Dynamic JSP

[Steve Dyke]

I need some direction. I need to know how to accomplish a part of my web app design. I have a JSP with static data and butttons. I will use some of the buttons to perform operations on the data. I need these buttons only accessible to certain types of users. I have the user type determined in a connection class as a variable. Do I try and make the JSP dynamic or do I need to create a JSP for each type of user?

Please help.

[Bear Bibeault]

It's quite easy to make role-based decisions in a JSP. It could be something as simple as:

<c:if test="$(user.canDelete)>
  <button>Delete</button>
</c:if>

is that the sort of thing you are asking about?

[Steve Dyke]

Yes this is what I need. However, how do I declare my variables in my classes so that the JSP's can use them.

My app works like this. The user types in id and password on a JSP, a servlet fires a class to connect to an AS400 file that holds user data. In this class(Code below) I assign values to variables. Then a main menu pops up(JSP). The user can now choose to open a engineering drawing data inquiry form(JSP). It is this form I need to control by user type.

 
package com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational;
 
import java.sql.*;
 
import com.ibm.as400.access.*;
 
public class LogOnConnection{
public String userfname;
public String userlname;
public String usertype1;
public String username;
public String userpassword;
public String unEncriptedpassWord;

public LogOnConnection(String arg0, String arg1){

AS400JDBCDataSource datasource = new AS400JDBCDataSource("gvas400");
    datasource.setUser("id");
    datasource.setPassword("password");
try
 {
Connection connection = datasource.getConnection();
   
 
String sql = "SELECT * FROM webprddt6.appusrprf1 WHERE usrid1 = '" + arg0.toUpperCase() + "'";
 
Statement sment = connection.createStatement();
 
ResultSet rs = sment.executeQuery(sql);
   
if(rs.next()){



userfname = rs.getString("fname"); /* the column index can also be used */
userlname = rs.getString("lname");
usertype1 = rs.getString("usrtype1");
username = "Welcome " + userfname+userlname+ "- "+usertype1;
userpassword = rs.getString("pword");

PasswordClass unEncriptedpassWord = PasswordClass.getPword(userpassword);

if (arg1.equals(unEncriptedpassWord.getPassWord())){

}
else {
username = "Welcome You are logged on as a Guest";
userpassword = "";
usertype1 = "Guest";

rs.close(); 
sment.close();
}
}
else {

username = "Welcome You are logged on as a Guest!";
userpassword = "";
usertype1 = "Guest";

rs.close(); 
sment.close(); 
}
}
 catch (SQLException se)
  {
 System.err.println("Exception creating the database connection: "+se);
 
 }
}
}
 
   

[Bear Bibeault]

Before your servlet controller forwards to its JSP it can place any construct it likes in the request as scoped variables that can be accessed within the JSP.

OR...

When the user logs in, a user object is placed in the session which contains the information for the current user. This can include information on what role or permissions the user posesses. This is usually the strategy I use rather than looking such stuff up on a page by page basis.

You might find this article helpful. Even though I wrote it to concentrate on how to use Maps with scriptless JSPs, one of the examples I employed fits nicely into this discussion.
[ May 09, 2007: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Steve Dyke]

First thanks for helping me. I am very unlearned in this area but my boss wants results. The second suggestion looks the best. How can I set up a User class based on the data received in my connection class?

[Steve Dyke]

This does not do anything eventhough a System.out.println(MainMenuServlet.userTypeString) produces "Administrator" in the calling Servlet.

 
<c:if test='$(MainMenuServlet.userTypeString == "Administrator")'>
<button>Delete</button>
</c:if>

[Bear Bibeault]

<c:if test='$(MainMenuServlet.userTypeString == "Administrator")'>

What is MainMenuServlet.userTypeString?

It doesn't look like anything that a JSP will have access to.

In order for data to be accessible from a JSP, it must be placed as a scoped variable on one of the context scopes. For example, to set a variable in request scope you'd use the request.setAttribute() method.

[Ben Souther]

If you want a short and simple example of a servlet that binds a bean to one of the scope objects in order to make its properties available to a JSP, see:
http://simple.souther.us

Look for SimpleMVC.

This example was written to work with older versions of the JSP spec.
If you're using a JSP 2.0 compliant container, you won't need the <jsp:useBean .../> tag and you can use the cleaner ${bean.property} syntax instead of the <jsp:getProperty .../> tags employed in the example.

