Creating a Simple Web Application Using a MySQL Database

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This document describes how to create a simple web application that connects to a MySQL database server. It also covers some basic ideas and technologies in web development, such as JavaServer Pages (JSP), JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL), the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API, and two-tier, client-server architecture. This tutorial is designed for beginners who have a basic understanding of web development and are looking to apply their knowledge using a MySQL database.

MySQL is a popular Open Source database management system commonly used in web applications due to its speed, flexibility and reliability. MySQL employs SQL, or Structured Query Language, for accessing and processing data contained in databases.

This tutorial continues from the Connecting to a MySQL Database tutorial and assumes that you already have a connection to a MySQL database created and registered in NetBeans IDE. The table data that is included in ifpwafcad.sql. is also required for this tutorial. This SQL file creates two tables, Subject and Counselor, then populates them with sample data. Save this file to a local directory, then open it in NetBeans IDE and run it on the MySQL database. The database used in this tutorial is named MyNewDatabase.

Contents

Content on this page applies to NetBeans IDE 6.x

To follow this tutorial, you need the following software and resources.

Software or Resource	Version Required
NetBeans IDE	Web and Java EE installation version 6.0
Java Developer Kit (JDK)	version 6 or version 5
MySQL database server	version 5.x
MySQL Connector/J JDBC Driver	version 5.x
GlassFish application server or Tomcat servlet container	V2 version 6.x

Notes:

The NetBeans IDE 6.1 with Glassfish and MySQL Bundle Download provides you with an all-in-one package of software required for this tutorial.
The Web and Java EE installation enables you to optionally install the GlassFish V2 application server and the Apache Tomcat servlet container 6.0.x. You must install one of these to work through this tutorial.
The MySQL Connector/J JDBC Driver, necessary for communication between Java platforms and the MySQL database protocol, is included in NetBeans IDE 6.x.
If you need to compare your project with a working solution, you can download the sample application.

Planning the Structure

Simple web applications can be designed using a two-tier architecture, in which the application communicates directly with a data source using the Java Database Connectivity API. A user's requests are sent to a database, and the results are sent directly back to the user. Two-tier architectures can be easily mapped to a client-server configuration, where a user's browser serves as the client, and a remote database reachable over the Internet corresponds to the server.

The application you build in this tutorial involves the creation of two JavaServer Pages. In each of these pages, you add basic HTML to implement a simple interface, followed by SQL tags provided by JSTL technology in order to query the database. Consider the following client-server scenario:

diagram depicting the structure of a two-tier web application

The welcome page (index.jsp) presents the user with a simple HTML form. When a client requests the index.jsp page, the JSP code contained therein is parsed, and data from the Subject database table is gathered, added to the page, and sent to the client. The user makes a selection in the provided HTML form and submits, which causes the client to make a request for response.jsp. When response.jsp is parsed, data from both the Subject and Counselor tables is gathered and inserted into the page. Finally, the page is returned to the client and the user views data based upon his or her selection.

Creating a New Project

In order to implement the scenario described above, you develop a simple application for a fictitious organization named IFPWAFCAD, or The International Former Professional Wrestlers' Association for Counseling and Development. The application enables a user to choose a counseling subject from a drop-down list (index.jsp), then retrieves data from the MySQL database and returns the information to the user (response.jsp):

index.jsp

response.jsp

Create a new project in the IDE:

Start NetBeans IDE and choose File > New Project (Ctrl-Shift-N) from the main menu. Under Categories select Web; under Projects select Web Application. Click Next.
In Project Name, enter IFPWAFCAD. From the Server drop-down list, select the server you plan work with. Leave all other settings at their defaults and click Finish. The IDE creates a project template for the entire application, and opens an empty JSP page (index.jsp) in the Source Editor. index.jsp serves as the entry point for the application. The new project is structured according to Sun Java BluePrints guidelines.

Preparing the Interface

Begin by preparing a simple interface for the two pages. Both index.jsp and response.jsp implement an HTML table to display data in a structured fashion. index.jsp also requires an HTML form that includes a drop-down list.

index.jsp

Make sure index.jsp is opened in the Source Editor. If it is not already open, double-click index.jsp from IFPWAFCAD > Web Pages in the Projects window.

