learning server-side java for the web

[S. S. Tsay]

Hello,

I am about to start a web project that involves users visiting a site,
logging in, entering some data, viewing other data, etc where the data
gets stored in a database (probably postgresql or mysql, I haven't
decided yet). I will be using apache as the web server. I have done
things like this in perl and php in the past. However, I would like
to check out using java a way to do it to get a feel for how these
types of projects are done with java. I know the java language fairly
well but have never used it for anything besides cli applications (a
thorough exercise in compiler writing and a multi-player game server).
My problem is that I do not know where to start in terms of reading
about what I need. Do I need tomcat, or jakarta, or what? Is this
what java servlets are used for or javabeans or java server pages?
Sun's website says that java server pages are an extension of java
servlets and that java servlets are the Java platform technology of
choice for extending and enhancing Web servers. I don't think that
what I want to do qualifies as "extending and enhancing web servers,"
but I am not sure. If someone knows of a webpage that gives a brief
overview on this, that would be great.

Thanks to anyone that can get me going in the right direction.

TS

 

[Andy Fish]

I would suggest you read up about J2EE which is a bunch of standards related
to all the sort of things you want to do - I'd recommend getting a book
rather than trying to wade through all the specs and stuff on the sun site.

you almost certainly need servlets and JSP which are very closely linked.
Whether you want to use EJB will be up to you.

Once you understand how you will architect your application, you can start
finding the components you need. there are free implementations of many J2EE
pieces (such as tomcat which is an implementation of a servlet container)

Good Luck

Andy

 

[Juha Laiho]

(e-mail address removed) (S. S. Tsay) said:

I am about to start a web project that involves users visiting a site,
logging in, entering some data, viewing other data, etc where the data
gets stored in a database (probably postgresql or mysql, I haven't
decided yet). ....
Sun's website says that java server pages are an extension of java
servlets and that java servlets are the Java platform technology of
choice for extending and enhancing Web servers. I don't think that
what I want to do qualifies as "extending and enhancing web servers,"
but I am not sure. If someone knows of a webpage that gives a brief
overview on this, that would be great.

Yep, servlets and JSPs are the base technologies you need. JDBC on the
database connectivity side.

As for applications, Tomcat should be fine, paired with either MySQL
or PostgreSQL, the latter being my preference of the two.

I wouldn't go to full J2EE -- just J2SE augmented with servlets&JSP.

 

[_.-=]

JSP is just what you need. Its like the Java equivalent of ASP.

If you have an Oracle database, check out the JDK and JDBC subfolders in the
Oracle directory for stuff you'll find useful. They have documentation as
well as examples.

 

[Mickey Segal]

Thanks to anyone that can get me going in the right direction.

At:
http://segal.org/java/servlets/start.html
I've put some information about getting started with servlets. The page also
links to two very useful books.

 

[Rob]

Hello,

I am about to start a web project that involves users visiting a site,
logging in, entering some data, viewing other data, etc where the data
gets stored in a database (probably postgresql or mysql, I haven't
decided yet).

I created a similar project, to learn the basics of
servlets/jsp. I downloaded Marty Hall's Core Serlvets and JSP
from: http://pdf.coreservlets.com/ and found it quite useful.

Good luck,
Rob