Free Online Version of Second Edition

Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages

by Marty Hall and Larry Brown

The second edition of Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages is now available for free access in PDF. See links below. Readers of the older edition can still access the first edition here.

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Chapter 1: An Overview of Servlet and JSP Technology

Topics in Chapter:

Understanding the role of servlets
Building Web pages dynamically
Looking at servlet code
Evaluating servlets vs. other technologies
Understanding the role of JSP

Chapter 2: Server Setup and Configuration

Topics in Chapter:

Installing and configuring Java
Downloading and setting up a server
Configuring your development environment
Testing your setup
Simplifying servlet and JSP deployment
Locating files in Tomcat, JRun, and Resin
Organizing projects into Web applications

Chapter 3: Servlet Basics

Topics in Chapter:

The basic structure of servlets
A simple servlet that generates plain text
A servlet that generates HTML
Servlets and packages
Some utilities that help build HTML
The servlet life cycle
How to deal with multithreading problems
Tools for interactively talking to servlets
Servlet debugging strategies

Chapter 4: Handling the Client Request: Form Data

Topics in Chapter:

Reading individual request parameters
Reading the entire set of request parameters
Handling missing and malformed data
Filtering special characters out of the request parameters
Automatically filling in a data object with request parameter values
Dealing with incomplete form submissions

Chapter 5: Handling the Client Request: HTTP Request Headers

Topics in Chapter:

Reading HTTP request headers
Building a table of all the request headers
Understanding the various request headers
Reducing download times by compressing pages
Differentiating among types of browsers
Customizing pages according to how users got there
Accessing the standard CGI variables

Chapter 6: Generating the Server Response: HTTP Status Codes

Topics in Chapter:

Format of the HTTP response
How to set status codes
What the status codes are good for
Shortcut methods for redirection and error pages
A servlet that redirects users to browser-specific pages
A front end to various search engines

Chapter 7: Generating the Server Response: HTTP Response Headers

Topics in Chapter:

Format of the HTTP response
Setting response headers
Understanding what response headers are good for
Building Excel spread sheets
Generating JPEG images dynamically
Sending incremental updates to the browser

Chapter 8: Handling Cookies

Topics in Chapter:

Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of cookies
Sending outgoing cookies
Receiving incoming cookies
Tracking repeat visitors
Specifying cookie attributes
Differentiating between session cookies and persistent cookies
Simplifying cookie usage with utility classes
Modifying cookie values
Remembering user preferences

Chapter 9: Session Tracking

Topics in Chapter:

Implementing session tracking from scratch
Using basic session tracking
Understanding the session-tracking API
Differentiating between server and browser sessions
Encoding URLs
Storing immutable objects vs. storing mutable objects
Tracking user access counts
Accumulating user purchases
Implementing a shopping cart
Building an online store

Chapter 10: Overview of JSP Technology

Topics in Chapter:

Understanding the need for JSP
Evaluating the benefits of JSP
Comparing JSP to other technologies
Avoiding JSP misconceptions
Installing JSP pages
Surveying JSP syntax

Chapter 11: Invoking Java Code with JSP Scripting Elements

Topics in Chapter:

Static vs. dynamic text
Dynamic code and good JSP design
The importance of packages for JSP helper/utility classes
JSP expressions
JSP scriptlets
JSP declarations
Servlet code resulting from JSP scripting elements
Scriptlets and conditional text
Predefined variables
Servlets vs. JSP pages for similar tasks

Chapter 12: Controlling the Structure of Generated Servlets: the JSP `page` Directive

Topics in Chapter:

Understanding the purpose of the page directive
Designating which classes are imported
Specifying the MIME type of the page
Generating Excel spreadsheets
Participating in sessions
Setting the size and behavior of the output buffer
Designating pages to handle JSP errors
Controlling threading behavior

Chapter 13: Including Files and Applets in JSP Pages

Topics in Chapter:

Using jsp:include to include pages at request time
Using <%@ include ... %> ( the include directive) to include files at page translation time
Understanding why jsp:include is usually better than the include directive
Using jsp:plugin to include applets for the Java Plug-in

Chapter 14: Using JavaBeans Components in JSP Documents

Topics in Chapter:

Understanding the benefits of beans
Creating beans
Installing bean classes on your server
Accessing bean properties
Explicitly setting bean properties
Automatically setting bean properties from request parameters
Sharing beans among multiple servlets and JSP pages

Chapter 15: Integrating Servlets and JSP: The Model View Controller (MVC) Architecture

Topics in Chapter:

Understanding the benefits of MVC
Using RequestDispatcher to implement MVC
Forwarding requests from servlets to JSP pages
Handling relative URLs
Choosing among different display options
Comparing data-sharing strategies
Forwarding requests from JSP pages
Including pages instead of forwarding to them

Chapter 16: Simplifying Access to Java Code: The JSP 2.0 Expression Language

Topics in Chapter:

Motivating use of the expression language
Invoking the expression language
Disabling the expression language
Preventing the use of classic scripting elements
Understanding the relationship of the expression language to the MVC architecture
Referencing scoped variables
Accessing bean properties, array elements, List elements, and Map entries
Using expression language operators
Evaluating expressions conditionally