In the Source Editor, change the text between the <title> tags to IFPWAFCAD Homepage. Also change the text between the <h2> tags to Welcome to IFPWAFCAD, the International Former Professional Wrestlers' Association for Counseling and Development!. Note: For further content, you can either add HTML elements to the page using the IDE's palette, as demonstrated below, or just copy and paste the code provided in step 8 directly into your index.jsp page.
Open the IDE's Palette by choosing Window > Palette (Ctrl-Shift-8) from the main menu. Hover your pointer over the Table icon from the HTML category and note that the default code for the item displays: Click the icon, and drag and drop a table into the page in the Source Editor, to a point just after the <h2> tags. In the Insert Table dialog that displays, specify the following criteria, then click OK:
- Rows: 2
- Columns: 1
- Border Size: 0
The HTML table code is generated and added to your page.

Add the following content to the table heading and the cell of the first table row (new content in bold):

<table border="0">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>IFPWAFCAD offers expert counseling in a wide range of fields.</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>To view the contact details of an IFPWAFCAD certified former
                professional wrestler in your area, select a subject below:
            </td>
        </tr>

For the bottom row of the table, drag and drop an HTML form from the Palette into the page, directly between the second pair of <td> tags. In the Action text box, type in response.jsp, then click OK.
Type in the following text between the <form> tags of the form you just created:
```
<strong>Select a subject:</strong>
```
Drag and drop a drop-down list from the Palette to a point just beneath the text you just added. In the Insert Drop-down dialog that displays, type in subject_id for the Name text field, and click OK. The number of options for the drop-down is currently not important. Later in the tutorial you will add JSTL tags that dynamically generate options based on the data gathered from the Subject database table. Click OK, and note that the code for the drop-down list is added to the form.
Add a submit button to the form by dragging a button from the Palette to a point just after the drop-down list you just added. Enter submit for both the Label and Name text fields, then click OK.

To format your code, right-click in the Source Editor, and choose Format (Alt-Shift-F). Your code is automatically formatted, and should now look similar to the following:

<body>
    <h2>Welcome to <strong>IFPWAFCAD</strong>, the International Former
        Professional Wrestlers' Association for Counseling and Development!
    </h2>

    <table border="0">
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>IFPWAFCAD offers expert counseling in a wide range of fields.</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <td>To view the contact details of an IFPWAFCAD certified former
                    professional wrestler in your area, select a subject below:
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>
                    <form action="response.jsp">
                        <strong>Select a subject:</strong>
                        <select name="subject_id">
                            <option></option>
                        </select>
                        <input type="submit" value="submit" name="submit" />
                    </form>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</body>

To view this page in a browser, right-click in the Source Editor and choose Run File (Shift-F6). When you do this, the JSP page is automatically compiled and deployed to your server. The IDE opens your default browser to display the page from its deployed location:

output of index.jsp displayed in a browser

response.jsp

In order to prepare the interface for response.jsp you must first create the file in your application. Note that most of the content that displays in this page is generated dynamically using JSP technology. Therefore, in the following steps you add placeholders which you will later substitute for the JSP code.

Right-click the IFPWAFCAD project node in the Projects window and choose New > JSP. The New JSP File dialog opens.
In the JSP File Name field, enter response. Note that Web Pages is currently selected for the Location field, meaning that the file will be created in the same directory as the index.jsp welcome page.
Accept all other defaults and click Finish. A template for the new response.jsp page is generated and opens in the Source Editor. A new JSP node also displays under Web Pages in the Projects window:
In the Source Editor, change the title to IFPWAFCAD - {placeholder}.

Copy and paste the following HTML table into the body of the page:

<table border="0">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th colspan="2">{placeholder}</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>Description: </strong></td>
            <td><span style="font-size:smaller; font-style:italic;">{placeholder}</span></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>Counselor: </strong></td>
            <td>{placeholder}
                <br>
                <span style="font-size:smaller; font-style:italic;">
                member since: {placeholder}</span>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td><strong>Contact Details: </strong></td>
            <td><strong>email: </strong>
                <a href="mailto:{placeholder}">{placeholder}</a>
                <br><strong>phone: </strong>{placeholder}
            </td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

To view this page in a browser, right-click in the Source Editor and choose Run File (Shift-F6). The page is compiled, deployed to your server, and opened in your default browser. Your response.jsp page should display similar to the following: output of response.jsp displayed in a browser

output of response.jsp displayed in a browser

style.css

Create a simple stylesheet that enhances the interface display:

Right-click the IFPWAFCAD project node in the Projects window and choose New > Other. In the New File wizard, make sure Web is selected under Categories, then choose Cascading Style Sheet and click Next.
Type style for CSS File Name and click Finish. The IDE creates an empty CSS file and places it in the same project location as index.jsp and response.jsp. Note that style.css now displays within the project in the Projects window, and the file opens in the Source Editor.