Either way the servlet code and the general idea will be the same.

[Bear Bibeault]

Sounds like it's time to update your excellent example code Ben!

[Steve Dyke]

This is my servlet code:

package com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational;
 
import java.io.IOException;
 
import javax.servlet.RequestDispatcher;
import javax.servlet.Servlet;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;
 
import com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.Drawing;
import com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.DrawingConnectionClass;
 
public class DrawingInquiryServlet extends HttpServlet implements Servlet {
/* (non-Java-doc)
 * @see javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet#HttpServlet()
 */
public DrawingInquiryServlet() {
super();
}
public static String drawingnumber;
public static String getFilePath;
public static String getFilePath2;
public static String getliteralErrString;
public static String getErrMsg;
public static String drawingString;
public static String drawingRel;
public static String drawingPend;
public static String drawingTitle;
public static String firstName;
public static String lastName;
public static String userText;

/* (non-Java-doc)
 * @see javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet#doGet(HttpServletRequest arg0, HttpServletResponse arg1)
 */
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest arg0, HttpServletResponse arg1) throws ServletException, IOException {
this.doPost(arg0, arg1);
}
 
/* (non-Java-doc)
 * @see javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet#doPost(HttpServletRequest arg0, HttpServletResponse arg1)
 */
protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest arg0, HttpServletResponse arg1) throws ServletException, IOException {
String drawingnumber  = arg0.getParameter("dwgno");

DrawingConnectionClass conn = new DrawingConnectionClass(drawingnumber);
ErrorHandling getErrMsg = ErrorHandling.getErr(conn.errorString);
//ErrorHandling getErrMsg = ErrorHandling.getErr(arg0.getParameter("dwgno"));
getliteralErrString = conn.literalerrorString;

HttpSession session = arg0.getSession(true);
if (getliteralErrString.equals("NoError")){

Drawing drawingString = Drawing.getDrawing(drawingnumber);
Released drawingRel = Released.getRel(conn.released);
Pending drawingPend = Pending.getPend(conn.pending);
Title drawingTitle = Title.getTitle(conn.title);
FirstName firstName = FirstName.getFname(conn.fname);
LastName lastName = LastName.getLname(conn.lname);
UserType userText = UserType.getUType(MainMenuServlet.userTypeString);


getFilePath = conn.filePath;
getFilePath2 = conn.filePath2;


session.setAttribute("errorBean", getErrMsg);
session.setAttribute("dwgno", drawingString);
session.setAttribute("dwgno1", drawingString);
session.setAttribute("dwgrel", drawingRel);
session.setAttribute("dwgpend", drawingPend);
session.setAttribute("dwgtitle", drawingTitle);
session.setAttribute("fname", firstName);
session.setAttribute("lname", lastName);
session.setAttribute("dwgnoget", drawingString);
session.setAttribute("userTypeBean", userText);



}
else{

Drawing drawingString = Drawing.getDrawing("");
Released drawingRel = Released.getRel("");
Pending drawingPend = Pending.getPend("");
Title drawingTitle = Title.getTitle("");
FirstName firstName = FirstName.getFname("");
LastName lastName = LastName.getLname("");
UserType userText = UserType.getUType("");

getFilePath = "";
getFilePath2 = "";

session.setAttribute("errorBean", getErrMsg);
session.setAttribute("dwgno", drawingString);
session.setAttribute("dwgno1", drawingString);
session.setAttribute("dwgrel", drawingRel);
session.setAttribute("dwgpend", drawingPend);
session.setAttribute("dwgtitle", drawingTitle);
session.setAttribute("fname", firstName);
session.setAttribute("lname", lastName);
session.setAttribute("dwgnoget", drawingString);
session.setAttribute("userTypeBean", userText);



}


RequestDispatcher disp = getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/DrawingDisplay.jsp");
disp.forward(arg0, arg1);

