Re: [OT] Which technology might I use for this web application?

David Segall wrote:

I apologise for this post which is probably off-topic but I can't post
it correctly until you respond!

Each instance of my application consists of a single web page that
displays the names of the users and a few check boxes, filled in by
the users, that indicate their preferences. All the users should be
able to see everybody else's choices.

I assume that I give all the users of one page a web address that
uniquely identifies their page and that some code on the server
generates the page from a database that contains the basic information
on the page and which is updated by changes to the users preferences.

Which Java based tools can I use? Can I write the server code in Java?

The standard Java technology for web applications is Servlets. For output-rich purposes (e.g. rendering anything but simple web pages), Java Server Pages (JSP) is a useful technology that runs on top of servlets. These things run inside a piece of software called a "servlet container", which handles quite a lot of the underlying server functions. Apache Tomcat is a popular, capable servlet container; some other containers include IBM Websphere and Bea WebLogic, and there are others.

Are there some tools that would make generating a GUI web page easier?

For a single web page? Learning any particular tool for this purpose would probably be more difficult than building the page directly. If you are looking for a complete technology stack, however, then there are tools that run on top of servlets/JSP to provide useful services. There is an open source project called Struts that helps in implementing a model-view-control GUI paradigm in a web application. JSP includes a feature called "custom actions", implemented via "tag libraries", that allow a developer to use HTML-like tags to describe in-page logic and behavior such as looping, branching, accessing server resources, etc.. There is a wide variety of tag libraries available that you could use with a web application, from the JSTL to a variety of special purpose libraries. You could write your own if you wanted to do.

What should I use for database access?

Java database access pretty much all goes through JDBC at some level. Look at the java.sql package for the standard JDBC classes and interfaces. Some tag libraries (see above) include JSP custom tags for performing DB accesses, or you can do it directly in your own Java code. Your question is a bit vague, so I'm not sure whether I've really answered it.

                                         Maybe the preceding paragraph
is wrong and my application should be an Applet?

The advantage (if you want to call it that) of an applet is that you can implement the GUI with AWT/Swing. In addition, the GUI runs on the client side, rather than on the server side, which may make it a bit more responsive. On the other hand, the browser must have a JVM installed (recent I.E. doesn't come with one), and you face a slew of version compatibility issues. Plus, the added flexibility of Swing comes with considerable added complexity. All in all, I would never recommend an applet where a standard HTML interface is sufficient.

                                                  Is there a preferred
IDE for writing and testing this application?

No. There are a variety of Java IDEs, and many of them support servlet / JSP development. The Eclipse IDE, with one of the several Servlet / JSP plugins, would be one alternative. There are JSP / servlet test frameworks that do not require a servlet container, and others that do.

I should state that I am
trying to minimise the amount of code that I write and that speed and
resources are not an issue.

Then I recommend a plain JSP for the GUI presentation. I am not entirely clear on the required back-end logic, but this could be implemented in one or more Javabeans associated with the JSP, by a controller servlet, or with custom tags, depending on various factors. If the whole application really is in one page, then a separate controller servlet probably is overkill. For the minimum coding on your part, I think JSP with appropriate use of JSTL custom tags might be the way to go.

--
John Bollinger
jobollin@xxxxxxxxxxx



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