In the Source Editor, add the following content to the style.css file:

body {
    font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
    font-size: smaller;
    padding: 50px;
    color: #555;
}

h2 {
    text-align: left;
    letter-spacing: 6px;
    font-size: 1.4em;
    color: #be7429;
    font-weight: normal;
    width: 450px;
}

table {
    width: 550px;
    padding: 10px;
    background-color: #c5e7e0;
}

th {
    text-align: left;
    border-bottom: 1px solid;
}

td {
    padding: 10px;
}

a:link {
   color: #be7429;
   font-weight: normal;
   text-decoration: none;
}

a:link:hover {
   color: #be7429;
   font-weight: normal;
   text-decoration: underline;
}

Link the stylesheet to index.jsp and response.jsp: In both pages, add the following line between the <head> tags:
```
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
```

This document assumes that you understand how the stylesheet functions, and how it affects corresponding HTML elements found in index.jsp and response.jsp.

When working with CSS in the IDE, you can take advantage of the CSS Style Builder and CSS Preview. Together, these tools provide extensive support for creating style rules and viewing elements when coupled with style attributes.

For example, place your cursor within the h2 rule in style.css, then open CSS Preview (Window > Other):

CSS Preview renders sample text according to style rules

CSS Preview demonstrates how an element renders in a browser. Also note that the preview automatically refreshes as you make changes to a rule, providing a real-time textual representation of style elements from the IDE.

Setting up a Connection Pool

The most efficient way to implement communication between the server and database is to set up a database connection pool. Creating a new connection for each client request can be very time-consuming, especially for applications that continuously receive a large number of requests. To remedy this, numerous connections are created and maintained in a connection pool. Any incoming requests that require access to the application's data layer use an already-created connection from the pool. Likewise, when a request is completed, the connection is not closed down, but returned to the pool.

Setting up a JNDI Datasource

Both GlassFish and Tomcat contain Database Connection Pooling (DBCP) libraries that provide connection pooling functionality in a way that is transparent to you as a developer. In either case, you need to configure a JNDI Datasource for the server that creates an interface which your application can use for connection pooling. Depending on whether you're using GlassFish or Tomcat, do the following:

GlassFish

The IDE provides enhanced support for GlassFish, enabling you to specify resources using a wizard:

In the Projects window, right-click the Server Resources node and choose New > Other. The New File wizard opens. Under Categories, select GlassFish. Under File Types, select JDBC Resource. Click Next.
Under General Attributes, choose the Create New JDBC Connection Pool option, then in the JNDI Name text field, type in jdbc/IFPWAFCAD. Click Next.
Click Next again to skip Additional Properties, then in Step 4, type in IfpwafcadPool for JDBC Connection Pool Name. Make sure the Extract from Existing Connection option is selected, and choose jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MyNewDatabase from the drop-down list. Click Next.
Accept all default settings for Add Connection Pool Properties, then click Finish to exit the wizard.

By completing the wizard, you declared a new datasource and connection pool for the application. In the Projects window, open the newly created Server Resources > sun-resources.xml file and note that <resources> tags have been added which include the data you specified in the wizard.

To confirm that a new datasource and connection pool are indeed registered with GlassFish, you can deploy the project to the server, then locate the resources in the IDE's Services window:

In the Projects window, right-click the IFPWAFCAD project node and choose Undeploy and Deploy.
Open the Services window (Ctrl-5) and expand the Servers > GlassFish > Resources > JDBC > JDBC Resources and Connection Pools nodes. Note that the new datasource and connection pool are now displayed:

Tomcat

Configure a JNDI Datasource in Tomcat by adding a declaration for your resource to the application's context.xml file. This is the application's context container, which enables you to specify application meta-data necessary for the server in order to deploy and run the application. There are various locations where you can specify context elements, such as your server's global $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml file. By adding resource declarations to your application's context.xml file however, you limit the resource to that application, and do not need to configure anything within the server itself. For more information, see the Apache Tomcat Configuration Reference.

From the Projects window, open the application's context container in the Source Editor by double-clicking the Web Pages > META-INF > context.xml file.

Add the following <Resource> tags (changes below in bold) as a declaration for the JNDI resource. Your context.xml file should now look as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Context path="/IFPWAFCAD">
    <Resource name="jdbc/IFPWAFCAD" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
        maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000"
        username="root" password="nbuser" driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
        url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MyNewDatabase"/>
</Context>

For a more thorough explanation of JNDI DataSource configuration, including a description of the parameters used in the above resource declaration, refer to the Apache Tomcat 6.0 JNDI Datasource HOW-TO.

