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Lesson 7
Extending Web Server Functionality
Servlets and JSP
Overview of CORBA
Announcements
 Homework due a week from Wednesday
(May 21)
Web Servers
What is a Web Server?
 A server program that listens on a standard port
and handles http protocol.
 http protocol consists mainly of requests for
documents + upload of file data.
 Conent type usually html files, text, audio clips,
images, etc.
 Two most important http protocol elements:
– GET (request document, may upload data)
– POST (request document, upload data).
 This protocol is typically hidden from you by
browser
http protocol

Most common elements of http protocol:
–

GET, PUT
Example
–

GET /path/to/file/index.html HTTP/1.0
What does server return?
1. Status line: HTTP/1.0 200 OK
2. Header line: "Header-Name: value“
46 headers defined (host, browser, from, etc.)
3. Message body: Content-type/Content-length
text/html, text/gif, etc.
Using telnet to experiment with
http
 Telnet is an application that allows you to
pass arbitrary commands to a specified
server.
 To connect to a web server:
– telnet whatever.whatever.com 80
 Once connect try some http commands:
– GET /path/to/file.html HTTP1.0
 Do some experiments like this to get a feel
for the protocol
Role of web browser
 Web browser hides this protocol underneath
a nice GUI.
 Web browser also responsible for displaying
content sent back by server – text, html,
images, audio.
 Broswer must handle server error messages
in some elegant way. What errors might be
handled by web client itself?
“Stateless” protocol
 When http server receives connection, it
listens for request, sends response, and then
closes connection.
 Protocols which allow only a single request
per session are called “stateless”.
 That is, there is no inherent memory from
one connection to the next of the previous
action.
Early Web Servers
 Earliest web sites were static, acted more
like file servers:
–
–
–
–
Browser requests page
Server hands over page
Browser interprets html and displays to user
Might contain gif or jpeg images or simple
animations
Modern Web Servers
 Why did this change?
 E-Commerce became popular: need then arose for
web pages to act more like client-server programs
that could interact with user.
 On client side, this led to need for higher-end
client capabalities:
–
–
–
–
Java applets
DHTML (css, xml, javascript, etc).
Increased form support in http
multimedia (flash, etc.)
Modern web servers, cont.
 On server side, this led to:
– dynamic web pages – asp, jsp, servlets, Cold
Fusion, PHP, etc.
– improvements in cgi
Modern Web Servers, cont.
 Problems with client-side processing:
– Slow, must download .class files in case of
applet
– Notoriously non-portable
– Could not easily access back-end databases.
 Bottom line – good for some things but not
the final word.
Server-side programming
Server-side programming
 CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts
defined a standard for extending
functionality
– http GET/POST data could be passed to and
processed in separate function written in any
language (C, Perl, Python most typical)
– This often included call to back-end database
and response to user via modified html
document
 Other standards also exist – ISAPI, etc.
Shortcomings of CGI, etc.
 E-Commerce became more popular and
web sites became more heavily used. This
brought to the fore some shortcomings of
CGI:
– New process spawned for every hit – not
scalable
– No concept of sesssion or state at software level
– Pretty low level
– Security risks (C in particular)
Servlets
 Java’s form of CGI
 Relative to CGI, servelets are
– very simple
– Relatively high-level
 Requirements: a servlet-enabled web server
 When specified by your web page, web
page passes http requests to java method
(assuming everything is setup properly)
Servlets, cont.
 Servlet method then has access to all of
Java capabilities – jdbc and EJB very
important here.
 Finally, Servlet writes html back to user.
 Shift in perspective – up until now, we
wrote the servers (with help sometimes (e.g.
CORBA and rmi) ).
 Now, we assume server exists and
EXTEND its functionality.
Servlets, cont.
 Important: a web server takes care of all
interactions with the servlet
 On the client side, servlet pages are
typically requested in one of two ways:
– As a regular URL address
– As a link in a regular html document
 Details are server-dependent
What about the client?
 Could write our own http-protocol client, but these
also exist already in the form of web browsers
 Thus, writing client usually boils down to writing
simple html forms
 Form data automatically passed as String
parameters to servlet
 Fancier client capabilities require applet – harder
to talk back to server (http tunneling, etc.)
Servlets in J2EE architecture
What is J2EE?
