Java Tips - Introduction to Java Servlets with NetBeans

After pressing Next button, we are in the last step of configuring our Java Servlet. The last step is intended to map our Java Servlet in web.xml. Leave the checkbox as checked. It means that we want to apply the changes to web.xml where all the Java Servlets are registered. Remember that every Java Servlet that we create, we must register that particular Java Servlet in web.xml. Web.xml itself is actually a deployment descriptor. It contains the necessary configurations for our web application. Web.xml is not only used for Java Servlet but also for other purposes such as security, parameters and etc.

Back to the Java Servlet’s configuration wizard, there are two fields available i.e. Servlet Name and URL Mapping. We need to set both of these variables. Servlet Name is used to associate our actual Java Servlet (which is Java class) into a name. The URL mapping is used to identify on how the Java Servlet should be called. This is the URL that is called in your <form></form> tag in JSP file. If you set the URL Mapping into /test/GreetingServlet, you need to call it as /test/GreetingServlet from your <form></form> tag. For our project, set it into /GreetingServlet. We have completed configuring our Java Servlet. You may also be interested to see how the web.xml looks like now. You can go to your Web Pages > WEB-INF > web.xml.

Now, if you see, you can see that there is one Java file created which is GreetingServlet.java as shown in below picture.

This GreetingServlet.java contains our implementation of the Java Servlet. If you carefully pay attention to this file, you should realize that this class extends HttpServlet. So wherever you found Java classes that extends HttpServlet, those classes must definitely be a Java Servlet and there must be an entry in web.xml.


protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

However, let’s focus on the doGet and doPost methods as these two methods are the most important. Do you remember that in our <form></form> tag, we actually specify the method attribute as POST? For your information, we can also set the method in the <form></form> tag into GET. If we specify it as POST, the doPost method will be called. On the other hand, if we specify the <form> tag as GET, doGet method will be executed. Then, what would be the difference between GET and POST?

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. GET has limited length for the information that is submitted but it is easily appended on the last URL of your Java Servlet. POST does not have any limitation of the length of information sent and it is hidden from the URL. For example, GET will display something like http://localhost:7001/MyFirstServlet/GreetingServlet?firstName=david&surname=test while POST would not display firstName and surname in the end of the URL. POST has URL like “http://localhost:7001/MyFirstServlet/GreetingServlet”. It is obvious that GET may have some issues on security as everyone may clearly see the information sent to the Java Servlet. POST would be a better choice but sometimes, there would just be a situation where we need to use GET to make our development easier. I am sure that as you go along, you will meet a situation where you need to use GET for sending some information to Servlet.

As our JSP used POST, let’s add some Java codes into our doPost method. Add these two lines into your doPost method so it should be like below.


    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

    throws ServletException, IOException {        

        String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName").toString();

        System.out.println("firstName = " + firstName);

        processRequest(request, response);

    }



    String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName").toString();

What does above code means? If you remember, the textbox that we created in our JSP contains the name attribute.


  <input type="text" name="firstName" size="20">

This is where the name attribute is useful. We can get the value entered by the user in the index.jsp by executing request.getParameter(“firstName”). Remember that firstName is case sensitive so firstName is different with FirstName or firstname. The next line of code is used to print out the value into your Tomcat console.


  System.out.println("firstName = " + firstName);

You should be able to see the output in your Tomcat console in your NetBeans. Deploy your project again, refresh your Internet Browser and see what’s happening now. As your Tomcat has run previously, you just need to re-deploy the project and simply refresh your browser.

After you have pressed the submit button, the page will go blank. Yes, it is because we have not specified where Java Servlet should redirect. We will go to this later on. But if you see at the Tomcat logs, you will notice something interesting.

Now, you see that in the Tomcat console, there is “firstName = John” line displayed. This is executed and created by our Java Servlet. It also means that our Java Servlet has successfully been executed.

Now, clear the doPost method and add some more codes to processRequest method as below.


    protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

    throws ServletException, IOException {

        response.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");

        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

        String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName").toString();

        String surname = request.getParameter("surname").toString();



        out.println("<html>");

        out.println("<head>");

        out.println("<title>Servlet GreetingServlet</title>");

        out.println("</head>");

        out.println("<body>");

        out.println("<h1>Servlet GreetingServlet at " + request.getContextPath () + "</h1>");

        out.println("<p>Welcome " + firstName + " " + surname + "</p>");

        out.println("</body>");

        out.println("</html>");



        out.close();

    }


        String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName").toString();

        String surname = request.getParameter("surname").toString();

The two lines above are used to get the firstname and the lastname from our JSP.

Then, these two variables are used and displayed into JSP and located in below codes. The out.println(“”); is used to render the HTML into JSP page.


        out.println("<html>");

        out.println("<head>");

        out.println("<title>Servlet GreetingServlet</title>");

        out.println("</head>");

        out.println("<body>");

        out.println("<h1>Servlet GreetingServlet at " + request.getContextPath () + "</h1>");

        out.println("<p>Welcome " + firstName + " " + surname + "</p>");

        out.println("</body>");

        out.println("</html>");

You need to re-deploy your Web Application and refresh your Internet Browser. Go to index.jsp and provide first name and surname and press Submit button. Now, you will see a page that greets the user. Congratulations, you have successfully created your Java Servlet.

Well, I am sure that you now have been able to create a Servlet using NetBeans. By reading this tutorial, you should be able to send information to Java Servlet, know how to get this information from your Java Servlet and redirect the user to the success page. However, you should practice more and more as your skills will be improved along your experiences. There are still a lot of things in Java world that you need to know such as Filter, Listener, Struts, EJB and etc. If you grab the concept, you are good to go to the next level. I wish you all the best luck.

You can find the NetBeans project for the tutorial source codes here.
The README file for the sources is available here.

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