Help with JSP and Form INput

[Mike Br]

Hiya,
I think I need to understand this once and for all!
I have a form on a JSP page which a user enters login details into. I want the results of their login, ie success, failure, prompt for password retry etc to appear back in the same window as the one they just pressed submit on (after being processed by some beans (which work nicely)). How is this done?? Obviously I can gather the information from the form but what then?? I was posting it to a servlet but then I lose the page content Ive got.
Whats the standard way of doing this??
Thanks for you help,
Mike

[Bear Bibeault]

If after the servlet detects a failure mode you forward back to the original page with the form on it, the request parameters will still be on the request, and you can add attributes which identify the error condition.
If you are redirecting back to the form, your servlet can copy the form request parameters and place them on the request. (Though this will likely make the clear-text password visible in the address field of the browser).
hth,
bear

[Gordon Jenkinson]

Here's an example of how I've implemented it and it seems to works as you want it to.
********login.jsp *******
<%@ page import="com.mwp.*" errorPage="error.jsp" %>
<% String message = request.getParameter("message");
if ( message != null ) {
%>
<p><%=message %></p>
<% } %>
<b>Login</b></font></p>
<table width="41%" border="1" align="center" bordercolor="#000000">
<form action="loginCheck.jsp" method="POST">
<tr>
<td height="35" bgcolor="#9999FF" width="18%"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Username</font></td>
<td height="35" bgcolor="#CCCCFF" width="82%">
<input type="text" name="username">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#9999FF" width="18%"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Password</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#CCCCFF" width="82%">
<input type="password" name="password">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" height="35">
<div align="center">
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Login">
</font></div>
</td>
</tr>
</form>
</table>
</HTML>
</BODY>

*************** loginCheck.jsp **************
@ page language="java"
import="com.mwp.*, java.util.*"
errorPage="error.jsp" %>
<jsp:useBean id="loginBean" scope="page" class="com.mwp.Login" >
<jsp:setProperty name="loginBean" property="*"/>
</jsp:useBean>
<jsp:useBean id="dbm" scope="page" class="com.mwp.DatabaseManager" >
</jsp:useBean>

<jsp:useBean id="monitor" scope="application" class="java.util.HashMap"/>
<%
if ( loginBean.getUsername().length() == 0 ) {
String display = "login.jsp?message=PLease Enter Username and Try Again";
}
if ( loginBean.getUsername().length() == 0 ) {
String display = "login.jsp?message=Please Enter password and Try Again";
}
String display = "login.jsp?message=Invalid Login. Try Again";
User user = loginBean.authenticate(dbm.getConnection(session));
if (user != null) {
user.setIpAddr(request.getRemoteHost());
// Got user. Now do they already have a session?
if (monitor.containsKey(user)) {
HttpSession oldSession = (HttpSession)monitor.get(user);
oldSession.invalidate();
monitor.remove(user);
}
session.setAttribute("user", user);
monitor.put(user, session);
System.out.println("Assigned new session for: " + user);
session.setMaxInactiveInterval(900);

display = "customerSearch.jsp";
}
%>
<jsp:forward page="<%= display %>"/>

***************************************

The a session attribute "message" is used to pass the reason for the failure back to the Login.jsp page. The login bean is used to get the userId and password.
HTH
Gordon

[Mike Br]

Thanks gordon, that looks really useful, i'll give that a go,
Mike