Referencing the Datasource from the Application

You need to reference the JNDI resource you just configured from the web application. To do so, you can create an entry in the application's deployment descriptor (web.xml).

Deployment descriptors are XML-based text files that contain information describing how an application is to be deployed to a specific environment. For example, they are normally used to specify application context parameters and behavioral patterns, security settings, as well as mappings for servlets, filters and listeners.

To reference the JNDI Datasource in the application's deployment descriptor:

In the Projects window, expand the Web Pages > WEB-INF subfolder and double-click web.xml. A graphical editor for the file displays in the Source Editor.
Click the References tab located along the top of the Source Editor. Expand the Resource References heading, then click Add. The Add Resource Reference dialog opens.
For Resource Name, enter the resource name that you gave when configuring the JNDI Datasource for the server above (jdbc/IFPWAFCAD). For Description, enter the resource URL (jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MyNewDatabase). Note that the default resource type is javax.sql.DataSource. Leave all fields that are provided by default and click OK. The new resource is added under the Resource References heading: To verify that the resource is now added to the web.xml file, click the XML tab located along the top of the Source Editor. You'll see that the following <resource-ref> tags are now included:
```
<resource-ref>
    <description>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/MyNewDatabase</description>
    <res-ref-name>jdbc/IFPWAFCAD</res-ref-name>
    <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
    <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
    <res-sharing-scope>Shareable</res-sharing-scope>
</resource-ref>
```

Adding the Database Driver's JAR File to the Server

Adding the database driver's JAR file is another step that is vital to enabling the server to communicate with your database. Ordinarily, you would need to locate your database driver's installation directory and copy the mysql-connector-java-5.x-bin.jar file from the driver's root directory into the library folder of the server you are using. Fortunately, the IDE is able to detect at deployment whether the JAR file has been added - and if not, it does so automatically.

In order to demonstrate this, deploy your application to the server you are using (in the Projects window, choose Undeploy and Deploy from the right-click menu of the project node) and, depending on the server you are using, do the following:

GlassFish

Locate the GlassFish installation directory and navigate to the domains > domain1 > lib > subfolder. Note that the mysql-connector-java-5.x-bin.jar file has been added here. When you connect to GlassFish in NetBeans IDE, you are actually connecting to an instance of the application server. Each instance runs applications in a unique domain, and so here the JAR file is located in domain1, which is the default domain created upon installing GlassFish.

Tomcat

Open the Servers window (Tools > Servers from main menu). Make sure Apache Tomcat is selected in the left panel, then click the Classes tab. Note that a JAR file for a MySQL driver is added to the library: Note: The files listed in the Classes tab correspond to the Tomcat installation directory's lib subfolder.

Adding Dynamic Logic

If you return to the index.jsp and response.jsp placeholders created earlier in the tutorial, you can add JSP and JSTL code to enable pages to generate content dynamically, i.e. based on user input. To do so, you need to perform the following 3 steps:

Adding the JSTL Library to the Project's Classpath

In order to make better use of the JSP resources at your disposal, you can make use of the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) to access and display data taken from the Logic Layer. This library comes bundled with the IDE. You therefore need to make sure the JSTL library is added to the web project's compilation classpath, then add the relevent taglib directives to each of the JSP pages. This allows the server we are using to identify the tags when it reads them from the JSP pages. Depending on whether you are using GlassFish or Tomcat, do the following:

GlassFish

Do nothing! GlassFish includes the JSTL library in its own library. You can verify this by expanding the Libraries > GlassFish node. The appserv-jstl.jar file defines all standard tags in the JSTL library.

Adding `taglib` Directives to the JSP Pages

Regardless of what server you are using, you need to add the necessary taglib directives to JSP pages:

Open both index.jsp and response.jsp in the Source Editor. Add the following directives to the top of both pages:

<%@taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c"%>
<%@taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/sql" prefix="sql"%>

Tomcat

In the Projects window, right-click the project's Libraries node and choose Add Library. Select the JSTL 1.1 library and click Add Library.

