Java Server and Servlets: Building Portable Web Applications - Softcover

Rossbach, Peter; Schreiber, Hendrik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201674912 ISBN 13: 9780201674910

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 2000

Synopsis

Java Server and Servlets - Building Portable Web Applications

About this title

From the Inside Flap

This book is supposed to be about servlets. When we began developing our first servlet-based application in Autumn 1997, we were forced to accept that there was no printed literature on the subject. Admittedly, a very active group formed in the Web and particularly in a variety of mailing lists - but we were still kept waiting for printed material. The Apache JServ project developed one 0.9.At the same time, Live Software came along and made a big impression with their plug-in JRun. But all this time, there was still nothing put down, black on white - apart from a few short articles in the relevant technical publications (Heid 1997, Rossbach and Schreiber 1997).
After our first attempts we rapidly came to realize that the pure servlet API promised small and beautifully formed solutions for just such problems, but would not help us achieve a major breakthrough. This led to the birth of the first idea for extending the API, which we later christened Servlet Method Invocation (SMI). This extension, based on the servlet API, made it possible for us to build robust and configurable applications.
Then, one thing came after another: we needed a configuration manager, and object-related mapping for databases, and then we wrote our own servlet engine, jo!. We had created a framework, the WebApp framework. During development we laid a great deal of value on keeping all components as flexible as possible. Only a few of the dependencies within the WebApp framework are really hard-coded. Most of them are detached via interfaces. You can read more about this design principle in Part II of this book.
Owing to all these activities, the actual servlet programming was pushed ever further into the background, in favour of ideas concerning the application and server architecture, a powerful layer for saving object networks and applications for the framework. For this reason, the book may give the impression, in some places, that it explains a few things about a large number of subjects, but never does anything in depth. Our objection to that impression is that the book definitely does one thing: it explains how to build Web-based applications. The fact remains that you need certain ingredients, such as servlets, a servlet engine, an extension such as SMI and a persistence layer, to do so.
We believe that you need all these elements, together, to be able to work efficiently. What use is it, to write a great mail servlet, if you cannot integrate it in your application? What use can you have for program code that includes SQL statements that are almost impossible to maintain? What do you do if your application suddenly has to have its own, more convenient and easy-to-use client and should no longer work only with Web browsers? You can respond to all these questions calmly if you have taken a critical look at a few issues when you began developing your software - and not just with servlet programming in its natural state and 'raw' JDBC (Java DataBase Connectivity).
The framework presented in this book is certainly no wonder cure. However, it can help you to develop better applications. Even if you never use it, you will get a feel for the problems you have to overcome.
There are now a few good books about servlet programming (Moss 1998, Hunter and Crawford 1998). Even though the first part of this book covers servlet programming, it is not a pure servlet book. It is a book about the architecture and the building of servlet-based applications.
The software for the book
As this subject develops very rapidly and the life of software and the documentation that goes with it generally appears to be getting shorter, we decided not to include a CD-ROM with this book. Instead, there is a Web site for the book.
webapp.de. We recommend that you download the WebApp framework from the website, so you can work through and understand the example applications yourself.
Notation in UML
In all three parts we have used diagrams to give you a clear view of the design and processes. The notation we used is UML (Unified Modelling Language) 1.0 (Oestereich 1998). To create the diagrams we used Rational Rose for Java.
Questions and suggestions
We welcome open dialogue about this book and the servlet scene. For this purpose we have created the mail address book@webapp.de. Please send us your thoughts, suggestions, inspirations and ideas for improvements. They will be heartily welcomed.
Our thanks
We would like to thank our colleagues in FACTUM Projektentwicklung und Management GmbH, Phillip Ghadir, Michael J rgens, Wolfgang Neuhaus, Frank Peske, Henning Steiner and Axel Terfloth, for their willingness to again and again correct and comment on yet another chapter. We also thank all members of the intraNEWS team who created a distributed information system based on a servlet-based application server with us, during a period of 14 months, for their ideas and their hard work. At the end of the day they played an important role in motivating us to write this book.
We owe a special thank you to Frank Wegmann for his accurate and constructive criticism. Owing to his perfectionism, we were able to see many things in the proper light for the first time.
In addition we would like to thank Ulrich B ttgen who put earlier versions of the framework and the book under the microscope and gave us valuable advice.
Furthermore we give our thanks to our reader, Susanne Spitzer, for her uncomplicated way of working with us and the freedom that she gave us when we were creating this book. It has become a rather different Java book and we hope that it will be rewarded with success.
Peter Rossbach
I would like to thank my family. Special thanks to my wife, Regina Potthoff, for her patience and the encouraging support she gave me during difficult phases. To my daughters Josephine and Vivienne for the incalculable joy and refreshing change they gave me. Josephine has given us her name for the jo! servlet engine and her helpful words of consolation - 'Everything will be all right!' - pushed me to finish the book.
Hendrik Schreiber
I want to thank everyone who helped me write this book - especially Barbara, Rolf, Marc, Bernd and Enke. Without their support, understanding and patience, and a few nights in the 'Keller' and 'Soundgarden', this book would never have been created.

0201674912P04062001

From the Back Cover

Increasing numbers of businesses are making rapid progress in providing information on the Internet and creating their own e-commerce sites, as well as simply accessing information from it. The technological focus is now shifting from the client to the server. This invaluable book describes how to use Java to program for the server and how to create server-side applications and servlets.

Java Server and Servlets is an indispensable resource for developers and Java programmers who are responsible for constructing Web-based server-side applications for small to medium-sized companies. It introduces all the relevant technologies and explains how to use them, and then goes on to describe the design principles behind building your own Web server and how to build your own applications. The authors have created their SMI (Servlet Method Invocation), an extension based on the servlet API, and provide their own software, the servlet engine 'Jo!'. In addition to providing an illustrated example of how to build a web server, the book also covers a framework, WebApp, for the developer who, having understood the principles laid out, can use it as a basis for creating and developing better applications.

Features:
· Introduces principles of web server-based programming, HTTP, HTML and UML
· Accompanying web site (www.webapp.de) contains WebApp framework which can be downloaded and used to work through the example applications; plus, free, easily-accessible source code for use and development
· Three fully worked examples of how the framework can be used to develop a typical application e.g. browser, online shop, chat application
· Includes key chapters on SMI (Servlet Method Invocation) and the persistence framework

About the authors:
Peter Rossbach has 10 years' practical experience in Object Oriented analysis, design and programming, most recently concentrating on using Java for web applications. He has led the development of a distributed content management system for commerce and banking which now supplies up-to-date information to more than 500 sites, and has recently founded his own company which creates products and projects for Java-based e-commerce solutions
Hendrik Schreiber caught the Java bug 5 years ago and since then has worked as a contract developer on the development of Web applications and servers. His work involves the creation of the Java-based script language objectHTML and the servlet-enabled web server 'Jo!'.

0201674912B04062001

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0201674912
• ISBN 13: 9780201674910
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 448