I'm having trouble with doGet and doPost methods

Question

PersonalInfoOutput.java servlet is using the doPost method. The user logs in at index.html. From index.html, the request is sent to Login.java servlet.

From there, the user is directed to the PersonalInfoOutput.java servlet.

Now, consider another page called ChangePassAdmin.html. In this html code, one of these

goes to PersonalInfoOutput.java. But when I click on it from that page,

I get HTTP Status 405 - HTTP method GET is not supported by this URL.

Can someone please help me as to how I should solve this problem?

I tried changing PersonalInfoOutput.java to doGet instead of doPost but then Login.java servlet will return HTTP Status 405 - HTTP method POST is not supported by this URL. So it seems I need both doGet and doPost for this PersonalInfoOutput.java servlet.

PersonalInfoOutput.java (servlet)

import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.sql.*;

public class PersonalInfoOutput extends HttpServlet {

    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
            response.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
            PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

            HttpSession session = request.getSession(false);
            String employeeid = ""; 

                       if(session != null) { 
                           employeeid = (String)session.getAttribute("employeeid"); 
                       }


            boolean st = false;
            try { 
                Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance(); 
                Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/payroll_system", "root", ""); 
                PreparedStatement ps = con.prepareStatement("select employeeID,  FirstName, LastName, Admin, DOB, Address, Email, HourlyRate, Gender, ALeaveBalance, SLeaveBalance, ActiveStatus, Role, BSB, BankName, AccNumber, SuperNumber, SuperCompany from payroll_system.employee_info where employeeID = ?");
                ps.setString(1, employeeid);
                ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery(); 
                st = rs.next(); 
                if(st){
                etc... (rest of the code isn't relevant to question)

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "main.css">
<title>Login</title>
</head>
<body>
<form action="Login" method="post">
<h1>
Login
</h1>
 <b>Employee ID:</b> <br>
 <input type="text"name="employee_id" size="20"><br><br>
<b>Password:</b><br>
<input type="password" name="password" size="20"><br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Login"><br><br>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Login.java (servlet)

import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.sql.*;

public class Login extends HttpServlet {

    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        response.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

        String employee_id = request.getParameter("employee_id");
        String password = request.getParameter("password");    

        HttpSession session = request.getSession(); 
        session.setAttribute("employeeid", employee_id);

        if(ValidateLogin.user(employee_id, password)) { 
            RequestDispatcher rs = request.getRequestDispatcher("PersonalInfoOutput");
            rs.forward(request, response);
        }
        else
        {
           out.print("Employee ID or Password is incorrect. Please try again.");
           RequestDispatcher rs = request.getRequestDispatcher("index.html");
           rs.include(request, response);
        }
    }  


        }

ChangePassAdmin.html

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
<head> 
<meta charset = "UTF-8"> 
<link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "main.css">
<link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "sidebar.css">
<title>Change Password</title>
<style>
table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; } th, td { text-align: left; padding: 8px; } tr:nth-child(even){background-color: #f2f2f2}
tr:hover {background-color: #e2f4ff;}
</style>
</head>

<body>

<ul>

<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>View Personal Information</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>View Expense Claims</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>View Payslips</a></li>
<li><a  class=active >Change Password</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Maintain Employee Information</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Maintain Tax Information</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Maintain Payroll Items</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Maintain Timesheet</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Maintain Employee Expenses</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Run Payroll</a></li>
<li><a  href=PersonalInfoOutput>Generate Reports</a></li>

</ul>

<div style=margin-left:25%;padding:1px;>
</div>

<div id="container">
    <h1>Change Password</h1>
    <form action ="NewPassword" method = post> 

    <table border ="1"> 

    <tr>
    <td>Existing Password:</td>
    <td><input type = "password" name = "oldpassword" size = "20"></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
    <td>New Password:</td>
    <td><input type = "password" name = "newpassword" size = "20"></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
    <td>Confirm New Password</td>
    <td><input type = "password" name = "confirmpassword" size = "20"></td>
    </tr>
    </table>
    <br>
    <br>
    <input type = "submit" value = "Update Password">
    </form>.
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Possible duplicate of [HTTP Status 405 - HTTP method POST is not supported by this URL java servlet](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4297049/http-status-405-http-method-post-is-not-supported-by-this-url-java-servlet) — soorapadman, Jan 22 '16 at 04:45
where did you get error onclick of *'update password'* or on click of *

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 22 '16 at 05:31

In ChangePassAdmin.html, double quotes around post are missing. Both of your Servlet should have doPost method as your form is using "post" action.

<form action ="NewPassword" method = "post">

Additionally you will need two methods in this case. Add both doGet and doPost in your servlet. doPost will be used by form and doGet by links. By default all links are GET. You can do it like:

Edit:

public class PersonalInfoOutput extends HttpServlet {

    protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
           // Your servlets code should be here
          }

    @Override
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
               processRequest(request, response);
          }

    @Override
    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
               processRequest(request, response);
          }

doPost() method to receive form based request. doGet() method to receive href based request. But in both cases processRequest() method will be called.

_Both of your Servlet should have doPost method as your form is using "post" action._ But OP asking about `
his issue is that he is getting HTTP method GET/POST is not supported by this URL. instead of fixing his html, he is fiddling with server side code. in his second html, quotes are missing, so by default browser will treat it as GET. — Pranalee, Jan 22 '16 at 04:57
@Pranalee I added the double quotes around post. Now I get this error `HTTP Status 405 - HTTP method GET is not supported by this URL` when I click on `

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 22 '16 at 05:26

I believe the problem is that you're using the PersonalInfoOutput servlet in two ways:

Forwarding from Login servlet, which by forwarding keeps using POST method
And by href from the HTML, which by default uses method GET

Wouldn't a possible solution be for you to refactor your code, which would be good for you to do anyway, so that you implement both doGet() and doPost() in the PersonalInfoOutput servlet without repeating a lot of code?

Or you could refactor the employee database retrieval to an external class, that would be called from Login without the need to redirect from one servlet to another, and implement GET instead of POST in PersonalInfoOutput.

I'm having trouble with doGet and doPost methods

2 Answers2