Java - refresh opened html page from application - java

I have an application that creates a html page from app (I use freemarker). After that, I open the generated webpage from application using Desktop like this:
public void openPage() {
if (Desktop.isDesktopSupported()) {
try {
File file = new File("index.html");
Desktop.getDesktop().open(file);
} catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println("Error opening a html page.");
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Now, my question is: Is there a way to refresh the page from my application? I am changing the concent dynamically and I would like to refresh the page in the browser every few seconds.
Or would it be better to just update the page on background and refresh it directly in the html code using javascript?
Thanks for any tips!
EDIT: Note, that I would like to communicate back to my java application from some form on that webpage (for example sending parametres to specify the way my page is updated)

Use AJAX technology (jQuery pretty much fits your needs) to invoke a server side controller in your application. You can then negotiate the need for a data update. A JSON API is recommended for this. You can use Jackson for JSON-related operations in your Java code.
To save bandwidth, you could poll for only a boolean value to determine whether the server has new data since your last update (e.g. provide since=[some_timestamp] as request param) and query for the actual data only if it makes sense (that is, the server returned true).

Related

Is it possible to write text into a web page after it has loaded?

Let me get straight to an example to explain further.
final var socket = new java.net.ServerSocket(1234);
for (;;)
{
try (final var client = socket.accept())
{
client.getOutputStream().write("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n\r\n".concat(java.time.Instant.now().toString()).getBytes());
}
}
When I now open my browser of choice (Firefox cough) I'll receive the current time and date. The question now is how I can write to that socket at a later point in time.
hypothetical solution
Here's something I already tried, but doesn't work at all.
final var socket = new java.net.ServerSocket(1234);
for (;;)
{
try (final var client = socket.accept())
{
client.getOutputStream().write("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n\r\n".concat(java.time.Instant.now().toString()).getBytes());
client.getOutputStream().flush();
Thread.sleep(1000L);
client.getOutputStream().write("And another paragraph.".getBytes());
}
}
The result is a web page loading for approximately a single second, printing out the following result (may vary due to different date and time on your end).
2019-01-19T18:19:15.607192500Z
And another paragraph.
Instead I would like the see something like that:
print out the current time and date.
wait a second without the content of the web page changing.
print out the next paragraph.
How would I go about implementing that?
Is it possible for the server to write text into a web page after it is loaded? Yes it definitely is, but these days I suspect it it is rarely done. I started web development in the 1990s and back then that was a pretty common technique. We used it to write live chat messages to browsers with no Javascript. These days Javascript is ubiquitous and powerful, so using client-side Javascript to update a page will be the best option in most cases.
That said, the technologies we used for writing server-side updates back then should still work now. I suspect the reason you don't see updates in your browser is because it doesn't know it should start displaying the page before everything is loaded. Using chunked transfer encoding, a 1990s technology still supported by modern browsers, should resolve that. It it allows the server to indicate when a 'chunk' of data is complete and browsers will generally process each chunk immediately rather than wait for all the chunks to arrive.
The easiest way to use chunked transfer encoding is to use an HTTP library like Apache HttpComponents, then wrap your output stream in the appropriate class:
final var socket = new java.net.ServerSocket(1234);
for (;;)
{
try (final var client = socket.accept())
{
var outputStream = new ChunkedOutputStream(client.getOutputStream());
outputStream.write("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n\r\n".concat(java.time.Instant.now().toString()).getBytes());
outputStream.flush();
Thread.sleep(1000L);
outputStream.write("And another paragraph.".getBytes());
}
}

