Initialising Database connections with JSP

[Stephen Tallamy]

I'm new to JSP but quite familiar with Servlets. I'm trying to understand how you would go about initialising a connection to a Database with JSP.
With a Servlet I would create a module levelConnection object in the init() method and then use this connection in the service() method.
How would I do this with JSP?

[Tom Arons]

You could put the code in jspInit() although this makes the JSP more like a servlet and less like a web presentation page. Scriplets are another possibility although this may not necessarily a good idea from a design view.

[Stephen Tallamy]

What would the best way to do this (from a design point of view) be then?

[Tom Arons]

Your idea of putting it in a servlet seems like a good design idea.

[Axel Janssen]

Hi ranchers.
It just me thinking loud . Understand this more as a request to the experts to comment on this:
In a fully fledged J2EE application the initialization of a database connection belongs in some sort of a data access layer and not in the presentation layer.
J2EE-architecture should support the easy substituition of a web-client frontend with other frontends such like a Swing-App or a Wap-Interface. So the backend data access logic should be very loosely coupled with the frontend.
In a pure webApp (where the probability of the need to support other client types in the future change path is very low) you might put it into a bean queried from the jspInit() or in the Controller servlet of a ModelViewController architecture.
It seems to be not very intelligent to put it in a taglib, because you cannot call the taglib code from jspInit(). So you can`t use the session life-cycle stuff and the connection is initialized everytime the JSP is invoked.
Axel
[ January 09, 2002: Message edited by: Axel Janssen ]

[Roopa Bagur]

How about creating a database bean which handles the connection & then use <useBean> tag in the jsp.

Originally posted by Stephen Tallamy:
I'm new to JSP but quite familiar with Servlets. I'm trying to understand how you would go about initialising a connection to a Database with JSP.
With a Servlet I would create a module levelConnection object in the init() method and then use this connection in the service() method.
How would I do this with JSP?

[Mark Spritzler]

I agree with Roopa. You want to seperate any database connection etc, from the presentation layer. the use of a JavaBean, EJB or other Servlet is the best way to do this. If using another Servlet, the purpose of that Servlet should be database access only, and no other services.
Mark