How to retrieve an object from a session attribute

**jaltaie** · September 1st, 2013, 09:31 AM

I'm working on an application which update the values in a list of users stored in a mySql DB. The application starts with a users.jsp which lists the users in the DB. You then click the Update link next to one of the users in this list. This calls the DisplayUser action, which displays firstName and lastName using the emailAdddress of the selected user. This takes you to the user.jsp which gives you input boxes to modify the values for the selected user. SUBMIT calls the UpdateUser action. The UpdateUserServlet takes the user object using the session value and updates the DB. Up until the UpdateUserServlet I am clear on how to code this application. The only I'd like some help on is how to get the user object from the session attribute. I put my confusion in bold comments under the UpdateUservlet in the below code. Thanks in advance!

My code is:

users.jsp

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
    <%@ page import="org.apache.log4j.Logger" %>
 
    <% org.apache.log4j.Logger LOGGER = org.apache.log4j.Logger.getLogger("users_jsp.class"); %> 
 
 
 
<head>
    <title>DB Test appP</title>
</head>
<body>
 
<h1>Users List</h1>
 
<table cellpadding="5" border=1>
 
  <tr valign="bottom">
    <th>First Name</th>
    <th>Last Name</th>
    <th>Email Address</th>
  </tr>
 
  <%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
 
  <c:forEach var="user" items="${users}">
  <tr valign="top">
      <td><p>${user.firstName} </td> <%LOGGER.info("JSP TEST"); %>
    <td><p>${user.lastName}</td>
    <td><p>${user.emailAddress}</td>
    <td><a href="displayUser?emailAddress=${user.emailAddress}">Update</a></td>
    <td><a href="deleteUser?emailAddress=${user.emailAddress}">Delete</a></td>
  </tr>
  </c:forEach>
 
</table>
 
</body>
</html>

DisplayUserServlet.java

 
package user;
 
import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
 
import business.User;
import data.UserDB;
import java.util.ArrayList;
 
public class DisplayUserServlet extends HttpServlet {
 
    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
 
// get params from request
        String emailAddress = request.getParameter("emailAddress");
        User user = UserDB.selectUser(emailAddress);
                HttpSession session = request.getSession();
 
        session.setAttribute("user", user);
 
        String url = "/user.jsp";
        RequestDispatcher dispatcher =
                getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(url);
        dispatcher.forward(request, response);
    }
}

user.jsp

 
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
 
<html>
<head>
    <title>Murach's Java Servlets and JSP</title>
</head>
 
<script language="JavaScript">
function validate(form) {
    if (form.firstName.value=="") {
        alert("Please fill in your first name");
        form.firstName.focus();
    }
    else if (form.lastName.value=="") {
        alert("Please fill in your last name");
        form.lastName.focus();
    }
    else {
        form.submit();
    }
}
</script>
 
<body>
 
<h1>Update User</h1>
 
<form action="updateUser" method="post">
<table cellspacing="5" border="0">
    <tr>
        <td align="right">First name:</td>
        <td><input type="text" name="firstName" 
                value="${user.firstName}">
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td align="right">Last name:</td>
        <td><input type="text" name="lastName" 
                value="${user.lastName}">
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td align="right">Email address:</td>
        <td>${user.emailAddress}</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td></td>
        <td><input type="button" value="Submit" 
                   onClick="validate(this.form)"></td>
    </tr>
</table>
</form>
 
</body>
</html>

UpdateUservlet.java

 
package user;
 
import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
 
import business.User;
import data.UserDB;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 
public class UpdateUserServlet extends HttpServlet {
 
    private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("ch14userAdmin");
 
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        HttpSession session = request.getSession(true);
        String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName");
        String lastName = request.getParameter("lastName");
 
        logger.debug("Update get parameter " + request.getParameter(firstName));
        logger.debug("Update get parameter " + request.getParameter(lastName));
 
  [B]      // TODO: add code that gets the User object from the session and updates the database
        // this sets a new user object but actually it should get the User object from the session[/B]
        User user = new User();
        user.setFirstName(lastName);
        user.setLastName(lastName);
        logger.debug("Update set first Name " + (firstName));
        UserDB.update(user);
        logger.debug("Update set last Name " + (lastName));
 
        String url = "/displayUsers";
        RequestDispatcher dispatcher =
                getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(url);
        dispatcher.forward(request, response);
    }
}

UserDB.java (DAO class)

 
package data;
 
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import user.LogInit;
import business.User;
 
public class UserDB {
 
    private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("ch14userAdmin");
 
    public static int insert(User user) {
        ConnectionPool pool = ConnectionPool.getInstance();
        Connection connection = pool.getConnection();
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
 
        String query =
                "INSERT INTO User (FirstName, LastName, EmailAddress) "
                + "VALUES (?, ?, ?)";
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(query);
            ps.setString(1, user.getFirstName());
            ps.setString(2, user.getLastName());
            ps.setString(3, user.getEmailAddress());
            return ps.executeUpdate();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return 0;
        } finally {
            DBUtil.closePreparedStatement(ps);
            pool.freeConnection(connection);
        }
    }
 
    public static int update(User user) {
        ConnectionPool pool = ConnectionPool.getInstance();
        Connection connection = pool.getConnection();
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
 
        String query = "UPDATE User SET "
                + "FirstName = ?, "
                + "LastName = ? "
                + "WHERE EmailAddress = ?";
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(query);
            ps.setString(1, user.getFirstName());
            ps.setString(2, user.getLastName());
            ps.setString(3, user.getEmailAddress());
 
            return ps.executeUpdate();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return 0;
        } finally {
            DBUtil.closePreparedStatement(ps);
            pool.freeConnection(connection);
        }
 