To get database updates using servlets or jsp

What I want is to get database updates.
i.e If any changes occur to the database or a new record is inserted it should notify to the user.
Up to know what I implemented is using jQuery as shown below
$(document).ready(function() {
var updateInterval = setInterval(function() {
$('#chat').load('Db.jsp?elect=<%=emesg%>');
},1000);
});
It worked fine for me, but my teacher told to me that it's not a good way to do recommended using comet or long polling technology.
Can anyone give me examples for getting database updates using comet or long polling
in servlets/jsp? I'm using Tomcat as server.
Just taking a shot in the dark since I don't know your exact environment... You could have the database trigger fire a call to a servlet each time a row is committed which would then run some code that looked like the following:
Get the script sessions that are active for the page that we want to update. This eliminates the need to check every reverse ajax script session that is running on the site. Once we have the script sessions we can use the second code block to take some data and update a table on the client side. All that the second code section does is send javascript to the client to be executed via the reverse ajax connection that is open.
String page = ServerContextFactory.get().getContextPath() + "/reverseajax/clock.html";
Browser.withPage(page, new Runnable() {
public void run() {
Util.setValue("clockDisplay", output);
}
});
// Creates a new Person bean.
Person person = new Person(true);
// Creates a multi-dimensional array, containing a row and the rows column data.
String[][] data = {
{person.getId(), person.getName(), person.getAddress(), person.getAge()+"", person.isSuperhero()+""}
};
// Call DWR's util which adds rows into a table. peopleTable is the id of the tbody and
// data conta
ins the row/column data.
Util.addRows("peopleTable", data);
Note that both of the above sections of code are pulled straight from the documentation examples # http://directwebremoting.org/dwr-demo/. These are only simple examples of how reverse ajax can sent data to the client, but your exact situation seems to be more dependent on how you receive the notification than how you update the client screen.
Without some type of database notification to the java code I think you will have to poll the system at set intervals. You could make the system a little more efficient even when polling by verifying that there are reverse ajax script sessions active for the page before polling the database for info.

Images not displaying after ajax function until workspace refresh

Background: I just finished a registration form for my site on my local host. Within the form users upload their first profile picture. The form is submitted with ajax, validated on the server side, and the image is written on the server side to a folder. Once the image is written I return that users username to the ajax success and then they are redirected to their newly created homepage.
Problem: When I test the form out on my local host all their data is imported into the db as expected. However the files are written to a folder within my eclipse workspace and it is not noticing the new data. I've tweaked my eclipse workspace preferences but it's refusing to refresh when the new images hit the files. So unfortunately, when the user is redirected to their homepage they are shown a 404 where their image should be. It will stay like this until I go into eclipse and refresh my workspace and then it shows up. I've figured out that the images are completely written to the file before the ajax success is called so the function isn't going too fast, the server (or eclipse workspace) is not refreshing.
Question: Is this something I should worry about when I transfer my site to a godaddy VPS? I am concerned that when users upload images the same thing will happen and they'll have to wait for however long it takes the server to realize there is new content. And this could be devastating to site popularity if I am displaying 404 images to users who are having their first experirience with the site. So Is there something I should do to prevent this problem on my local host. But more importantly do you think this will happen on a live server and if so what should I do?
Code: Here's my javascript code. So should I do anything in my success area to maybe check for this problem?
function addNewUser()
{
var form = new FormData();
var ajaxObject = getAjaxObject();
var gender = (getElement('registerMale').checked) ? "his" : "her";
form.append("userName", getValue('registerUserName'));
form.append("email", getValue('registerEmail'));
form.append("password", getValue('registerPassword'));
form.append("fName", getValue('registerFName'));
form.append("lName", getValue('registerLName'));
form.append("displayName", getValue('registerFName') + " " + getValue("registerLName"));
form.append("location", getValue('registerLocation'));
form.append("gender", gender);
form.append("currentDefault", getElement("registerCurrentDefault").files[0]);
form.append("discipline", getValue("registerDiscipline"));
form.append("birthDay", getValue("registerBirthDay"));
form.append("birthMonth", getValue("registerBirthMonth"));
form.append("birthYear", getValue("registerBirthYear"));
ajaxObject.open("POST", "addNewUser", true);
ajaxObject.send(form);
ajaxObject.onreadystatechange = function()
{
if(ajaxObject.readyState == 4 && ajaxObject.status == 200)
{
divLink("profile?user=" + ajaxObject.responseText);
}
};
}
This is not a problem to worry about.
Try running the app from the application server you are using. You will get the expected result.

How do I load test data into my GWT Widget?

