Java Servlet POST Example

This example demonstrates how to use Servlet’s doPost() method to handle POST requests

In our previous tutorial Java Servlet Example I demonstrated the usage of the doGet() method. Now I am going to show you how to use doPost() method to handle a form POST submission. Java Servlets can handle various types of requests. The list below shows all methods and their purpose

METHOD

SERVLET METHOD

PURPOSE

GET

doGet()

Retrieves the resource at the speci ed URL

HEAD

doHead()

Identical to GET, except only the headers are returned

POST

doPost()

Typically used for web form submission

PUT

doPut()

Stores the supplied entity at the URL

DELETE

doDelete()

Deletes the resource identified by the URL

OPTIONS

doOptions()

Returns which HTTP methods are allowed

TRACE

doTrace()

Used for diagnostic purposes

 

Project Structure

In our project we do need three files. pom.xml – to set Maven dependencies and build properties, web.xml – to configure the Servlet and the servlet itself as a java class

Servlet POST Example project structure

Servlet POST Example project structure




Maven pom.xml File

<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/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

	<groupId>net.javatutorial.tutorials</groupId>
	<artifactId>ServletPOSTExample</artifactId>
	<version>1</version>
	<packaging>war</packaging>

	<name>Servlet POST Example</name>
	<url>https://javatutorial.net</url>

	<properties>
		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
			<artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
			<version>3.1.0</version>
			<scope>provided</scope>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
	
	<build>
		<finalName>servletpost</finalName>
        <sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
        
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <warSourceDirectory>src/main/webapp</warSourceDirectory>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

As in the previous tutorial, we use the dependency javax.servlet-api for our Servlet and the maven-war-plugin to build the web-app

Mapping the Servlet in web.xml File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee" 
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd"
	version="3.1">
	
	<display-name>Simple Servlet Application</display-name>

	<servlet>
		<servlet-name>servletPost</servlet-name>
		<servlet-class>net.javatutorial.tutorials.ServletPOST</servlet-class>
		<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
	</servlet>
	
	<servlet-mapping>
		<servlet-name>servletPost</servlet-name>
		<url-pattern>/welcome</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

The servlet is given a name “servletPost” which points to the java class ServletPOST

In servlet-mapping we assign the url “/welcome” to our servlet

The Servlet Class

package net.javatutorial.tutorials;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

public class ServletPOST extends HttpServlet {

	private static final long serialVersionUID = -1641096228274971485L;

	@Override
	protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) 
			throws ServletException, IOException {
		
		// set response headers
		response.setContentType("text/html");
		response.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
		
		// create HTML form
		PrintWriter writer = response.getWriter();
		writer.append("<!DOCTYPE html>\r\n")
			  .append("<html>\r\n")
			  .append("		<head>\r\n")
			  .append("			<title>Form input</title>\r\n")
			  .append("		</head>\r\n")
			  .append("		<body>\r\n")
			  .append("			<form action=\"welcome\" method=\"POST\">\r\n")
			  .append("				Enter your name: \r\n")
			  .append("				<input type=\"text\" name=\"user\" />\r\n")
			  .append("				<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" />\r\n")
			  .append("			</form>\r\n")
			  .append("		</body>\r\n")
			  .append("</html>\r\n");
	}

	@Override
	protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) 
			throws ServletException, IOException {
		String user = request.getParameter("user");
		
		response.setContentType("text/html");
		response.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
		
		// create HTML response
		PrintWriter writer = response.getWriter();
		writer.append("<!DOCTYPE html>\r\n")
			  .append("<html>\r\n")
			  .append("		<head>\r\n")
			  .append("			<title>Welcome message</title>\r\n")
			  .append("		</head>\r\n")
			  .append("		<body>\r\n");
		if (user != null && !user.trim().isEmpty()) {
			writer.append("	Welcome " + user + ".\r\n");
			writer.append("	You successfully completed this javatutorial.net example.\r\n");
		} else {
			writer.append("	You did not entered a name!\r\n");
		}
		writer.append("		</body>\r\n")
			  .append("</html>\r\n");
	}	
	
}

In the code above the doGet() method is used to display the form. The the client (browser) calls the url http://yoururl.com:8080/servletpost/welcome with GET request it sees the form below

Input form

Input form

The servlet is rendered as HTML in client’s browser, which looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
		<head>
			<title>Form input</title>
		</head>
		<body>
			<form action="welcome" method="POST">
				Enter your name: 
				<input type="text" name="user" />
				<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
			</form>
		</body>
</html>

After submit the doPost() method in the servlet is called. Here we build a response based on user’s input. The user receives a greeting message if the name field is filled-out correctly

Post response

Post response

… or a warning message if the name field in the form is left empty

Error message if name is missing

Error message if name is missing

 

You can find the project source in our GitHub repository.

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