 In one sense, a model for how to design multi-
tiered (3+) distributed applications
 One speaks of a J2EE application being made up
of several pieces (we’ll see shortly what these are)
 Each piece is installed on different machines
depending on its role:
–
–
–
–
Client-tier components run on the client machine.
Web-tier components run on the J2EE server.
Business-tier components run on the J2EE server.
EIS-tier software runs on the EIS server
Components of J2EE Application
A few things to remember ...
 J2EE is not a product.
 J2EE is a specification for a component
architecture and associated software that is needed
to support it.
 Foremost among such tools is a CTM called the
J2EE application server.
 Implementors supply the J2EE application server
(web container + EJB container) + various others
tools for configuring, managing, and deploying
J2EE applications.
Pieces that makeup J2EE
application
J2EE Components
 J2EE applications are made up of a number
of different components.
 A J2EE component is a self-contained
functional software unit that is assembled
into a J2EE application with its related
classes and files and that communicates
with other components
Types of J2EE Components
 The J2EE specification defines the
following J2EE components:
– Application clients and applets are components
that run on the client.
– Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP )
technology components are Web components
that run on the server.
– Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB ) components
(enterprise beans) are business components that
run on the server.
J2EE Clients
 Web Clients
– “Thin Clients”: no application logic, database queries,
etc.
– Web Browser + HTML | XML, etc.
– “Recommended” technique
– Can include applet if necessary
 Application Clients
– Typically Swing when richer user interface is needed
– Typically access server components directly but can use
http with web server
J2EE Clients
Web Components
 Either JSP pages or Servlets
 Regular html pages not strictly considered
Web Components by J2EE standard
 However, html + support classes typically
bundled with Web Coponents
 Where do JavaBeans fit in?
Another J2EE View
Mechanics of Writing
Servlets
How do I write a Servlet?
 First, must have some implementation of
the java Servlet API (so that you can import
the proper classes).
 This does not come with Java 2 SDK,
Standard Edition.
 It does come with Java 2 SDK, Enterprise
Edition (aka J2EE).
Writing Servlets, cont.
 For servlets (and JSP), Sun’s principle
reference implementation is called Tomcat
(www.jakarta.org)
 Of course, dozens of vendors supply their
own implementation – WebSphere,
WebLogic, Jbuilder, etc.
Local Servlet Engine
 We have installed a Servlet-enabled web server on
polonium.cs.uchicago.edu
 It is my _hope_ that we can do all of our work on
this and not have to have each person setup their
own tomcat locally.
 However, there are glitches and we don’t have a
professional administrator, so no promises!
Running a servlet
 Before we see how servlets are
programmed, let’s go through the steps of
executing a simple one on polonium.
 Steps
–
–
–
–
Login to polonium.cs.uchicago.edu
cd /usr/share/tomcat4/server/webapps/<username>
Create directory WEB-INF/classes
Place example HelloWorldExample.class servlet file in
this directory
Steps for running servlet, Cont.
 Steps, cont.
– Go to Tomcat adminstration page. You will need to first
create an adminstrator password at
https://polonium.cs.uchicago.edu/tomcat/pwd/pwd.cgi
the, to the admin page:
https://polonium.cs.uchicago.edu/tomcat/man/manager.cgi
– To load a simple unpackaged webapp, go to bottom of page and
add /<username> in “Context Path” box and
/usr/share/tomcat4/server/webapps/<username> under “Server
Directory Path” box.
– Then click “install” and you should see your
application added to the list above. If not, go back and
redo, checking everything carefully.
Running servlet, cont.
 Now you are ready to execute your servlet.
– Go to web browser and enter the following
URL
• http://polonium.cs.uchicago.edu:8180/asiegel/servlet/HelloWorldExample
 Hopefully, this will display “HelloWorld” in your browser window.
Writing Servlets, cont.
 All servlets extend the Servlet class.
 All http servlets (by far most typical) should
extend the HttpServlet class.
 In extending HttpServlet, you typically
override the following methods:
– init, service or doGet/doPost, destroy (very
common)
– doPut, doDelete, doOptions, doTrace (rare)
 Note: there is NO main() for Servlets!
Main HttpServlet Methods
 init()
– called once when servlet is loaded by server. Contains
any initializations that are common to all requests.
 doGet(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse)
– Called each time the servlet receives an http GET
request posted by a client. Passes two objects, one
representing the information of the request, the other
used to configure a response. We’ll study these methods
soon.
