Example: Listing All Form Data
Here's an example that looks up all the parameter names that were sent and puts them in a table. It highlights parameters that have zero values as well as ones that have multiple values. First, it looks up all the parameter names via the "getParameterNames" method of "HttpServletRequest". This returns an "Enumeration". Next, it loops down the "Enumeration" in the standard manner, using "hasMoreElements" to determine when to stop and using "nextElement" to get each entry. Since "nextElement" returns an "Object", it casts the result to a "String" and passes that to "getParameterValues", yielding an array of "Strings". If that array is one entry long and contains only an empty string, then the parameter had no values, and the servlet generates an italicized "No Value" entry. If the array is more than one entry long, then the parameter had multiple values, and they are displayed in a bulleted list. Otherwise the one main value is just placed into the table.
You can also download the source or try it on-line. Note: also uses ServletUtilities.java, shown earlier.
package hall;
import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.util.*;
/** Shows all the parameters sent to the servlet via either
* GET or POST. Specially marks parameters that have no values or
* multiple values.
*
* Part of tutorial on servlets and JSP that appears at
* http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/java/Servlet-Tutorial/
* 1999 Marty Hall; may be freely used or adapted.
*/
public class ShowParameters extends HttpServlet {
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
String title = "Reading All Request Parameters";
out.println(ServletUtilities.headWithTitle(title) +
"<BODY BGCOLOR=\"#FDF5E6\">\n" +
"<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>" + title + "</H1>\n" +
"<TABLE BORDER=1 ALIGN=CENTER>\n" +
"<TR BGCOLOR=\"#FFAD00\">\n" +
"<TH>Parameter Name<TH>Parameter Value(s)");
Enumeration paramNames = request.getParameterNames();
while(paramNames.hasMoreElements()) {
String paramName = (String)paramNames.nextElement();
out.println("<TR><TD>" + paramName + "\n<TD>");
String[] paramValues = request.getParameterValues(paramName);
if (paramValues.length == 1) {
String paramValue = paramValues[0];
if (paramValue.length() == 0)
out.print("<I>No Value");
else
out.print(paramValue);
} else {
out.println("<UL>");
for(int i=0; i<paramValues.length; i++) {
out.println("<LI>" + paramValues[i]);
}
out.println("</UL>");
}
}
out.println("</TABLE>\n</BODY></HTML>");
} }
public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
doGet(request, response);
}
}
Front End to ShowParameters
Here's an HTML form that sends a number of parameters to this servlet. Right click on the source code link to download the HTML. Left click on the link to try it out on-line. It uses POST to send the data (as should all forms that have PASSWORD entries), demonstrating the value of having servlets include both a "doGet" and a "doPost". However, just for the sake of illustration, a version using GET can also be downloaded or tried out on-line.
PostForm.html
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A Sample FORM using POST</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FDF5E6">
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">A Sample FORM using POST</H1>
<FORM ACTION="/servlet/hall.ShowParameters"
METHOD="POST">
Item Number:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="itemNum"><BR>
Quantity:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="quantity"><BR>
Price Each:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="price" VALUE="$"><BR>
<HR>
First Name:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="firstName"><BR>
Last Name:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="lastName"><BR>
Middle Initial:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="initial"><BR>
Shipping Address:
<TEXTAREA NAME="address" ROWS=3 COLS=40></TEXTAREA><BR>
Credit Card:<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="cardType"
VALUE="Visa">Visa<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="cardType"
VALUE="Master Card">Master Card<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="cardType"
VALUE="Amex">American Express<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="cardType"
VALUE="Discover">Discover<BR>
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="cardType"
VALUE="Java SmartCard">Java SmartCard<BR>
Credit Card Number:
<INPUT TYPE="PASSWORD" NAME="cardNum"><BR>
Repeat Credit Card Number:
<INPUT TYPE="PASSWORD" NAME="cardNum"><BR><BR>
<CENTER>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Submit Order">
</CENTER>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Submission Result
This tutorial is now available as a book: Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages by Marty Hall, published by Sun Microsystems Press.
Read all about it at CoreServlets.com
Server-Side Web Applications using Java Servlets versions 2.1/2.2 and JavaServer Pages (JSP) version 1.0: A Tutorial
© 1999-2000 Marty Hall.
All source code freely available for unrestricted use.
Created for work in the Research and Technology Development Center of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, for courses in the Johns Hopkins Part-Time MS Program in Computer Science, and for various industry seminars and on-site Java short courses.
Please note that this is a first draft of the tutorial, so please send corrections, comments, and suggestions to me at hall@apl.jhu.edu.
Reprinted with permission from the author. Click here to visit the original version
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