}
}
    

This is my JSP code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
 
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c"%>
<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<META name="GENERATOR" content="IBM Software Development Platform">
<META http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<LINK href="/DrawingInquiry/theme/Master.css" rel="stylesheet"
type="text/css">
<TITLE>DrawingDisplay.jsp</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><IMG border="0" src="/DrawingInquiry/Zodiac Z Blue (Hi Res).gif" width="73"
height="76"> <B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color="navy" size="+2">WEBER
AIRCRAFT LP</FONT></B><BR><BR>
<B><FONT size="+1" face="Times New Roman" color="navy">
Drawing Inquiry Data</FONT></B></P><HR>
<B><FONT size="+2" color="red"><jsp:useBean id="errorBean"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.ErrorHandling" scope="session"></jsp:useBean>
<jsp:getProperty name="errorBean" property="errMsg" /></FONT></B>
<BR>
<B><B><FONT size="+2" color="red"><jsp:useBean id="userTypeBean"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.UserType" scope="session"></jsp:useBean>
<jsp:getProperty name="userTypeBean" property="userType" /></FONT></B></B>
<TABLE border="0" width="742">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TH width="132" align="right"><FONT color="blue">Drawing Number:</FONT></TH>
<TD width="134"><jsp:useBean id="dwgno"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.Drawing" scope="session"></jsp:useBean><jsp:getProperty
name="dwgno" property="dwgName" /></TD>
<TH align="right" width="89"><FONT color="blue" >Title:</FONT></TH>
<TD width="382"><jsp:useBean id="dwgtitle"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.Title" scope="session"></jsp:useBean><jsp:getProperty
name="dwgtitle" property="dwgTitle"/></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH align="right" width="132"><FONT color="red">Pending Revision:</FONT></TH>
<TD width="134"><jsp:useBean id="dwgpend"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.Pending" scope="session"></jsp:useBean><jsp:getProperty
name="dwgpend" property="dwgPend" /></TD>
<TH align="right" width="89"><FONT color="blue">Revision:</FONT></TH>
<TD width="382"><jsp:useBean id="dwgrel"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.Released" scope="session"></jsp:useBean><jsp:getProperty
name="dwgrel" property="dwgRel" /></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD width="132" align="right"><FONT color="blue"><B>Customer:</B></FONT></TD>
<TD width="134"></TD>
<TD align="right" width="89"><FONT color="blue" ><B>Job Number:</B></FONT></TD>
<TD width="382"></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD width="132" align="right"><B><FONT color="blue" >Sheets:</FONT></B></TD>
<TD width="134"></TD>
<TD width="89" align="right"><B><FONT color="blue" >Size:</FONT></B></TD>
<TD width="382"></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD width="132" align="right"><B><FONT color="blue" >Class:</FONT></B></TD>
<TD width="134"></TD>
<TD width="89"></TD>
<TD width="382"></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD width="132" align="right"><B><FONT color="blue" >Stop Order:</FONT></B></TD>
<TD width="134"></TD>
<TD width="89" align="right"><B><FONT color="blue" >Lift Stop:</FONT></B></TD>
<TD width="382"></TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
<P><B><FONT size="+1" color="red">***********************ISSUED***********************</FONT></B></P><TABLE
border="0" width="740">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TH width="204" align="center"><B></B><FONT color="blue">First Name</FONT></TH>
<TH width="257" align="center"><FONT color="blue">Last Name</FONT></TH>
<TD width="66" align="center"><FONT color="blue"><B>Date</B></FONT></TD>
<TD width="103" align="center"><FONT color="blue"><B>Approval Date</B></FONT></TD>
<TD align="center" width="107"><FONT color="blue"><B>Distribute Date</B></FONT></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD width="204">
<jsp:useBean id="fname"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.FirstName" scope="session"></jsp:useBean><jsp:getProperty
name="fname" property="firstName" /></TD>
<TD width="257"><jsp:useBean id="lname"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.LastName" scope="session"></jsp:useBean><jsp:getProperty
name="lname" property="lastName" /></TD>
<TD width="66"></TD>
<TD width="103"></TD>
<TD width="107"></TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
<P><B><FONT size="+1" color="red"></FONT></B></P>
<HR size="4">
<TABLE border="0" width="644">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD width="96" height="50" align="center"><FORM action="/DrawingInquiry/ViewDrawing"><INPUT
type="submit" value="View Drawing"><BR>
</FORM>
</TD>
<TD width="368" height="50" align="center">
<FORM action="/DrawingInquiry/DrawingInquiryBaseServlet" name="seriesform"><INPUT
type="submit" name="anotherDrawing00"
value="Select Another Drawing in This Series"><BR>
<INPUT type="text" name="dwgnobase" size="0"></FORM>
</TD>
<TD width="169" height="50" align="center">
<FORM action="/DrawingInquiry/GetMainPageServlet"><INPUT
type="submit" name="anotherDrawing0" value="Look Up Another Drawing"><BR></FORM>
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD width="96"></TD>
<TD width="368"></TD>
<TD width="169"></TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
<c:if test='${userTypeBean.userType == "Administrator"}'>
<button>Delete</button>
</c:if>
<FORM action="/DrawingInquiry/ViewDrawing2"><INPUT type="submit" value="View Drawing 2"></FORM>