Main HttpServlet Methods, cont.
 doPost(HttpServletRequest,
HttpServletResponse)
– Same as doGet but for an http POST request.
 destroy()
– Called before servlet is unloaded from memory.
Performs any final cleanup, freeing memory,
closing connections, etc.
Service Method
 Important: The method
service(HttpServletRequest,HttpServletResponse)
is also called for each servlet invocation.
 service() in turn calls doGet and doPost, etc.
for an HttpServlet.
 It is best not to override service even if you
want to handle doGet() and doPost()
identically. Simply have one call the other.
HttpServletRequest Object
 Passed when browser calls doGet and doPost.
 Most import methods for beginning servlet
programming (in HttpServletRequest class):
– String getParameter(String paramName)
– String[] getParameterNames()
– String[] getParameterValues()
 Makes getting data from web pages very simple.
 Many other methods for images, cookies, etc.
HttpServletResponse Object
 Passed when browser calls doGet or doPost
 Most import methods for beginning servlet
programming:
– PrintWriter getWriter();
• Get Writer for communicating back to client
– setContentType(String);
• Typically use “text/html”, indicating that html will
be sent back to the browser
Examples
General Comments
 Recall that each request for a servlet gets its
own thread but accesses the same methods.
Thus, synchronization issues arise.
 Writing html to java stream is ugliest thing
ever.
 Many more servlet classes for having fun.
Can’t possibly cover all in one course, but
most are very simple.
 See http://www.coreservlets.com for more
What is JSP?
 JSP – Java Server Pages
 Can be used:
– As alternative to servlets
– In combination with servlets
 Simplifies ugly aspect of servlet programming (ie
writing html to the stream).
 Allows you to mix Java code directly with html –
output gets sent to stream automatically.
JSP: Making dynamic web
content easier
Popular Competing Technologies
 Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP)
– Very popular and easy
– Locks you into Windows IIS
 Perl Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)
– Easy and powerful for certain types of apps
– More one-dimensional than java backend world
 Cold Fusion
– Proprietary
Writing JSP
 JSP scripting elements inserted directly into
html document
 Three types of scripting elements
– Expressions: <%= expression %>
– Scriptlets: <% code %>
– Declarations <%! code %>
JSP Scripting Elements
 Note: JSP files are translated to servlets
behind the scenes. Knowing this isn’t really
necessary but it helps to understand how the
JSP scripting elements work:
 Expressions are evaluated and automatically
placed in the servlet’s output. (ie no need
for out.println!).
JSP Scripting Elements, cont.
 Scriptlets are inserted into the servlet’s
_jspService method (called by service).
 Declarations are inserted into the body of
the servlet class, outside of any methods.
 Any regular html is just “passed through” to
the client.
JSP Expressions
 <= Java Expression %>
– The expression is evaluated when the page is
requested, converted to String, and inserted in
the web page.
 Simple example:
– Current time: <%= new java.util.Date() %>
JSP Expressions, cont.
 To simplify expressions JSP comes with a number
of pre-defined objects. Some important ones are:
–
–
–
–
Request
Response
Session
Out
 Example
– Your hostname: <%= request.getRemoteHost() %>
JSP Scriptlets
 <% Java Code %>
 If you want to do something more complex
than insert a simple expression.
 Example:
– <%
String queryData = request.getQueryString();
out.println(“Attached GET data: “ +
queryData);
%>
Using Scriptlets for conditional
output
 Scriptlets are often used to conditionally
include standard JSP and html constructs.
 Example
– <% if (Math.random() < 0.5) { %>
Have a <B>nice</B> day!
<% else { %>
Have a <B>lousy<B/> day!
<% } %>
Conditional output, cont.
 This is converted to the following servlet
code:
if (Math.random() < 0.5) {
out.prinltn(“Have a <B>nice</B> day!”);
}
else{
out.println(“Have a <B>lousy</B> day!”);
}
JSP Declarations
 <%! Java Code %>
 Define methods and fields inserted into main body
of servlet class
 Declarations do not generate output
– Normally used in conjunction with scriptlets and
expressions
 Example
<%! Private int accessCount = 0; %>
Accesses to page since server reboot:
<%= ++accessCount %>
Additional JSP/Servlet features
useful for homework
 Forwarding from a servlet to a jsp page
(common)
 Forwarding from a jsp page to a servlet (not
so common) or jsp (more common)
 Session Tracking
Forwarding from Servlet to JSP
 Very useful when processing result requires
dramatically different presentation to be sent to
user
 From within servlet
String url = “/store/login.jsp”;
RequestDispatcher dispatcher =
getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(url);
dispatcher.forward(req, res) //pass control to new url
dispatcher.include (req, res) //include contents of url
Forwarding from JSP
<jsp:forward> page = “Relative URL”/>
Example:
<% String destination;
if (Math.random() > .5){
destination = “/examples/page1.jsp”;
} else {
destination = “/examples/page2.jsp”;
%>
<jsp:forward page=“<%= destination %>” />
Session Tracking
 HTTP is a “stateless” protocol
 No built-in mechanism to determine whether a
request is associated with a user who has recently
issued previous requests.
