web to java
I'm about to start development on a software application, which has a user interface built with html and a database developed in java.
Is this possible in java and if so what would you use?
I think you would use JDBC for the database, html for the website forms and servlets to transport the info back and forth between the web page and database. Am I correct in thinking this would be all I need to use?
Any comments welcomed
Regards
steve.
[493 byte] By [
stehardy] at [2007-9-26 7:45:11]
Well, my enterprise java is a little rusty but I guess the minimum you'd need is a servlet engine to run alongside your web server.
You would have servlets do all the processing based on data obtained through jdbc and you'd pass the output (formatted by the servlet) back to the browser.
You might want to start making it fancy by using beans (enterprise java beans or plain old java beans depending on budget and objectives) to wrap data and functionality. These would be used by the servlets and would reduce the amount of servlet code you would have to write.
Your initial hunch is about right, but there are a number of variations on a theme available with Java.
The next stage might be to use JSP for the front end. This would allow the convenience of embedding commands directly into the page to be displayed (rather than vica versa). JSP will also allow you to use tag libraries which is a neat way of encapsulating front end specific presentation and processing code.
Thanks marklawford for the reply.
JSP sounds interesting, I haven't decided what language would be best to used but I quite fancy the idea of using servlets, as they are an integral part of java and worth knowing.
I'm using JBuilder3, which doesn't run servlets. The book, which I received the s/w from, suggests that I download the java servlet development kit (JSDK). Where can I obtain this s/w update? I believe it's free? Does this mean that any PC, which I run this application on will require JSDK, be installed?
Regards
Steve.
Steve,
You could download just the jsdk, but I suggest installing the full j2ee package. It might sound like overkill right now, but you'll soon be playing with all the extras in it.
I suggest you download Allaire (well, Macromedia now) JRun. JRun is a fully featured application server and they publish a free developer edition (which just means that you are restricted from serving pages to machines other than your development environment). That will have all you need to develop servlets, jsp and ejb.
I am a little biased, but I wouldn't even look at JBuilder or some of the others when it comes to servlets, and if you are currently learning java (I don't know how long you've been involved in the game), you can't do better than sitting down with TextPad and just typing the code.
As for installing the jsdk on each pc, you shouldn't need to do that. You want a web based app, right? You will need a web server able to serve jsp and servlets. The machines on the other end of the app shouldn't even need java unless your'e doing fun things with applets.
If you are developing
