inclusion is performed just once during the translation phase. The following example shows the syntax: Do note that you should always supply a relative URL for the file attribute. Although you can also include static resources using the action, this is not advisable as the inclusion is then performed for each and every request.

Question: What is a output comment?

Answer: A comment that is sent to the client in the viewable page source.The JSP engine handles an output comment as uninterpreted HTML text, returning the comment in the HTML output sent to the client. You can see the comment by viewing the page source from your Web browser.

JSP Syntax

<!-- comment [ <%= expression %> ] -->

Example 1

<!-- This is a commnet sent to client on

<%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString() %>

-->

Displays in the page source:

<!-- This is a commnet sent to client on January 24, 2004 -->

Question: What is a Hidden Comment?

Answer: A comments that documents the JSP page but is not sent to the client. The JSP engine ignores a hidden comment, and does not process any code within hidden comment tags. A hidden comment is not sent to the client, either in the displayed JSP page or the HTML page source. The hidden comment is useful when you want to hide or "comment out" part of your JSP page.

You can use any characters in the body of the comment except the closing --%> combination. If you need to use --%> in your comment, you can escape it by typing --%\>.

JSP Syntax

<%-- comment --%>

Examples

<%@ page language="java" %>

<html>

<head><title>A Hidden Comment </title></head>

<body>

<%-- This comment will not be visible to the colent in the page source --%>

</body>

</html>

Question: What is a Expression?

Answer: An expression tag contains a scripting language expression that is evaluated, converted to a String, and inserted where the expression appears in the JSP file. Because the value of an expression is converted to a String, you can use an expression within text in a JSP file. Like

<%= someexpression %>

<%= (new java.util.Date()).toLocaleString() %>

You cannot use a semicolon to end an expression

Question: What is a Declaration?

Answer: A declaration declares one or more variables or methods for use later in the JSP source file.

A declaration must contain at least one complete declarative statement. You can declare any number of variables or methods within one declaration tag, as long as they are separated by semicolons. The declaration must be valid in the scripting language used in the JSP file.

<%! somedeclarations %>

<%! int i = 0; %>

<%! int a, b, c; %>

Question: What is a Scriptlet?

Answer: A scriptlet can contain any number of language statements, variable or method declarations, or expressions that are valid in the page scripting language.Within scriptlet tags, you can

1.Declare variables or methods to use later in the file (see also Declaration).

2.Write expressions valid in the page scripting language (see also Expression).

3.Use any of the JSP implicit objects or any object declared with a <jsp:useBean> tag.

You must write plain text, HTML-encoded text, or other JSP tags outside the scriptlet.

Scriptlets are executed at request time, when the JSP engine processes the client request. If the scriptlet produces output, the output is stored in the out object, from which you can display it.

Question: What are implicit objects? List them?

Answer: Certain objects that are available for the use in JSP documents without being declared first. These objects are parsed by the JSP engine and inserted into the generated servlet. The implicit objects re listed below

request

response

pageContext

session

application

out

config

page

exception

Question: Difference between forward and sendRedirect?

Answer: When you invoke a forward request, the request is sent to another resource on the server, without the client being informed that a different resource is going to process the request. This process occurs completly with in the web container. When a sendRedirtect method is invoked, it causes the web container to return to the browser indicating that a new URL should be requested. Because the browser issues a completly new request any object that are stored as request attributes before the redirect occurs will be lost. This extra round trip a redirect is slower than forward.

Question: What are the different scope valiues for the<jsp:useBean>?

Answer: The different scope values for <jsp:useBean> are

1. page

2. request

3.session

4.application

Question: Explain the life-cycle mehtods in JSP?

Answer: THe generated servlet class for a JSP page implements the HttpJspPage interface of the javax.servlet.jsp package. Hte HttpJspPage interface extends the JspPage interface which inturn extends the Servlet interface of the javax.servlet package. the generated servlet class thus implements all the methods of the these three interfaces. The JspPage interface declares only two mehtods - jspInit() and jspDestroy() that must be implemented by all JSP pages regardless of the client-server protocol. However the JSP specification has provided the HttpJspPage interfaec specifically for the JSp pages serving HTTP requests. This interface declares one method _jspService().

The jspInit()- The container calls the jspInit() to initialize te servlet instance.It is called before any other method, and is called only once for a servlet instance.

The _jspservice()- The container calls the _jspservice() for each request, passing it the request and the response objects.

The jspDestroy()- The container calls this when it decides take the instance out of service. It is the last method called n the servlet instance.
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