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:

  1. In a terminal window, go to <INSTALL>/javaeetutorial5/examples/web/bookstore4/.
  2. 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.
  3. Start the Application Server.
  4. 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:

To run the application, open the bookstore URL http://localhost:8080/bookstore4/books/bookstore.

See Troubleshooting (page 60) for help with diagnosing common problems.