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Checking user selection

Greenhorn

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posted 13 years ago

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I have an html listbox with options available to the user along with an order button and a reset button.

I have my servlet setup now so that I can get 1 or more options and display to order with the correct total.

try {
               String[] items = request.getParameterValues("items");
                out.println("<html>");
                out.println("<head>");
                out.println("<title>Order Confirmation</title>");
                out.println("</head>");
                out.println("<body>");
                out.println("<h1>You have ordered <br> <hr></h1>");
             
            for (int i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
            
                out.println(items[i] + "<br>");
                
                if(items[i].contains("Kebab")) {
                    total += 11.75;
                }else if (items[i].contains("Stuffed Shrimp")) {
                    total += 13.95;
                }else if (items[i].contains("Shrimp Roulade")) {
                    total += 11.95;
                }else if (items[i].contains("Bruschetta")) {
                    total += 8.95;
                }else if (items[i].contains("Crab Cakes")) {
                    total += 12.95;
                }else if (items[i].contains("Fried Chicken")) {
                    total += 7.95;
                }
            }
                 BigDecimal bd = new BigDecimal(total);
                 bd = bd.setScale(2,BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_UP);

what I'm trying to do is, if the user hits the order button and has not made any selection, I want to keep them on the index.html page and have a message how up asking them to make a selection.

I've tried different things along these lines

but that's taking me to the servlet page and not printing anything... can someone steer me in the right direction?
also, if you see other things in there that can be better in terms of programming practice, please let me know!

many thanks!

Bear Bibeault

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posted 13 years ago

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Is this something you want to do on the client with JavaScript, or wait until the form is submitted and check it n the server? (or both?)

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john krem

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posted 13 years ago

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Bear Bibeault wrote:Is this something you want to do on the client with JavaScript, or wait until the form is submitted and check it n the server? (or both?)

In this case, wait until the form is submitted, then run the check.

Bear Bibeault

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posted 13 years ago

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OK, so perform the check within the servlet code, and if it fails, redirect back to the page with information that the validation failed. The session would be a good place to store message info (be sure to clean it out when done) if you'd rather not tack it onto the URL itself.

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Bear Bibeault

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posted 13 years ago

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P.S. Is there a good reason to generate the HTMl in the servlet rather than forwarding to a JSP to create the HTML?

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john krem

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Bear Bibeault wrote:OK, so perform the check within the servlet code, and if it fails, redirect back to the page with information that the validation failed. The session would be a good place to store message info (be sure to clean it out when done) if you'd rather not tack it onto the URL itself.

This is what I'm trying to do, but I'm failling on getting the right test with the listbox. I thought that using the

where items is the array that is using the getParameterValues() to get the selected ones. So I figured that when it's 0 (none selected), this would work, but it isn't.... is that the correct way to test a that a listbox has been selected?

With regards to your ps, I do not know as I am only in my 3rd week of learning servlets, so I think JSPs are coming soon.

Bear Bibeault

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What exactly are you getting back as results if not an empty array?

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Bear Bibeault

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john krem wrote:With regards to your ps, I do not know as I am only in my 3rd week of learning servlets, so I think JSPs are coming soon.

Ah, OK. You will discover (hopefully) that emitting HTML from a servlet is an anti-pattern to be generally avoided. But as you are just learning for now...

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john krem

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Bear Bibeault wrote:What exactly are you getting back as results if not an empty array?

well when the user selects an item from the listbox, i'm getting back an array of 1 or more values. I validated this with a check of checking the length of the array with an

and when I had 1 item selected, got back 1, with 2 got back 2 etc... but when I made no selection, that check wouldn't even print...
My thinking is that if I check the length of the array, and it's 0, then I want to redirect back the the index.html page with a message... ?

john krem

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Bear Bibeault wrote:

john krem wrote:With regards to your ps, I do not know as I am only in my 3rd week of learning servlets, so I think JSPs are coming soon.

Ah, OK. You will discover (hopefully) that emitting HTML from a servlet is an anti-pattern to be generally avoided. But as you are just learning for now...

interesting.... this is good to know, as there seems to be a lot of things we are learning that are questionable... will keep this in my back pocket as we get into JSPs.

Bear Bibeault

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I don't see where your check is happening in the grands scheme of things. Is there some conditional that's preventing the check from happening under certain circumstances?

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john krem

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Bear Bibeault wrote:I don't see where your check is happening in the grands scheme of things. Is there some conditional that's preventing the check from happening under certain circumstances?

i tried it in my for loop and above the for loop. also, when you asked what i was returning? did you mean it's returning as a null?
just tried this too:

again, within my for loop.

Bear Bibeault

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Why not show the code at this point?

Also, for debugging purposes, I'd recommend printing ut the length of the array rather than doing an "if". That way, you don;t have to try and guess whether the code was executed or not.

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john krem

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Bear Bibeault wrote:Why not show the code at this point?

