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, page xxx). To build the example, follow these steps:
- In a terminal window, go to
<
INSTALL
>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/
.- Run
ant
. This target will copy files to the<
INSTALL
>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/build/
directory, 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 Accessing Databases from Web Applications, page 54.
To deploy the example, run using
ant deploy
. Ignore the URL that the deploy target gives to you. To run the application, use the URL given at the end of this section.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 (page 133) for more information.To run the application, open the bookstore URL
http://localhost:8080/bookstore4/books/bookstore
.See Troubleshooting (page 60) for help with diagnosing common problems.