Writing the Response - Trying to generate an exception

[Neo Parker]

Hi,

I am practising Servlets. I am actually trying to generate the IllegalStateException, but in vain. This is what I am doing.

response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter p = response.getWriter();
p.println("Hello11!!!");
response.setContentType("application/pdf");
p.println("Hello222!!!");

I am getting both the text displayed. Shouldn't this generate the exception. The same happens when I do sendRedirect after writing the response. The redirection works fine. No exception at all.

I am using Tomcat 5.0.28. Is the result vendor-dependent? Then in exam, if there is a question with the snippet like the one above, which option should we choose, an exception or proper output?.

Thanks in advance.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Originally posted by Neo Parker:
Hi,

I am practising Servlets. I am actually trying to generate the IllegalStateException, but in vain. This is what I am doing.

response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter p = response.getWriter();
p.println("Hello11!!!");
response.setContentType("application/pdf");
p.println("Hello222!!!");

I am getting both the text displayed. Shouldn't this generate the exception. The same happens when I do sendRedirect after writing the response. The redirection works fine. No exception at all.

I am using Tomcat 5.0.28. Is the result vendor-dependent? Then in exam, if there is a question with the snippet like the one above, which option should we choose, an exception or proper output?.

Thanks in advance.

Howdy Neo !

1. Regarding 'public void setContentType(java.lang.String type)' :
It should not throw exception, not sure why do you think it should, Please take a look here:

http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/api/javax/servlet/ServletResponse.html

2. Regarding 'sendRedirect' : yes, it does throw java.lang.IllegalStateException

NOTE:if the response was *committed*, but if it is not, just imagine, some default buffer exists in servlet container implementation, then buffer contents just lost.

3. Servlet specification does *not* mandate any default buffer for HttpServletResponse, so if you see on the exam a question about sendRedirect behaviour after you wrote anything to writer - you should select IllegalStateException answer and don't assume that any buffer will handle the situation.

NOTE: JSP *does* have a default buffer which is defined in specification at size 8kb.

4. Tomcat servlet container has a HttpServletResponse implementation with a default buffer, so that's why you don't see exception during sendRedirect test example.

5. To reproduce the *expected* behaviour, just add 'ServletResponse.flushBuffer' before calling 'sendRedirect' You should get an exception in this case as written in java docs.

5.a. As an alternative - you might try 'public void setBufferSize(int size)' before writing to writer.

regards,
MZ

[Marc Peabody]

Originally posted by Neo Parker:
The same happens when I do sendRedirect after writing the response.

In most cases, you don't see exceptions until after the response has been committed.