Creating a Simple Web Application with Embedded Jetty
Ahoy there mateys! Today, we’ll be exploring the high seas of web development with Embedded Jetty. If you’re looking to create a simple web application using Embedded Jetty, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up a Maven project, creating a basic Servlet and JSP page, and deploying it to an Embedded Jetty server. So hoist the main sail and let’s set course!
Setting up a Maven Project
Before we can start coding, we need to set up our development environment. Embedded Jetty is easy to use with Maven, a popular Java build tool. First, make sure you have Maven installed on your system. Once that’s done, open up your favorite IDE and create a new Maven project.
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.example</groupId>
<artifactId>my-web-app</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>jetty-server</artifactId>
<version>9.4.31.v20200723</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>
In the pom.xml
file, we’ve specified our Maven project’s metadata such as groupId
, artifactId
, and version
. We’ve also specified that we’re creating a web application packaged as a WAR file, and included a dependency on the jetty-server
artifact.
Creating a Servlet and JSP Page
With our project set up, it’s time to create our first Servlet and JSP page. A Servlet is a Java class that extends the javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
class and handles incoming HTTP requests. A JSP page is a template that can be used to dynamically generate HTML.
public class HelloServlet extends HttpServlet {
@Override
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
request.setAttribute("name", "world");
request.getRequestDispatcher("/hello.jsp").forward(request, response);
}
}
In the above code, we’ve created a simple HelloServlet
that sets the name
attribute to “world” and forwards the request to a JSP page called hello.jsp
.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello ${name}!</h1>
</body>
</html>
In the hello.jsp
file, we’ve used the ${name}
expression language to output the value of the name
attribute set by the Servlet.
Deploying to an Embedded Jetty Server
Now that we have our Servlet and JSP page, it’s time to deploy our web application to an Embedded Jetty server. Fortunately, Embedded Jetty makes this process a breeze.
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Server server = new Server(8080);
WebAppContext webAppContext = new WebAppContext();
webAppContext.setContextPath("/");
webAppContext.setWar("my-web-app/target/my-web-app-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war");
server.setHandler(webAppContext);
server.start();
server.join();
}
In the main()
method, we’ve created a new Server
instance on port 8080
. We then create a WebAppContext
and set its context path to /
and the path to our WAR file. Finally, we set the WebAppContext
as the handler for the Server
and start the server.
Testing the Web Application
To test our web application, we simply need to navigate to http://localhost:8080
in our web browser. We should see a simple “Hello world!” message displayed on the page.
Congratulations, you’ve successfully created a simple web application using Embedded Jetty! From here, the sky’s the limit. You can add more Servlets, JSP pages, and even integrate with databases or other external services.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve explored the basics of creating a simple web application using Embedded Jetty. We covered setting up a Maven project, creating a basic Servlet and JSP page, and deploying it to an Embedded Jetty server. Remember to use code examples, analogies, and storytelling techniques to make your web development journey more enjoyable and productive. Keep exploring and happy coding!