    }
 
    public static int delete(User user) {
        ConnectionPool pool = ConnectionPool.getInstance();
        Connection connection = pool.getConnection();
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
 
        String query = "DELETE FROM User "
                + "WHERE EmailAddress = ?";
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(query);
            ps.setString(1, user.getEmailAddress());
 
            return ps.executeUpdate();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return 0;
        } finally {
            DBUtil.closePreparedStatement(ps);
            pool.freeConnection(connection);
        }
    }
 
    public static boolean emailExists(String emailAddress) {
        ConnectionPool pool = ConnectionPool.getInstance();
        Connection connection = pool.getConnection();
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
        ResultSet rs = null;
 
        String query = "SELECT EmailAddress FROM User "
                + "WHERE EmailAddress = ?";
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(query);
            ps.setString(1, emailAddress);
            rs = ps.executeQuery();
            return rs.next();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return false;
        } finally {
            DBUtil.closeResultSet(rs);
            DBUtil.closePreparedStatement(ps);
            pool.freeConnection(connection);
        }
    }
 
    public static User selectUser(String emailAddress) {
        ConnectionPool pool = ConnectionPool.getInstance();
        Connection connection = pool.getConnection();
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
        ResultSet rs = null;
 
        String query = "SELECT * FROM User "
                + "WHERE EmailAddress = ?";
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(query);
            ps.setString(1, emailAddress);
            rs = ps.executeQuery();
            User user = null;
            if (rs.next()) {
                user = new User();
                user.setFirstName(rs.getString("FirstName"));
                user.setLastName(rs.getString("LastName"));
                user.setEmailAddress(rs.getString("EmailAddress"));
            }
            return user;
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return null;
        } finally {
            DBUtil.closeResultSet(rs);
            DBUtil.closePreparedStatement(ps);
            pool.freeConnection(connection);
        }
    }
 
    public static ArrayList<User> selectUsers() {
 
        ConnectionPool pool = ConnectionPool.getInstance();
        Connection connection = pool.getConnection();
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
        ResultSet rs = null;
 
        String query = "SELECT * FROM User ";
 
        try {
 
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(query);
            rs = ps.executeQuery();
            // User users = null;
 
            ArrayList<User> users = new ArrayList<User>();
            //    System.out.println("test");
 
            while (rs.next()) {
                User user = new User();
 
                user.setFirstName(rs.getString("FirstName"));
                user.setLastName(rs.getString("LastName"));
                user.setEmailAddress(rs.getString("EmailAddress"));
 
                logger.info("DAO query result: " + rs.getString("FirstName"));
                logger.info("DAO query result: " + rs.getString("LastName"));
                logger.info("DAO query result: " + rs.getString("EmailAddress"));
 
 
                users.add(user);
 
                logger.info("The arrray object added is: " + user);
                user.getFirstName();
                logger.info("Get first name: " + user.getFirstName());
                logger.info("DAO RETURNS: " + (users));
            }
            return users;
            //logger.info("UserDB RETURNS: " + (users));
 
 
        } // TODO: add code that returns an ArrayList of User objects
        // that corresponds with the rows in the User table
        catch (SQLException e) {
            logger.info("The Database problem is:" + e);
            e.printStackTrace();
            return null;
        } finally {
            DBUtil.closeResultSet(rs);
            DBUtil.closePreparedStatement(ps);
            pool.freeConnection(connection);
 
 
        }
 
    }
}

**jaltaie** · September 2nd, 2013, 02:25 PM

Once again I'm solving this myself and I'll post the fix:

In the UpdateUserServlet the creation of a new user object (User user = new User()) should be replaced with a user object that calls the user session from the prior servlet (DisplayUserSelrvlet). In this case the User object becomes:

User user = session.getAttribute("user);
 
 String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName");
       String lastName = request.getParameter("lastName");
 
 
        logger.debug("Update get parameter " + session.getAttribute("user"));
        // logger.debug("Update get parameter " + request.getParameter(lastName));
 
 
        user.setFirstName(firstName);
        user.setLastName(lastName);
 
 
        UserDB.update(user);

**jps** · September 2nd, 2013, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by jaltaie

Once again I'm solving this myself and I'll post the fix:

Keep up the good work, and thanks for posting the solution for future readers

**jaltaie** · September 3rd, 2013, 12:29 AM

Thanks, but can you please tell me if I'm posting in the right forum since I don't seem to be getting responses to my posts. For example, I now have another question concerning writing DELETE pages in the same type of MVC app. Is the JSP section the right place to post? Should I be asking my questions on the theory part or should I make my question more related to the coding / practical part in order to actually get a response? Many thanks, J

**jps** · September 3rd, 2013, 01:05 AM

I think the reason you get no reply is the extensive amount of code posted.
Personally, I feel I can reply to 3 or 4 other posts by the time I digest the code posted here. I did start to read it, searching for the section you marked in bold...
Bold does not work within code tags, I suggest using the code=java tag to get highlighting instead of the code tag, and use regular comments in the code to draw attention

**jaltaie** · September 3rd, 2013, 04:21 AM

Noted. Thanks so much for the response. Does bold work in the code=java tag?

**jps** · September 3rd, 2013, 06:53 AM

Originally Posted by jaltaie

Does bold work in the code=java tag?

No, but with code=java tag the syntax is colored, so comments stand out as they would in an IDE
....see your code above

**jaltaie** · September 3rd, 2013, 07:08 AM

Great. I tried this in a similar post which I posted today. Cut down on the code content too. Please let me know if this is more consistent with your site rules (would also be great to get a response to the problem):

http://www.javaprogrammingforums.com...r-records.html

Thanks a lot

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