Forms

[Ryan Yeap]

How would you normally do form submission?
Using a jsp pass to jsp for processing?
Using jsp to servlet?
Using servlet?
Also, is there a command for jsp like in php where i can do
--------------------------------------------
if(isset($submit))
runProcessing();
endif
--------------------------------------------
So that i can process the forms information on the same page?
Thanks everyone

[Tony Alicea]

What is a "jsp pass to jsp"
This is not a sports forum!
Ha ha! That last paragraph was a joke!

[Tony Alicea]

I don't understand the question but I'll pretend that I do
A form is submitted to a JSP like this:
<FORM ACTION="myJSP.jsp" METHOD="post">
<INPUT TYPE="Text" NAME="username">
<INPUT TYPE="Submit">
</FORM>
I personally don't like the idea of FORMs submitting to JSPs directly but instead I prefer that an ACTION in a FORM points to a (controller) Servlet. And then this servlet would forward to a JSP (view).

[ernest fakudze]

If you want to use the same jsp for the form and also for the form processing you can do something like:
let's say you specified POST in your action, then you would say...
if(request.getMethod().equals("POST") {
// do all your processing here provided you have initialised some global variables at the top
do validation
insert into db or some other stuff
} // end main processing
I use this technique a lot because I normally just want one file instead of two say for login.
One last thing: in this case the you set the action to the name of this jsp since it is also being used for processing its own form!!

[This message has been edited by ernest fakudze (edited August 29, 2001).]

[Joseph Miller]

Tony - I've heard that Struts in Jakarta helps implement what you've described. Have you worked with it at all?
Joe

Originally posted by Tony Alicea:
I don't understand the question but I'll pretend that I do
A form is submitted to a JSP like this:
<FORM ACTION="myJSP.jsp" METHOD="post">
<INPUT TYPE="Text" NAME="username">
<INPUT TYPE="Submit">
</FORM>
I personally don't like the idea of FORMs submitting to JSPs directly but instead I prefer that an ACTION in a FORM points to a ([b]controller) Servlet. And then this servlet would forward to a JSP (view).[/B]

[Ryan Yeap]

Tony Alicea
-----------------------------------------------------------------

What is a "jsp pass to jsp"
This is not a sports forum!

LoL. Okie , Maybe I should have made it clearer

I personally don't like the idea of FORMs submitting to JSPs directly but instead I prefer that an ACTION in a FORM points to a (controller) Servlet. And then this servlet would forward to a JSP (view).

Yeah , this was basically the answer i was looking for . I need to ask one thing though, would this method be preferred if I am doing a list from a database? (ie select * from database). Or would jsp pass jsp be better? (read below)
ernest fakudze
-----------------------------------------------------------

If you want to use the same jsp for the form and also for the form processing you can do something like:
let's say you specified POST in your action, then you would say...
if(request.getMethod().equals("POST") {
// do all your processing here provided you have initialised some global variables at the top
do validation
insert into db or some other stuff
} // end main processing
I use this technique a lot because I normally just want one file instead of two say for login.
One last thing: in this case the you set the action to the name of this jsp since it is also being used for processing its own form!!

This was what i was asking when I meant jsp pass jsp One thing though, is there a way to check weather a certain button has been pressed? Say , my page has 2 diff buttons.
index.jsp
----------------------------
<form action="index.jsp">
<input type="text" name="title">
<input type="submit" name="submit_title">
</form>
<form action="index.jsp">
<input type="text" name="number">
<input type="submit" name="submit_number">
</form>
-----------------------------------------------------
would
if(request.getMethod().equals("submit_title") {}
elseif(request.getMethod().equals("submit_number"){}
work?
Thanks a lot guys
[This message has been edited by Ryan Yeap (edited August 29, 2001).]

[Ryan Yeap]

*bump*

[ernest fakudze]

Yeah Ryan, it would still work even if you had 20 buttons: here is what I do:
at the top I declare a gloabl variable called...
String buttonPressed = "";
then below I do..
if(req.getPram("cancelButton") != null) {
buttonPressed = "Cancel";
} else if (req.getparam("saveButton") != null) {
buttonPressd = "save";
} else if req.getparam("Delete") != null){
...
} end
// Now you know which btn was pressed and you don't have to worry anymore!!
Remember that you can say..
out.println(buttonPressed); to see it's value if you are not sure of what is happening - a good debugging technique!!

Then you can continue to do your actions below after you have decided which buttn was pressed. Cool hey?
This is not right though...
if(request.getMethod().equals("submit_title") {}
elseif(request.getMethod().equals("submit_number"){}

here is what to do..
if(request.getMethod().equals("POST")) {
if(buttonPressed.equals("Save")) {
//more error checking here
} else if(btnPressd.equals("Delete")) {
}..and so on
} // end if request.getMethod = post
I really like to use the same jsp for both the form and handling because it reduces clutter of files, so I have 1 file instead of two. It also prevents you from taking your user to another page to tell them that there is an error if there is one. Using 1 file means you can output the error message right below the form or on top depending of which one you prefer.
REMEMBER - YOU SHOULD HAVE 1 FORM IN YOUR JSP PAGE IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS METHOD OF FORM PROCESSING!! I'm sure you can have more than 1 but nobody does that!! LOL!
Try it. I don't know if it has speed implications though as compared to using a controller (servlet) for form handling.


[This message has been edited by ernest fakudze (edited August 31, 2001).]

[Ryan Yeap]

Thanks! I'll give it a shot now.