Also, for debugging purposes, I'd recommend printing ut the length of the array rather than doing an "if". That way, you don;t have to try and guess whether the code was executed or not.

here are the 2 different approaches I've been playing around with. I have been printing out the items.length too and it's working perfectly when I select 1 or more items, it's just when I select no items that just doesn't want to work for me.

Bear Bibeault

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Hint: use proper indentation. It'll make you code easier to read.

Change the debug statement to print the length without any conditional. What does it print?

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john krem

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Bear Bibeault wrote:Hint: use proper indentation. It'll make you code easier to read.

Change the debug statement to print the length without any conditional. What does it print?

I'm not sure what you mean by withouy any conditional, but, I just did some testing in a new file, and my test works in terms of

so I'm not sure why it's not working in the servlet. I have everything in the processRequest() in the servlet, could that have anything to do with it?

Bear Bibeault

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john krem wrote:I'm not sure what you mean by withouy any conditional

Just print out the length of the array withut testing it. What does it say?

so I'm not sure why it's not working in the servlet.

This seems to imply that it is working elsewhere?

I have everything in the processRequest() in the servlet, could that have anything to do with it?

processRequest() is not a standard method of a servlet so I'd have no way of knowing. I assume it's a method you are calling from one of doPost() or doGet()?

If so, it depends how it's being called and what you are passing to it.

Flying blind here without any code to go on...

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john krem

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here is the whole class

/*
 * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

/**
 *
 * @author 1
 */
public class OrderServlet extends HttpServlet {

/** 
     * Processes requests for both HTTP <code>GET</code> and <code>POST</code> methods.
     * @param request servlet request
     * @param response servlet response
     * @throws ServletException if a servlet-specific error occurs
     * @throws IOException if an I/O error occurs
     */
    Connection connection;
    Statement stmt;

protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        response.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
        double total = 0.0;

out.println(items[i] + "<br>");

if (items[i].contains("Kebab")) {
                    total += 11.75;
                } else if (items[i].contains("Stuffed Shrimp")) {
                    total += 13.95;
                } else if (items[i].contains("Shrimp Roulade")) {
                    total += 11.95;
                } else if (items[i].contains("Bruschetta")) {
                    total += 8.95;
                } else if (items[i].contains("Crab Cakes")) {
                    total += 12.95;
                } else if (items[i].contains("Fried Chicken")) {
                    total += 7.95;
                }
            }
            BigDecimal bd = new BigDecimal(total);
            bd = bd.setScale(2, BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_UP);

out.println("<hr><hr><h2>Your total is: $" + bd + "</h2>");
            out.println("</body>");
            out.println("</html>");

} finally {
            out.close();
        }

}

public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException {

try {
            // load the driver
            Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver").newInstance();
            //Get a Connection to the database
            connection =
                    DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/Menu ",
                    "admin", "admin");

System.out.println("Connection successful!");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            // problem loading driver, class not exist?
            e.printStackTrace();
            return;
        }
    }

// <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="HttpServlet methods. Click on the + sign on the left to edit the code.">
    /** 
     * Handles the HTTP <code>GET</code> method.
     * @param request servlet request
     * @param response servlet response
     * @throws ServletException if a servlet-specific error occurs
     * @throws IOException if an I/O error occurs
     */
    @Override
    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        processRequest(request, response);
        try {
            // Do whatever queries or updates you want here!!!

stmt = connection.createStatement();
            PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

stmt.close();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

}

/** 
     * Handles the HTTP <code>POST</code> method.
     * @param request servlet request
     * @param response servlet response
     * @throws ServletException if a servlet-specific error occurs
     * @throws IOException if an I/O error occurs
     */
    @Override
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        processRequest(request, response);
    }

/** 
     * Returns a short description of the servlet.
     * @return a String containing servlet description
     */
    @Override
    public String getServletInfo() {
        return "Short description";
    }// </editor-fold>
}

What happens is when I have no values selected, the servlet page loads, but the only thing that prints is :

It works in an entirely new project, checking the array.length==0... it's just in this that for whatever reason it isn't, or at least doesn't seem to be.

Bear Bibeault

Sheriff

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posted 13 years ago

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Have you checked the logs for exceptions?

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john krem

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posted 13 years ago

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Bear Bibeault wrote:Have you checked the logs for exceptions?

NullPointerException at the

makes sense as there is no value being passed, which is what I want....

Bear Bibeault

Sheriff

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posted 13 years ago

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OK, then you now know that items will be null, rather than an enpty array, when no items are selected. So that is what you'll need to test for,

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john krem

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posted 13 years ago

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Bear Bibeault wrote:OK, then you now know that items will be null, rather than an enpty array, when no items are selected. So that is what you'll need to test for,

tried that too, but still ran into the same issue. the print statement within that test block doesn't print.

i'm going to call it a day with this for now, but i really appreciate your help.

well, i didn't step away and got it going! thanks again!