Question

I have a main html page which contains an IFRAME.
I have a server side jsp code that is displayed with some default values inside the IFRAME for the first time.
Whenever a person tries to use a search button in the main page the results are displayed in the IFRAME updating its content.
I have a servlet that does the calculation on the searched data and updates the IFRAME content.

The problem:
I have used the sendRedirect method in servlet to refresh the IFRAME but to no avail.
The string I am passing to sendRedirect is /results.jsp?search=value&size=1 (jsp to be displayed in iframe).
The servlet does its calculation work properly but opens a new page in place of the mainpage: not a desired output.
The mainpage with its interface should remain there, only the IFRAME should refresh.

My question:
Is this the correct method to refresh an iframe? If not kindly tell me what should I use to update my iframe (jsp) via servlet.

PS: Please forgive the absurdity of the quesion if any. I am new to the jsp-servlet.

Any help is much appreciated

Answer 1

When you do a redirect using response.sendRedirect() method, the actual ‘frame’ where the servlet was called will be modified. That frame can be the entire page, or an iframe, or even the legacy frames used in javadocs.

As @Jake223 said, set the target attribute to the iframe name in the form:

If you are using a form to submit the information, then you do something like this:

<iframe name="resultframe"></iframe>
<form action=[path to servlet] target="resultframe">
    <input type="text" name="searchq"/>
    <input type="submit" value="search"/>
</form>

If you are using javascript to create the iframe, then use the src attribute of the iframe:

<iframe src=[path to servlet]?[request params]></iframe>