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Scope of object in JSP

I am new to Java and started exploring it a little bit.
I know this is silly question but i did not find any supporting blog or article on net which will clarify my doubt.
I want to know the scope of Java object.
Consider a scenario: Suppose i am accessing a page in browser say "index" which is using object X with some value it it and if i refresh the page can i get the previous value of object X?
If yes, how does it holds? because it all together a different request and how does it recognize that it is the same request?
Thanks in Advance

I am heavily recommending you to read the official docs on Object scope.
There are four possible scopes:
scope="page"--The object is accessible only from within the JSP page where it was created.
scope="request"--The object is accessible from any JSP page servicing the same HTTP request that is serviced by the JSP page that created the object.
scope="session"--The object is accessible from any JSP page sharing the same HTTP session as the JSP page that created the object.
scope="application"--The object is accessible from any JSP page used in the same Web application (within any single Java virtual machine) as the JSP page that created the object.
Here is the official docs link

This question is more to do with server side retention I assume when you say "if I refresh the page". If a servlet had stored the value that was presented on the page then yes, it would still show it on the page.
If the question was based around java applets and the value had not been persisted and just entered into a textbox then no, it would not still be there.
If you want to know about object scope you might consider rephrasing your question with an example. Most web scenarios with browsers for instance may use a framework such as Spring which is a little more complicated than just object scope.
If you want to learn more about web scope consider looking at this oracle page on the servlet life cycle.

You can store and retrieve objects by saving them as attributes in a session (HttpSession object) using:
public void setAttribute(java.lang.String name, java.lang.Object value)
public java.lang.Object getAttribute(java.lang.String name)
For example, I can save a user's score on a multi-page quiz:
session.setAttribute("score", (Integer) value);
score = ((Integer) (session.getAttribute("score"))).intValue();
This is persistent to traversing/refreshing pages. Even though it is not the same request, it is the same session.

MVC Architecture issue

I have been reading a lot on MVC but really don't know if i am clear on the concepts of MVC or not
recently developed an application what i did is
1)on jsp load called a function
2)using AJAX called a servlet and servlet is there performing all the logic
3)servlet called a java bean and a java class to perform some logic and return result
4)based on the result returned form the class i am displaying an image say if result is 1 then image A ,if 0 then Image b
5)on servlets POST method i am using out.println()-->to write the complete output
6)the function on jsp after returning the call will set the innetHTML of required div by the output generated by the servlet
now say the output servlet is producing is the table
instance name|instance state
now if i want at some time to change the display for this table to say
instance state|instance name
to do the above mentioned change i have to recompile my servlet and redeploy the war
is it really a MVC?
and someone suggested me to use JSON store object of a bean containing data as JSON and then return the JSON object to the jsp
and at jsp using this object contruct the table!
any pointers on this will be of great help!!

Whether you have to redeploy usually depends on your development environment. If your using an IDE that builds automatically as you make changes, and the server is run from the IDE you are using, you may not need to rebuild the war. You can always try to view the source code to see if you need to redeploy. Back end code usually has to be redeployed.

Based on the ajax reponse obtained.
You can hide or show the images that you tend to.
How about getting the image link instead of out.print printing the bytes[] if i am not wrong.
When you want to redirect to another page, how about redirecting it from the servlet itself using response redirect.

Lets have a quick look at what is MVC?
MVC(Mode-view-controller ) as the name suggests is software architecture pattern , which encourages application to have its Model Classes (i.e domain models / DTOs) views (i.e can be JSP, JSON etc) and controller (i.e Servlet) to be as modularized as possible so that it encourages re-usability, loose-coupling between the different layers and Seperation of Concerns.
So the key idea behind this to encourage Seperation of Concerns .
Say i want to change the view from JSP to freemarker view , if MVC is tighly followed , i should be able to accomplish the change with minimum to no impact to Controller layer (i.e Servlets)
Well you see this can only be achieved if had clear layer separation in my webapp.
If i had just scattered all the functions without regard to MVC like having views generated from the Servlet, or making service level calls like accessing the DB directly from the Controller etc is bad because any change in the view or the Database layer will cause massive changes at the Servlet .
So to answer your question , your servlet should not directly produce the HTML output.
Store all the objects that would want to generate view in Request Attribute and access it in JSP
And to recompile Sevlet doesnt mean you dont follow MVC , just that by following MVC your changes are minimal and are grouped at a single place.
For now drop JSON concept , make it plain and simple
Go through this tutorial , which fairly explain you how to achieve a neat MVC
Jsp MVC tutorial.
Once you grasp , you can always add more complex things like JSON, AJAX , Asynchronous Request etc