 Typically handled in one of several ways.
– Cookies: write info to users disk and retrieve to identify
– Hidden Fields, URL-rewriting, etc. (not as good).
 Session Tracking API
– Layered on top of above mechanisms
Session Tracking mechanics
 HttpSession s = request.getSession(true)
– Returns session object if request is part of a
session, otherwise creates a new session object.
– Use isNew() to determine if sesssion is new.
Useful Methods for homework
public Object getValue(String name);
public setValue(String name, Object value);
public long getLastAccessedTime();
CORBA
Common Object Request Broker
Architecture
What is CORBA?
 Common Object Request Broker Architecture
 CORBA is a specification for how to design tools
that enable programming with distributed objects.
 CORBA is a standard, not an implementation.
 CORBA defines minimum functionality and
interfaces that an implementor must provide to be
CORBA-compliant.
 Individual vendors sell CORBA implementations.
Standard “guarantees” interoperability.
Object Request Broker (ORB)
 The backbone of CORBA or any D.O. system is
the ORB
 ORB provides glue code that intercepts local
object calls and marshals/unmarshals for remote
machines, other languages, etc.
 CORBA specification details how ORB must
work: services it provides, interfaces, underlying
transport protocol, etc.
 CORBA provides other services that are not part
of ORB – more on these later.
How CORBA differs from RMI
 CORBA provides both language and location
transparency.
– Very useful even in single address space!
 Not governed by a particular vendor
 Many services on top of simple ORB
– transactions, events, serialization, security, domainspecific stuff, etc.
– Note that many of these already come with Java or its
Enterprise extensions.
 Typically slower for java to java?
Some Key Concepts/Jargon
 Distributed Objects
– Typically, objects whose implementations reside on
machines other than the client.
 OMG
– Object Management Group: largest software
consortium in the world
 Software Specification
– Rules which are used by implementers to create actual
software
 ORB
– Object Request Broker: “middleware” which intercepts
remote object calls and handles marshalling, network
communications, inter-language bindings, etc.
CORBA vs. RMI and JNI
 Typical uses
– Java to java on single machine
• Nothing
– Java to java distributed
• RMI
– Java to C/C++ single machine
• Java native interface (JNI)
– Java to non-C/C++ language single machine
• CORBA
– Java to any language distributed
• CORBA
Limitations of CORBA
 Language-independent means least common denominator




approach – missing many features of Java language
Much harder to use complex java objects as
arguments/return types.
Inter-orb communication used to be difficult – should be
improved now with IIOP
While fairly good at interoperability, portability not a
reality.
Must learn IDL, tons of new classes for basic object
operations that already exist as part of Java language.
Getting started with CORBA
 What do you need?
– IDL to whatever language compiler.
– Naming registry server
– A collection of classes for manipulating CORBA
objects
 These basic services all come free with JDK1.3.
 More complete CORBA implementations can be
purchased, e.g. VisiBroker, OrbixWeb,
WebSphere, Netscape Communicator (applets)
List of CORBA Services
 Object life cycle
– Defines how objects are created, removed,
moved, and copied
 Naming
– Defines how CORBA objects can have friendly
symbolic names
 Events
– Decouples the communication between
distributes objects
Services, cont.
 Relationships
– Provides arbitrary typed n-ary relationships
between CORBA objects
 Externalization
– Like serialization in Java
 Transactions
– Coordinates atomic access to CORBA objects
 Concurrency Control
– Like syncrhonized in Java
Services, cont.
 Property
– Supprots the association of name-value paris
with CORBA objects
 Trader
– Supports the finding of CORBA objects based
on properties describing the service offered by
the object
 Query
– Supports queries on objects
Writing a CORBA application

First, you need to get some vendor
implementation of CORBA. There are a huge
number covering a large range of complexity,
sophistication, additional features, etc.
