Adding basic web front-end to Java app

[gigajosh]

Can anyone tell me how to add a really basic web front-end to my
bog-standard Java app. I just want to run the plain old main() method by
passing the arguments in via a web page.
Do I have to create a form plus a simple applet/servlet or something,
then just call my program from the applet/servlet?
Any tips on templates I could use for the form and the applet/servlet?

Many thanks,

 

[Michiel Konstapel]

Can anyone tell me how to add a really basic web front-end to my
bog-standard Java app. I just want to run the plain old main() method by
passing the arguments in via a web page.
Do I have to create a form plus a simple applet/servlet or something,
then just call my program from the applet/servlet?
Any tips on templates I could use for the form and the applet/servlet?

Really basic? Create a form with text fields for each of the parameters
you want to pass to the app in question. Submit that form to a servlet.
Then, you have two options:
- make the servlet call com.foobar.YourApp.main(String[] args) directly
- use Runtime.exec() to execute "java com.foobar.YourApp args"

The first runs the app in-process, which is nice 'n' fast but won't work
if your app calls System.exit() - that would shut down the whole servlet
container. The second is less efficient since it needs to fire up a new
process and JVM each time, but it does isolate your servlet container
from the application. It also makes it easier to capture the app's
output (Process.getOutputStream()). I'd go for option two.

Then, just capture the output and send that back as an HTML page and
voilà, a web frontend

HTH,
Michiel

 

[Josh Downes]

Thank you both for your help. It's plenty to get me started )

Can anyone tell me how to add a really basic web front-end to my
bog-standard Java app. I just want to run the plain old main() method by
passing the arguments in via a web page.
Do I have to create a form plus a simple applet/servlet or something,
then just call my program from the applet/servlet?
Any tips on templates I could use for the form and the applet/servlet?

Many thanks,

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[gigajosh]

Thanks very much for the info, this is plenty to get me started )