Course Summary
The Java EE Platform has become the technology of choice for developing professional e-commerce applications, interactive Web sites, and Web-enabled applications and services. Servlet and JSP technology is the foundation of this platform: it provides the link between servers and Web clients (browsers, cell phones, Ajax applications, etc.). This course provides a practical, hands-on introduction to building Web applications in Java. It gives details on the most important topics, surveys more advanced or lesser-used topics, stresses best practices, and gives plenty of working examples.
This course is developed and taught by Marty Hall, an experienced developer, award-winning instructor, popular conference speaker (5 times at JavaOne), and author of several bestselling Java books.
Duration
5 days.
Audience
The course consists of an approximately equal mixture of lecture and hands-on lab time. The course assumes that all students already have at least moderate previous Java experience, but not necessarily any experience with server-side Java or HTTP. Although the course will use Java 6, previous experience with earlier Java versions is sufficient. Working knowledge of HTML is helpful but not absolutely required.
Additional Notes
About Marty Hall - Your Instructor
Marty Hall is the author of six popular Java EE books, including Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages, the all-time worldwide bestselling servlet/JSP book, published in Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified Script (Mainland China), Chinese Traditional Script (Taiwan), Czech, Greek, English, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Marty is president of coreservlets.com, a training and consulting company focusing on server-side Java technology and Rich Internet Apps with Ajax.
In addition to long Java development and consulting experience, Marty has an extensive background in teaching and training, having given training courses on J2EE and Ajax topics in Japan, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and dozens of US venues.
A popular and entertaining speaker, Marty has also spoken at conferences and user groups around the world, including Comdex, the Web 2.0 Expo, and five times at JavaOne. Marty is also adjunct faculty in the Johns Hopkins University part-time graduate program in Computer Science, where he directs the Java and Web-related concentration areas.
Outline
Course now includes an introduction to Ajax
Overview and Setup
- Understanding the role of servlets
- Evaluating servlets vs. other technologies
- Understanding the role of JSP
- Configuring the server
- Configuring your development environment
- Testing the server setup
Servlet Basics
- The basic structure of servlets
- A simple servlet that generates plain text
- A servlet that generates HTML
- Servlets and packages
- Some utilities that help build HTML
- The servlet life cycle
- Servlet debugging strategies
Handling the Client Request: Form Data
- The role of form data
- Creating and submitting HTML forms
- Reading individual request parameters
- Reading the entire set of request parameters
- Handling missing and malformed data
- Dealing with incomplete form submissions
- Filtering special characters out of the request parameters
Handling the Client Request: HTTP Request Headers
- Reading HTTP request headers
- Building a table of all the request headers
- Understanding the various request headers
- Reducing download times by compressing pages
- Differentiating among types of browsers
Generating the Server Response: HTTP Status Codes
- Format of the HTTP response
- How to set status codes
- What the status codes are good for
- Shortcut methods for redirection and error pages
- A servlet that redirects users to browser-specific pages
- A front end to various search engines
Generating the Server Response: HTTP Response Headers
- Format of the HTTP response
- Setting response headers
- Understanding what response headers are good for
- Building Excel spread sheets
- Generating JPEG images dynamically
- Sending incremental updates to the browser
Handling Cookies
- Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of cookies
- Sending outgoing cookies
- Receiving incoming cookies
- Tracking repeat visitors
- Specifying cookie attributes
- Differentiating between session cookies and persistent cookies
- Simplifying cookie usage with utility classes
- Modifying cookie values
- Remembering user preferences
Session Tracking
- Implementing session tracking from scratch
- Using basic session tracking
- Understanding the session-tracking API
- Differentiating between server and browser sessions
- Encoding URLs
- Storing immutable objects vs. storing mutable objects
- Tracking user access counts
- Accumulating user purchases
- Implementing a shopping cart
- Building an online store
JSP Intro and Overview
- Understanding the need for JSP
- Evaluating the benefits of JSP
- Comparing JSP to other technologies
- Avoiding JSP misconceptions
- Understanding the JSP lifecycle
- Installing JSP pages
- Looking at JSP in the real world
Invoking Java Code with JSP Scripting Elements
- Static vs. dynamic text
- Dynamic code and good JSP design
- JSP expressions
- Servlets vs. JSP pages for similar tasks
- JSP scriptlets
- JSP declarations
- Predefined variables
- Comparison of expressions, scriptlets, and declarations
Including Files and Applets in JSP Pages
- Using jsp:include to include pages at request time
- Using <%@ include ... %> (the include directive) to include files at page translation time
- Understanding why jsp:include is usually better than the include directive
- Using jsp:plugin to include applets for the Java Plug-in
Controlling Web App Behavior with the Deployment Descriptor (web.xml)
- Location and purpose of web.xml
- Custom URLs
- Initialization parameters
- Preloading pages
- Welcome pages
- Error pages
Integrating Servlets and JSP: The Model View Controller (MVC) Architecture
- Understanding the benefits of MVC
- Using RequestDispatcher to implement MVC
- Forwarding requests from servlets to JSP pages
- Handling relative URLs
- Choosing among different display options
- Comparing data-sharing strategies
Simplifying Access to Java Code: The JSP 2.0 Expression Language
- Motivating use of the expression language
- Understanding the basic syntax
- Understanding the relationship of the expression language to the MVC architecture
- Referencing scoped variables
- Accessing bean properties, array elements, List elements, and Map entries
- Using expression language operators
- Evaluating expressions conditionally
JSTL: Handling Variable-Length MVC Data
- Obtaining JSTL documentation and code
- The JSTL Expression Language
- Looping Tags
- Conditional Evaluation Tags
- Database Access Tags
- Other Tags
Ajax: Asynchronous Page Updates
- Ajax motivation
- The basic Ajax process
- The need for anonymous functions
- Using dynamic content and JSP
- Using dynamic content and servlets
- Displaying HTML results
Creating Custom JSP Tag Libraries: The Basics
- Java-based tags
- Components of a tag library
- Basic tags
- Tags that use body content
- Tags that optionally use body content
- JSP-based tags (tag files)
- Components of a tag library
- Basic tags
- Tags that use attributes
- Tags that use body content
Custom JSP Tag Libraries: Advanced Topics
- Tags with dynamic attribute values
- Tags with complex objects for attributes
- Manipulating the tag body
- Looping tags
- Nested tags
- Using SAX and TagLibraryValidator to validate tag library syntax
Accessing Databases with JDBC
- Overview of JDBC technology
- JDBC drivers
- Seven basic steps in using JDBC
- Using JNDI with JDBC
- Retrieving data from a ResultSet
- Using prepared and callable statements
- Handling SQL exceptions
- Submitting multiple statements as a transaction
Course Testimonials
Material was presented clearly, instructor was well prepared and demonstrated superior knowledge of subject matter.
This is the Best J2EE course I ever had.
Awesome!
The instructor, was very helpful and professional. He also spoke clearly.
I wish I had taken this 2 years ago!
