[java] How to use Servlets and Ajax?

I'm very new to web apps and Servlets and I have the following question:

Whenever I print something inside the servlet and call it by the webbrowser, it returns a new page containing that text. Is there a way to print the text in the current page using Ajax?

Normally you cant update a page from a servlet. Client (browser) has to request an update. Eiter client loads a whole new page or it requests an update to a part of an existing page. This technique is called Ajax.

The right way to update the page currently displayed in the user's browser (without reloading it) is to have some code executing in the browser update the page's DOM.

That code is typically javascript that is embedded in or linked from the HTML page, hence the AJAX suggestion. (In fact, if we assume that the updated text comes from the server via an HTTP request, this is classic AJAX.)

It is also possible to implement this kind of thing using some browser plugin or add-on, though it may be tricky for a plugin to reach into the browser's data structures to update the DOM. (Native code plugins normally write to some graphics frame that is embedded in the page.)

Using bootstrap multi select

Ajax

function() { $.ajax({
    type : "get",
    url : "OperatorController",
    data : "input=" + $('#province').val(),
    success : function(msg) {
    var arrayOfObjects = eval(msg); 
    $("#operators").multiselect('dataprovider',
    arrayOfObjects);
    // $('#output').append(obj);
    },
    dataType : 'text'
    });}
}

In Servlet

request.getParameter("input")

I will show you a whole example of servlet & how do ajax call.

Here, we are going to create the simple example to create the login form using servlet.

index.html

<form>  
   Name:<input type="text" name="username"/><br/><br/>  
   Password:<input type="password" name="userpass"/><br/><br/>  
   <input type="button" value="login"/>  
</form>  

Here is ajax Sample

       $.ajax
        ({
            type: "POST",           
            data: 'LoginServlet='+name+'&name='+type+'&pass='+password,
            url: url,
        success:function(content)
        {
                $('#center').html(content);           
            }           
        });

LoginServlet Servlet Code :-

    package abc.servlet;

import java.io.File;


public class AuthenticationServlet extends HttpServlet {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

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

    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {

        try{
        HttpSession session = request.getSession();
        String username = request.getParameter("name");
        String password = request.getParameter("pass");

                /// Your Code
out.println("sucess / failer")
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            // System.err.println("Initial SessionFactory creation failed.");
            ex.printStackTrace();
            System.exit(0);
        } 
    }
}

$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "url to hit on servelet",
data:   JSON.stringify(json),
dataType: "json",
success: function(response){
    // we have the response
    if(response.status == "SUCCESS"){
        $('#info').html("Info  has been added to the list successfully.<br>"+
        "The  Details are as follws : <br> Name : ");

    }else{
        $('#info').html("Sorry, there is some thing wrong with the data provided.");
    }
},
 error: function(e){
   alert('Error: ' + e);
 }
});

Ajax (also AJAX) an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications. With Ajax, web applications can send data to, and retrieve data from, a server asynchronously Below is example code:

Jsp page java script function to submit data to servlet with two variable firstName and lastName:

function onChangeSubmitCallWebServiceAJAX()
    {
      createXmlHttpRequest();
      var firstName=document.getElementById("firstName").value;
      var lastName=document.getElementById("lastName").value;
      xmlHttp.open("GET","/AJAXServletCallSample/AjaxServlet?firstName="
      +firstName+"&lastName="+lastName,true)
      xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=handleStateChange;
      xmlHttp.send(null);

    }

Servlet to read data send back to jsp in xml format ( You could use text as well. Just you need to change response content to text and render data on javascript function.)

/**
 * @see HttpServlet#doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
 */
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {

    String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName");
    String lastName = request.getParameter("lastName");

    response.setContentType("text/xml");
    response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
    response.getWriter().write("<details>");
    response.getWriter().write("<firstName>"+firstName+"</firstName>");
    response.getWriter().write("<lastName>"+lastName+"</lastName>");
    response.getWriter().write("</details>");
}