Expand the Libraries node and note that two new JAR files have been added: the JSTL library's standard.jar, and the jstl.jar. You can further expand the standard.jar file to view JSTL's four basic areas of functionality:

JSTL library added to Libraries node in Projects window

The JSTL library includes four basic areas of functionality:

core: common, structural tasks such as iteration and conditionals
fmt: internationalization and locale-sensitive formatting tags
sql: SQL tags
xml: manipulation of XML documents

Adding JSP and JSTL Code

Finally, add the code to each page. Both pages require that you implement an SQL query that utilizes the JSTL <sql:query> tags and the datasource created earlier in the tutorial.

index.jsp

In order to dynamically display the contents of the form in index.jsp, you need to access all names from the Subject database table:

Add the following SQL query beneath the taglib directives you added in the previous step:
```
<sql:query var="subjects" dataSource="jdbc/IFPWAFCAD">
    SELECT subject_id, name FROM Subject
</sql:query>
```
The JSTL <sql:query> tags enable you to use SQL query language directly in a JSP page. A resultset is generated from the query, and the acquired data can then be inserted into the page using an iterator tag (<c:forEach>) from the JSTL core library.
Replace the empty <option> tags in the HTML form with the following iterator (changes in bold):
```
<select name="subject_id">
    <c:forEach var="subject" items="${subjects.rows}">
        <option value="${subject.subject_id}">${subject.name}</option>
    </c:forEach>
</select>
```
The forEach tag loops through all id and name values from the generated resultset, and inserts each pair into the HTML option tags. In this manner, the form's drop-down list is populated with data.
Save changes (Ctrl+S), then right-click in the Source Editor and choose Run File (Shift-F6). The file is compiled and deployed to the server, and index.jsp renders in the browser. The drop-down list now contains subject names that were retrieved from the database:

response.jsp

For response.jsp, you need to access data from both the Subject and Counselor tables that correspond to the id submitted by the user. This is accomplished using an SQL query and the datasource created earlier in the tutorial:

Add the following SQL query beneath the taglib directives you added in the previous step:

<sql:query var="counsSubjRs" maxRows="1" dataSource="jdbc/IFPWAFCAD">
    SELECT s.name, s.description, c.first_name, c.nick_name,
        c.last_name, c.member_since, c.telephone, c.email
    FROM Subject as s, Counselor as c
    WHERE c.counselor_id = s.counselor_idfk
    AND s.subject_id = ? <sql:param value="${param.subject_id}"/>
</sql:query>

A resultset named counsSubjRs is generated from the above SQL query, which contains all data associated with the subject_id submitted by the user. Note that data from the Counselor table is acquired by mapping counselor_idfk from Subject to counselor_id from Counselor.

Add the following declaration beneath the SQL query from the previous step:
```
<c:set var="counsSubj" scope="request" value="${counsSubjRs.rows[0]}"/>
```
The <c:set> tag enables you to set the resultset to a scoped variable, so that you can retrieve its contents at a later stage.

In the HTML, replace all placeholders with JSP code that allows you to retrieve and display the data held in the counsSubj resultset (Changes below shown in bold):

<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
        <title>${counsSubj.name}</title>
    </head>

    <body>
        <table>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="2">${counsSubj.name}</th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td><strong>Description: </strong></td>
                <td><span style="font-size:smaller; font-style:italic;">${counsSubj.description}</span></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td><strong>Counselor: </strong></td>
                <td><strong>${counsSubj.first_name} ${counsSubj.nick_name} ${counsSubj.last_name}</strong>
                    <br><span style="font-size:smaller; font-style:italic;">
                    <em>member since: ${counsSubj.member_since}</em></span></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td><strong>Contact Details: </strong></td>
                <td><strong>email: </strong>
                    <a href="mailto:${counsSubj.email}">${counsSubj.email}</a>
                    <br><strong>phone: </strong>${counsSubj.telephone}</td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </body>
</html>

Deploying and Running the Project

Whether you are using the GlassFish application server or Tomcat, the process for deploying your project is the same. If you installed GlassFish or Tomcat through the IDE download, your server is already registered in the IDE. If you need to make any changes to server settings, or would like to register a different server with the IDE, choose Tools > Servers from the main menu to open the Server Manager.

To deploy the IFPWAFCAD project to the server:

From the Projects window, right-click the project node and choose Undeploy and Deploy. The IDE automatically compiles the project, starts the server, then deploys the project to it. You can see any output generated in the Output window. The output should complete with a BUILD SUCCESSFUL message. To check that the application has indeed been deployed to the server, open the Services window (Ctrl-5) and expand the Servers node. All servers that are registered in the IDE are listed here. For GlassFish, expand Applications > Web Applications to view the application. For Tomcat, expand Web Applications to view the IPFWAPCAD application.

To run the application:

In the Projects window, right-click the IFPWAFCAD project node and choose Run. The index.jsp page opens in the IDE's default browser. If you had simply chosen Run to begin with, the IDE would have automatically compiled the project and deployed it to the server prior to running it. When index.jsp displays in the browser, select a subject from the drop-down list and click submit. You should now be forwarded to the response.jsp page, showing details corresponding to your selection: