Question

I have a JSP page which display a list from servlet, it has a textbox which is used to filter the search result. I am selecting a item in the list (table) and redirecting to another page for editing the details after finishing the editing. I am able to come back to the search page via servlet, but I am unable to preserve the search condition in the textbox and its result. How to do that? I am thinking of setting up a session value and get it in search page, is that correct? Or is there any other way?

Answer 1

Storing it in the session scope is the easiest way but, depending on how big your application is expected to be, it could arise some scalability issues.

As an alternative, when you select an item in the list, you could forward (instead of redirect because if you make a redirect, you lose the request parameters) to another page, passing the search query as a parameter in the request. One possibility is to have a form with two hidden fields (the query and selected item):

<form action="go_to_the_detail">
<input type="hidden" name="selectedItem" value="value_selected_item" />
<input type="hidden" name="query" value="query" />
</form>

In the editing page:

<form action="go_to_save_item">
<input type="hidden" name="query" value="query_obtained_from_the_request" />

item fields to be modified
</form>

So, when the user finishes editing the item, the query will be passed again in order to be displayed in the search box.