In this tutorial, we are going to create one dynamic web application that asks the user for first name and surname. Then the system should response by greeting the users.

The tutorial consists of four main steps.

1. Introduction to NetBeans 5.0
2. Creating New Web Application Project in NetBeans 5.0
3. Implementation of Tutorial’s Example
4. Conclusion

Introduction to NetBeans 5.0

Nowadays, NetBeans is one of the most powerful Java programming IDE. Other popular Java IDEs are also available in the market such as Eclipse, Bea WebLogic Workshop, IBM WebSphere Application Development (WSAD) and etc. Creating and implementing Java Servlet using NetBeans is extremely straightforward and simple. This is one of the reasons why NetBeans rapidly grow its popularity. Additionally, it has Tomcat bundled together within the NetBeans hence compiling and deploying Java Servlet is just a few clicks on your mouse. Well, without going any further, let’s start our tutorial.

Creating New Web Application Project in NetBeans 5.0

Creating a Java Servlet means that you are required to deal with JSP (JavaServer Pages). JSP is actually a HTML but unlike HTML, JSP may have Java codes (usually we call it as Scriptlet) embedded in it. In short words, we may represent JSP as dynamic HTML. In Java J2EE Web Application, JSP plays as a front-end while Java Servlet is the controller that contains the business logics, complex algorithms and etc.

For example, consider “Online University Student Registration System” developed in Java J2EE Web Application, the registration page where you fill in your details such as your name, your address, your username and etc are actually a JSP page. Later on, when you have completed filling out all the details and you press the submit button, all the information will be sent to Java Servlet for further processes. Java Servlet receives this information, does the necessary processes such as validations, generating user id and etc and then keeps the information to database. After successfully saving the data to database, Java Servlet redirects the user to the success page where the user can log in to the system. Likewise, if there is an unexpected error occurred happening in the middle of student registration system’s process, the user will be redirected to the error page.

Okay, without any more delay, let’s get ready for our tutorial. Start your NetBeans 5.0. After it has been completely started, it should look like below screenshots.

First, we have to create a new Web Application Project for our Java Servlet. This Web Application contains all the JSP pages as well as our Servlet classes. To create a new Web Application in NetBeans 5.0, you can go to the menu and choose File > New Project. A wizard will instantly be displayed to you and you are required to provide some information to configure your Web Application.

As the wizard is displayed as shown on above illustration, choose Web on the left panel and Web Application on the right panel and click Next button. All the other options are used to develop other kind of projects in NetBeans and irrelevant for our tutorial.

In the next step or the second step of configuring our Web Application, you can provide your Web Application a name. Well, please feel free to name it whatever you want. In this case, to make it self-explanatory, I name our Web Application as MyFirstServlet as shown in the above illustration. In the middle of the wizard, there is an option called Server and it has the value of Bundled (Tomcat 5.5.7). It demonstrates that NetBeans 5.0 will use its bundled Tomcat as the default server. Other configuration should remain the same and press Finish button. You can also press the Next button to go to the last page where you can define the frameworks that you would like to use as shown in below illustration. However, we can skip the last step as we do not use any framework for our Java Servlet. Okay, we have completed our configuration of Web Application and we are ready to implement our first Java Servlet. Grab your coffee and we are ready to go.

After completing the Web Application’s configuration, you should have a screen similar as below. It will also create one default JSP file called index.jsp on your Web Pages folder.