Multipage environment in GWT

I have been developing an AJAX web application using GWT. I've read several blogs and forums about this question and left with no clear idea. I understand that GWT is an AJAX application, that supports only stand-alone web application. By stand-alone, I meant GWT to be a single web page that would suffice the user requirements. However the use case I have is pretty complex and I'm stuck in this use case that doesn't let me proceed.
My usecase(s) goes like this:
Usecase #1: There is an order entry form where user will enter a search string to search for a particular item. With GWT, I could display the result in a table (say celltable). However, when I click a column in the cellTable, I want the value of the column to be sent to the server and display another page that will display only the details of the selected column. I'm not sure how to accomplish this.
Usecase #2: Let's say the web application I develop is called "InventoryControl" and I have different requirements such as:
display Available stock
display Order stock
display Manufactured unit
and Using Java servlets, I could just type http://localhost/availableStock?stockId=1234 on my browser to get the "Display available stock" for the given stockId and then http://localhost:orderStock?stockId=1234 to get the "display order stock" and similarly "display manufactured unit". Is the same possible using GWT? i.e. when I type http://localhost/availableStock?stockId=1234, is it possible to read the parameter being passed and then display the corresponding page?
If these are not meant to be guaranteed by GWT, should I stick with Plain old JAVA servlets/JSP?
Thanks in advance.

Ashok - Please note, what filip suggests above does not require multiple "pages" in the sense of additional html host pages. You can build a panel holding your display of the details, and swap it into the rootpanel of your host in the onSuccess() of your rpc call. The GWT history mechanism allows you to assign anchors to these "places" and provide a mechanism to map these anchors to specific display classes in your code.

GWT already has a mechanism for handling multiple page applications. Have a look at Activities and Places. You can define each page as a place in your application, and use the GWT mechanism to go from place to place at any time. Using places also allows you to easily add tokens/query parameters to each "page", in an OO manner, without having to worry about populating/querying the URL directly. Have a good read of the link!

portlet class variable

http://wpcertification.blogspot.com/2009/03/understanding-standard-portlet-life.html
at this page there is a sentence like: "The Portal server will create only one instance of portlet per JVM"
What does it mean? Is it means that; if i use class variable in my portlet, all users will use the same values?
I have a problem like this. I am keeping page number of a jsp page, in a class variable. And if my friend open this page with his computer, he always seeing the same page with me!!!
Any ideas?

Portlets (like servlets) can service multiple requests concurrently. They are scoped to the application and should be threadsafe.
You should not use member variables for per-user state. Request scope data should be held in the request (or possibly as render parameters). If you want user data to persist across requests, you should use the session.

Managing webapp session data/controller flow for multiple tabs

I have a Java web application which stores some data in the session. The data in the session changes as the user interacts with the application (e.g. flow is managed by a controller, each controller has several form pages, on each form page some data is updated in the session and flow goes to the next form page).
The problem is that some users are opening more than one tab to the application, each tab with a different step in the flow. At this point data in the session is messed up since the tabs share the same session (app uses cookie managed sessions).
Telling the users to use different browsers to avoid sharing the same session id (e.g. one Firefox window and one IE window) is not an option since surely at some point somebody will forget to do this and instead use tabs, thus messing up their data.
Adding some verifications that detect that another flow is requested from another tab and display a message to the user saying this is not allowed is not an option either since it pisses of the users and we don't want that do we? :D
The fact is that using another tab is useful for the users because they are more efficient in what they use the application for, so I am keeping this option. But the question now is how best to manage the one session data for the more tabs?
What I thought of, was to have the controller generate a token when it starts the flow and pass this token to each form page which in turn sends it back to identify itself. If another tab requests the same controller action when there is an ongoing flow then generate another token and pass that around.
Basically, I want each flow to have a token and inside the session I won't just keep one set of data but have a set of data for each token and then match requests based on the token.
Now the problem is that this approach will need a lot of rewritings to the application and I was wondering if there is a best practice for managing such a situation or can someone suggest other approaches. I am open to ideas.
Have you encountered this situation? How did you handle it?

This is usually done by assigning a windowId for each tab/window and passing it on each request. Jsf supports this via orchestra. Spring mvc will support it in the next version.
I recently needed this for a simple case, so I implemented it myself. Took half an hour. However, my scope was very limited:
pass a windowId with each request, and return it back for the next request. The first time - generate it.
for any attribute you want to store in the session, put a Map<String, Object> where the key is the windowId

This is exactly what Seam was created to handle. In Seam there's a concept called a Conversation which basically does exactly what you are explaining. Conversations are basically are a way to divide the Session into many pieces that can expire at some timeout. You can look at the source code for org.jboss.seam.core.Manager class to see how it's actually implemented and get inspired ;)

Depending on the complexity of your application, you may want to investigate implementing tabs within your application. This gives you wholesale control over the flow, while still providing users with the functionality they want. I'd argue it's, bugwise, the most robust solution, since you won't have a dependency on the way the browser handles sessions, minimising the number of "known unknowns".
Of course, there'll be potentially a large upfront cost to this, depending on how your application is structured. Without more information about your app, you're the best placed person to decide.

You can also try to wrap your application inside Adobe Air
And then limit your web application to be only accessable from this air. By doing this you dont need to consider the web browser fragmentation and their unique behaviour.