I am using eclipse with the Google Toolkit and I have created a widget with a listbox, vertical split panel and a couple of buttons. What I am trying to do is have a list of files in a local directory listed in the listbox and I want to be able to click on a file and have it displayed in the top part of the split panel. I found out the hard way about browsers and file IO and not being able to use java.io.File.
What are my options? Can I put the data files inside a jar or something and have the widget read it in that way? I need to do this as a test run, to implement an new feature with working with the data. It's not going to be any kind of final server hosted application, I am not concerned about how the actual files will be loaded in the future.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
DemiSheep
If you just need a hard-coded list of values to visually test your widget, you can simply put these values in a String array and load it from there. Or you can http GET the strings from a server using RequestBuilder. You can keep a simple file (CSV, XML, JSON etc.) in your war directory and load this file using Request builder.
Example code from GWT developer guide:
import com.google.gwt.http.client.*;
...
String url = "http://www.myserver.com/getData?type=3";
RequestBuilder builder = new RequestBuilder(RequestBuilder.GET, URL.encode(url));
try {
Request request = builder.sendRequest(null, new RequestCallback() {
public void onError(Request request, Throwable exception) {
// Couldn't connect to server (could be timeout, SOP violation, etc.)
}
public void onResponseReceived(Request request, Response response) {
if (200 == response.getStatusCode()) {
// Process the response in response.getText()
} else {
// Handle the error. Can get the status text from response.getStatusText()
}
}
});
} catch (RequestException e) {
// Couldn't connect to server
}
Make sure you inherit HTTP module:
<inherits name="com.google.gwt.http.HTTP" />
Create testcases with JUnit!
This is the official Google site describing Testing with JUnit and varios test methods: Google Web Toolkit: Testing. You definitly find a solution here^^
As it comes to GWT, there is no such thing sent to a browser as a .jar-file.
The easiest thing to fetch the file would be to
put the files on a server
fetch them via a http-call
Remember the same-origin-policy that applies to GWT as it is underlying all javascript-Restrictions

Save Java Applet Variable to Mysql

Hi
I've done a lot of research on the best way to communicate between a java applet and MySql Database.
I have a tune player which I have students logging onto, it's a java applet with a speed slider. I want to save the speed that they play each tune at so it goes back to the same speed the next time they open that tune.
It seems I have a number of options, none of which seem very neat.
Use a javascript function to
periodically check the speed and
save it to a cookie, then each page
of the site would have to check
cookies relationg to each tune.
Make each link on the page call a
javascript function to check the
speed variable in the applet and add
it to a perameter in the url then
redirect so the next php page can
save the speed to a database. This
way when the user navigates away the
speed will be saved, but this won;t
work if the back button is used.
Is there a better way of doing this?
Use the JNLP API and the problems should be solved.
Since Java 1.6.0_10+, it is possible to use the Java Web Start API services (JNLP API) within an embedded applet. The JNLP API provides the PersistenceService. Here is a small demo. of the PersistenceService.
If the user hits the back button (or otherwise leaves the page), the destroy() method will be called. Override the destroy method and persist the data at that time.
No need to use JavaScript.
The java code below posts variables to a PHP script on the web server then
shows the server response on the console
private void post()
throws MalformedURLException, IOException
{ URL url;
URLConnection con;
OutputStream oStream;
String parametersAsString;
byte[] parameterAsBytes;
String aLine; // only if reading response
parametersAsString = "msg=hi&to=memo";
parameterAsBytes = parametersAsString.getBytes();
// send parameters to server
url = this.getCodeBase();
url = new URL(url + "scriptfile.php");
con = url.openConnection();
con.setDoOutput(true);
// setDoInput(true); // only if reading response
con.setDoInput(false);
con.setRequestProperty("Content=length", String.valueOf(parameterAsBytes.length));
oStream = con.getOutputStream();
oStream.write(parameterAsBytes);
oStream.flush();
// read response from server & show the server response on the Java console or whatever ...
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(con.getInputStream()));
aLine = in.readLine();
while (aLine != null)
{ System.out.println(line);
aLine = in.readLine();
}
in.close();
oStream.close();
}
I'd suggest you get the applet to update the database. Whenever the speed slider changes you can fire off an update to the database, or you might need to coalesce multiple changes into one request depending on usage.
When the applet changes tune it can also do its own lookup of the correct speed.
Note that the applet will probably not be able to hit the database directly - browsers should restrict what I/O operations are available to applets - but you should be able to get the applet to hit a URL on the server that will actually perform the update. Signing the applet may let you hit the database but you should read up on the applet security model and the various browser quirks first.
It's not really clear how all of this is set up since you don't have a lot of details. However, assuming that you have an actual Java applet, I'd say the following:
If the Java applet requires a login (that is, it knows who the user is) then it can store the preference on the server. To do this you could have the applet connect to the server using JDBC, which isn't generally a good idea for internet-facing applets, or you could have the applet send a message to a server process such as a web server. That process connects to the mysql server.
The applet can communicate directly with the browser using Javascript. So you can have the applet set the cookie when the slider changes, instead of having the Javascript set it.

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