MCS-270 Lab 6: JSP and MySQL (Spring 2008)

Individual lab, due on Thursday, April 3, at the beginning of class

Introduction

In this lab, you will extend your work from Lab 3: Database Usage into the JSP architecture. In particular, you'll provide an interface that has two text fields in which the user enters the actor's first and last names, a radio button with which the user selects a store, and a submit button. When the user clicks submit, the two text fields are cleared, the radio button is left unchanged, and a table appears showing a list of titles of movies on the selected store's shelves which contain the selected actor. In addition to allowing the user to query your database, you can also provide you the ability to easily see more information about the movies, courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.

When I grade your labs, I will not just check that you have a correctly working application; I will also be looking to see that your application is well designed and documented. For this, I recommend that you follow the design process I described in class. You also need to provide adequate documentation for the project, including in particular javadocs for your package.

You should write the application from scratch, testing as you go. You should never be writing more than 10 or 20 lines of code before testing the code. Be sure you have a strategy for testing any code you write before you write it. If you need help with this, please ask.

How to set up and structure your project

• Get the mysql.jar file

  As I said in class, you will need to put the mysql.jar in the appropriate tomcat directory. Assuming that you set up the tomcat stuff properly, issue the following command:

       cp ~karl/public/270/mysql.jar ~/tomcat/common/lib
    

  Having done that, you should then look at that directory to be sure it is there.

• Copy over and work with the gened application

  As I said above, part of your grade will depend on how you organize of your project. I highly recommend that you borrow the structure that I used for the gened project I described in class. You can get that project directory by issuing the following command from the directory where you want the directory copied:

       cp -r ~karl/public/270/jsp/gened .
    

  After doing this, look through these directories/files, make the application (described more completely below), test it out, and look at the documentation it creates. Before doing make, you will need to have created the following directories:

       ~/webapps/gened
       ~/www-docs/gened
       ~/www-docs/gened/docs
       ~/www-docs/gened/docs/javadocs
    

  Having done this, you should then set up a similar structure for application you will be writing. If you copied over and played with the files as described above, you will understand what I mean. I will refer to this directory as your JSP work directory.

• Use a makefile

  As discussed in class, there is a GNUmakefile in the gened/ directory. You carefully should look at this file, since you will be using/modifying it in your project. To install the application, go to the gened/ directory and issue the following command:

      make 
    

  To remove all backup files in the current directory, type:

      make clean
    

  To generate the documentation, type:

      make docs
    

• Running .class files

  Note that .java files will be compiled into .class files in a subdirectory of the root directory ~/webapps/WEB-INF/classes, where the path name is determined by the package name you use. Your CLASSPATH should therefore include this root directory if you want to test your Java classes in isolation. If you use a csh shell, you can put the following in your .cshrc:

      setenv KARL ~karl
      setenv CLASSPATH $HOME/webapps/WEB-INF/classes:$KARL/public/270/mysql.jar:.
    

  If you use bash, put the following in your .bashrc

      export CLASSPATH=~/webapps/WEB-INF/classes:~karl/public/270/mysql.jar:.
    

  You'll need to either open a new shell to have the change take effect. To run package ConflictBean.class in package gened, I would type:

      java gened.ConflictBean
    

  Note that you need to include the whole package name and that you don't end with the .class extension. Feel free to make your package names short to save typing. Or you can save typing by setting a shell variable to be the package name: If the package were edu.gustavus.karl.gened, then in bash, type:

      gened=edu.gustavus.karl.gened
    

  In csh, type:

      set gened=edu.gustavus.karl.gened
    

• Debugging .jsp files

  When tomcat has troubles compiling your .jsp files, the error messages printed in your web browser can be helpful, and the line numbers refer to lines in tomcat's java file constructed from your .jsp file; it will be in a subdirectory of

      ~/tomcat/work/Catalina/localhost/
    

  As you debug your .jsp files, don't forget that output sent by anything to System.out (whether it be by your .jsp or a .java program) goes to ~/tomcat/logs/catalina.out. David Wolfe will often type the following in a shell so that all output to catalina.out immediately appears in the shell window:

      tail -f ~/tomcat/logs/catalina.out &
    

What you'll submit

You'll submit a directory which is modeled after the gened application you have copied over. Here is a brief description of the directories/files you should include:

• GNUmakefile: The makefile which installs your application.
• README: This includes brief documentation on your application. This is the first file I will look at and should paint a broad overview of your submission. In particular, it should contain a clear statement about what you have successfully tested and any bug reports. I should be able to replicate your tests.
• docs directory: This should include a file index.html as well as other html files that describe your application. Be creative. As one link, I would include a copy of the README file.
• mockup directory: Include here the html mockups (prototypes) you write, which should be the basis for the jsp files you program.
• jsp directory: The JSP file(s) containing your interface. You can probably get away with one jsp file, called, say, findActor.jsp.
• Your java directory: you will need to name this directory using your package name. For the gened application, I called the package gened, so you could, for example, call it movies. This directory should include the following java files:
  • *Bean.java files: Java Bean(s) which holds the name of an actor and the store selected. You'll need at least three setters, which set the first name, last name, and store, three getters.

  If you choose separate Beans to store the actor and the store, provide a toString() method which returns the full name of the actor or the store name. If you combine them into one bean, while you may want to make getters which return strings, you may also want a toString() method to use for debugging.

  • Simple record java class files: For example, a Movie or a Store class might be appropriate. You decide what you need.
  • QueryHandler.java: A Java class file which composes the SQL query and returns a list of movies. Your SQL query should be performed using a PreparedStatement, since your interface will have text fields. The PreparedStatement should only be made once by the QueryHandler object rather than once for each query the object handles.
• sql directory: include here the table definitions, the data files, and SQL queries you used.
• Depending on your approach, you may have other files included in your application as well.

Grading

Submitting your code

    ~karl/public/270/submit Lab6