Question

I am interested in creating a web app that uses JSP, Servlets and XML.

At the moment I have the following:

JSP – Form input.

Servlet – Retrieving Form data and sending that data to a java object.

Java object (1) – Converts data into XML file….instantiates java object (2).

Java object (2) – Sends that file to a database.

On the returning side the database will send back another XML file that I will then process using XSLT to display back to the user.

Can I place that XSLT code in the orignial Servlets doPost() method? So my doPost()` method would:

1. Retrieve user inputted data from the form on my JSP page.

2. Instantiate a java object to convert that data to XML, in-turn that object will instantiates another object to send the XML file to a database.

3. Converts the resulting XML file sent from the database and displays it for the user.

Can one servlet doPost() method handle all of this? If not, how would I set up my application and classes to handle this work flow?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

All your doPost() method has to do is generate a suitable servlet response (some form of content, and a suitable HTTP response structure). So it can do anything you want (including the above).

However it sounds like your rendering requirement is distinct from your form submission and storage requirement. So I would make your doPost() method delegate to a suitable method for rendering the output. That way you can generate output from stored data separately from submitting data to the database.