We have at least 4 vendor CORBA orbs installed
on the CS linux cluster.

–
–
–
–
ORBit (/opt/ORBit): free, C bindings only
OmniORB (/opt/omniorb): free, C++ bindings only
Visibroker (/opt/vbroker) : fancy, java and C++
jdk (/opt/jdk1.3/jdk) : stripped, java only
Writing a CORBA application

1.
2.
Very similar to RMI. Follow these basic steps:
Write the object interface using CORBA’s IDL
(“interface definition language”).
Invoke IDL compiler on target language to
generate needed stub and helper classes (similar
to RMI). This can be done for either the server,
the client, or both. This generates the interface
that the implementation will have to adhere to
(think of JNI).
Getting Started, Cont.
3. Write the server implementation, using the
target language. Compile the
implementation. (You will need to worry
about imports and CLASSPATHs here in
java, header files in C, etc.)
4. Write the server program that creates and
registers the server objects using the
Corba naming service (similar to
rmiregistry).
Getting Started, Cont.
5. Write a client program that looks up the
server objects and invokes services upon
them.
6. Start the naming service and server
programs, and lastly the client.
Note that you can also bootstrap the registry
just as with rmi, so that only a single
object needs to be posted and can act as a
factory for other objects.
CORBA IDL
 Best idea is to start with some examples and
hit them with an idl compiler. We’ll do this
for idlj, the jdk idl to java compiler.
 Pretty fun and simple. Forces you to think
about generic objects in language-neutral
way.
 Maps very naturally into java.
Basic IDL datatypes – Java
mappings
IDL Type
boolean
char/wchar
octet
short
long
long long
float
double
string/wstring
JAVA Type
boolean
char
byte
short
int
long
float
double
string
IDL Language Constructs
IDL
Java
C++
Module
Package
Namespace
Interface
Interface
Operation
Method
Attribute
Pair of
Methods
Exception
Abstract
class
Member
function
Pair of
functions
exception
Exception
Example IDL
Module StoreApp{
interface Store{
string list();
string purchase(in string name, in long quantity);
};
};
Note that in CORBA parameters are defined as one of the
Following:
- in (will be read only)
- out (will be written and need not be initialized)
- inout (will be read and written)
CORBA Sample
 Compile the IDL. On union do:
– /opt/jdk/jdk1.3/bin/idlj –fall store.idl.
 Idlj is java’s idl-to-java compiler.
 -Fall says to produce all files, for both client
and server. We’ll separate these later.
 This will create a bunch of files in a
directory named after your module. You’ll
need these when you write your client and
server.
CORBA Sample – Writing the
Server
 Writing the server:
– Create a class which extends
_<interfaceName>ImplBase.
– For example, for our interface store, we write
and implementation which extends.
• _storeImplBase.
– Implement all of the methods in the interface,
and add any private instance vars or methods.
Writing the server
Implementation
Implementation source code: Store.java
Note that we can use any language for the
implementation as long as we have an IDL
compiler for that language!
Making the object available
 Need to write a server program that carries
out the following tasks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Start the ORB
Create object and register with ORB
Bind the object to the naming service
Wait for client invocations
Making the Object Available,
Cont.
 Packages to import for StoreServer.Java
– Org.Omg.CosNaming
• NameComponent
• NamingContext
• NamingContextHelper
– Org.Omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage
• Provides all exception classes (name not found, etc.)
– Org.Omg.CORBA
• ORB
– (Helper classes generated by IDL compiler)
StoreServer.Java, Cont.
 To start the ORB:
– ORB orb = ORB.Init(args,null);
 To register an object:
– Store st = new Store();
– orb.Connect(st);
 To obtain a reference to the naming service
– org.omg.CORBA.Object nco =
orb.Resolve_initial_references(“NameService”)
;
StoreServer.Java, Cont.
 Use a special CORBA method to cast:
– NamingContext nc =
NamingContextHelper.Narrow(nco);
 Create a name for the object
– NameComponent[] path =
{New NameComponent(“store”,”object”)};
Names contain two pieces, ID and KIND
Names may also be embedded
SoreServer.java, cont.
 Bind to the naming service
– nc.rebind(path,st);
 A trick to wait forever
Object someObject = new Object();
synchronized(someObject){
someObject.wait();
}
Writing the Client
 ORB orb = ORB.init(args,null);