How to map a servlet call from a JSP page using form action?

Question

I have a JSP page named Welcome_2.html HTML page directory and in its form action I have invoked a servlet like this :

<form action="/servlets/MyFirstServlet" method="post" id="form_id">

The servlet "MyFirstServlet" is under servlet directory WEB-INF classes servlets MyFirstServlet

and the jsp is under the folder HTML which is in the same level like WEB-INF

i.e. inside practice I have 3 folders project structure HTML META-INF WEB-INF

in web.xml I have the following snippet

    <servlet>
    <servlet-name>MyFirstServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>servlets.MyFirstServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>  
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>MyFirstServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/servlets/MyFirstServlet</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Why the servlet is not being invoked? I am clicking on the HTML page on my browser and trying to invoke the servlet ... I am just a beginner pardon me for my poor intellect.

What behavior do you actually see? Do you receive a 400? For what URL? — Sotirios Delimanolis, May 20 '14 at 06:01
For " file:///C:/servlets/MyFirstServlet " URL I am getting Web page is not found . — StrugglingCoder, May 20 '14 at 06:05
That is not normal. How do you access the first page on your website? The one rendered by the JSP. — Sotirios Delimanolis, May 20 '14 at 06:06
You should run using this `Welcome_2.html` page on the browser , as you invoke the servlet from here — Santhosh, May 20 '14 at 06:07
@user3655102 I am 100% sure that you are submitting the form via server.You are opening the html page in browser and hitting submit thats why `file:///` appears. — SpringLearner, May 20 '14 at 06:12
Yes ... but what is the proper way to do it? I am a starter ... pardon me for my poor intellect — StrugglingCoder, May 20 '14 at 06:16
As a starter it essential to cover the basics of the [**Oracle tutorial**](http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E13222_01/wls/docs81/webapp/basics.html#100368) and you can start from many examples from the sites like _tutorialspoint_ and _javatpoint_ — Santhosh, May 20 '14 at 06:22
It is better if you use the IDE's for web development. either choose eclipse or netbeans. But you have many ide's in the market . but these two are widely used and are simple — Santhosh, May 20 '14 at 06:25
ok thanks a lot add me at your gmail Id .. mine is chiranjib.nandy48@gmail.com but what about thi sproblem how to make it work? — StrugglingCoder, May 20 '14 at 06:35
@user3655102 ok I have sent you a request in gmail,delete all unnecessary comments here.I will guide from start — SpringLearner, May 20 '14 at 06:37

Santhosh · Answer 1 · 2014-05-20T06:01:58.700

7

Change your jsp form to ,

<form action="/servlets/MyFirstServlet" method="post" id="form_id">

to match the url pattern in your web.xml

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>MyFirstServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/servlets/MyFirstServlet</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

This line <url-pattern>/servlets/MyFirstServlet</url-pattern> refers that url's matching the pattern will invoke the MyFirstServlet

Read the Oracle Tutorial before you configure your web.xml elements

Hope this helps !!

edited May 20 '14 at 06:01

answered May 20 '14 at 05:56

Santhosh

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I changed accordingly ( and edited my post also,please see). But still it is shown web page not found .... and the URL is getting loaded as file:///C:/servlets/MyFirstServlet .... Webpage is not found. – StrugglingCoder May 20 '14 at 06:03
Can you post your project structure , instead of explaining it by words ? – Santhosh May 20 '14 at 06:08
@user3655102 I am just thinking out loud... if you can tell the first URL you are accessing that might help. i think you are just opening yout HTML by clicking on your HTML file instead of http://{serverURL}:{port}/{appliucation}/{myhtml.html} – ppuskar May 20 '14 at 07:01

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '14 at 06:09

2

If you use tomcat 7 , you don't need to care about that. For example :

In your servlet :

@WebServlet("/myFirstServlet")  

public class LoginPage extends HttpServlet {

   // your code 

}

In your html :

<!-- here you write myFirstServlet in the action tag -->
<form id="somethingGoesHere" action="myFirstServlet" method="post" >

answered May 20 '14 at 06:09

James

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Are you sure that `tomcat` supports annotations despite the servlets version – Santhosh May 20 '14 at 06:11
@sankrish: Yes, Tomcat 7 supports annotations . Read here `http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6535676/webservlet-annotation-with-tomcat7` – James May 20 '14 at 06:15

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '14 at 05:54

1

As your form action is "/servlets/First" so your url pattern should be

<url-pattern>/servlets/First</url-pattern>

answered May 20 '14 at 05:54

SpringLearner

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1

This will also work but it makes more sense to change the form action instead of the mapping because on actual projects changing the servlet mapping can affect more components – RossBille May 20 '14 at 06:03

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 20 '14 at 06:06

Unless your app is deployed as ROOT.war, all your URLs will be relative to http://myserver/webapp. So my guess is that you should rather use relative URLs. As your JSP is in HTML, you would need to write:

<form action="../servlets/MyFirstServlet" method="post" id="form_id">

How to map a servlet call from a JSP page using form action?

4 Answers4

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