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
var x = "${dwgno.dwgName}";
document.seriesform.dwgnobase.value = Left(x,6);

function Left(str, n){
if (n <= 0)
    return "";
else if (n > String(str).length)
    return str;
else
    return String(str).substring(0,n);
}
 

//--></script>
 
</BODY>
</HTML>
 
    

[Steve Dyke]

How do I get this into a session attribute?

DrawingConnectionClass conn = new DrawingConnectionClass(drawingnumber);

[Ben Souther]

Originally posted by Bear Bibeault:
Sounds like it's time to update your excellent example code Ben!

Can't decide when to upgrade it to ONLY work with JSP2.0.
A lot of commercial app servers are still not fully 2.0 compliant.

[Steve Dyke]

Please look at my JSP code and tell me why this part is not working.

<c:if test='${userTypeBean.userType == "Administrator"}'><button>Delete</button></c:if>

[Bear Bibeault]

Originally posted by Ben Souther:
Can't decide when to upgrade it to ONLY work with JSP2.0.
A lot of commercial app servers are still not fully 2.0 compliant.

"Lead and they shall follow"

[BPS: DONE]
[ May 10, 2007: Message edited by: Ben Souther ]

[Bear Bibeault]

Originally posted by Steve Dyke:
Please look at my JSP code and tell me why this part is not working.

<c:if test='${userTypeBean.userType == "Administrator"}'><button>Delete</button></c:if>

Based upon your other post, I'd quess that userType does not contain what you think it contains.

By the way, not a good idea to spread the same issue across multiple posts...

[Steve Dyke]

Sorry about that. I am desprate. No matter what I try it fails. As I have posted my servlet and jsp code you can see my jsp has:

<B><B><FONT size="+2" color="red"><jsp:useBean id="userTypeBean"
type="com.ibm.drawinginquiry.rational.UserType" scope="session"></jsp:useBean>
<jsp:getProperty name="userTypeBean" property="userType" /></FONT></B></B>

This displays "Administrator" as big as day. Yet the EL does not recognize it for some reason.

[Bear Bibeault]

What does the renderred HTML look like? Are the JSTL and EL tags getting properly executed or are they showing up the HTML?

[Steve Dyke]

If you are asking if the HTML page displays properly it does. I did a cpoule of test one was javascript and an alert which showed "Administrator" as the content of the userTypeBean.userType. Also I changed the value of the userTypeBean.userType to "true" and took ot the condition part of the EL and it worked.

In your last post you said maybe what is in the userTypeBean.userType was not what I thought. Well I am having the same issues with:

 
UserType userText = UserType.getUType(MainMenuServlet.userTypeString);

System.out.println(userText.getUserType());
if(userText.getUserType().equals("Administrator")){
System.out.println("Match");
//session.setAttribute("userTypeBean", "true");
}
else{
System.out.println("NoMatch");
//session.setAttribute("userTypeBean", "false");
}
 

The:

System.out.println(userText.getUserType());
    

Produces "Administrator"

But:

if(userText.getUserType().equals("Administrator")){
    

Never finds a match.

Again thanks for all the help.

[Bear Bibeault]

But:

if(userText.getUserType().equals("Administrator")){

Never finds a match.

This clearly demonstrates that this is not an EL or even a JSP problem.

getUserType() is simply not returning the string "Administrator".

[Ben Souther]

Having looked at your other post:
https://coderanch.com/t/407022/java/java/Help-Me-Understand-Comparisons
I think your best bet, right now is to focus on the core Java issues (understanding the .equals() method and how and when to override it (and possibly the toString method) before trying to use these objects in JSP/Servlet application.

As Bear has mentioned it's getting very confusing, both for you and the people trying to help you now that the issues are spread out over multiple threads.
I'm going to close this thread.
Once you have a grasp on building objects that can be compared, you probably won't need any help on the JSP/Servlet end, but if you do, feel free to start another thread in the appropriate forum.

-Ben

[Bonk]
[ May 10, 2007: Message edited by: Ben Souther ]