redirect to a different url - java

I have one application where i have three jsp pages, from index.jsp , control goes to process.jsp and after execution control goes to result.jsp to display data. But i want that instead of displaying data in result.jsp, control will go to another url so that that receiver url will get the requested data. that is: my url is 100.20.3.45:8085/myproject/index.jsp then after processing data i want that result should go to a different url of my same network i.e. 100.20.3.46. How can I send the requested data to this different url?
Ex:
100.20.3.45:8085/myproject/index.jsp
goes to
100.20.3.45.8085/myproject/process.jsp
after processing control will go to 100.20.3.46.
How can I send this data to a different url? what is this mechanism called?

It's called "redirecting". It's to be achieved by HttpServletResponse#sendRedirect().
response.sendRedirect(url);
If you want to send additional data along, you'd need send it as request parameter(s) in a query string, but they will be visible in the URL in browser's address bar. If that isn't affordable, consider storing it in a shared datastore (database?) and then pass alone the unique key along.
Alternatively, you can also just let the <form> action URL point to that different host directly without the need for an intermediate JSP. As another alternative, you could also play for proxy yourself with help of for example URLConnection.
Unrelated to the concrete problem: having controller/business logic in JSPs is a bad practice. I suggest to take some time to learn about servlets.

Redirect to URL
window.location.href = "url"
Examples of use
window.location.href = "/process_payment";
var username = #json($username);
window.location.href = '/' + username;
window.location.href = '/{{ $username }}';

Related

Securely passing parameters in JSP/Servlet (No Frameworks)

We have a JSP page and a Servlet page, where we pass the parameters via URL from JSP to Servlet. Below is the JSP link
Allergies
In our servlet, we do some process like below.
int id = Integer.parseInt(request.getParameter("idClient"));
//Do the work
RequestDispatcher d = request.getRequestDispatcher("view.jsp");
d.forward(request,response);
Unfortunately this makes the idClient 100% visible and it is also editable. We have noticed that the user can simply edit the idClient from the URL and access other client information too! Not only that, any one can access anyones info, whether the client is belong to them or not!
How can we stop this?
Get the logged-in user.
Check whether that user is supposed to be able to access this client's details.
If not, return an error page instead of the client details page.
I can't be more specific without knowing the details of your existing code and database structure.

Establish Connection First, Redirect User Second

I have an idea to make something pretty sweet but I'm not sure if it's possible. Here is an example of a very basic ajax function that I might use to establish a connection a server...
function getFakePage(userId)
{
var ajaxObject, path, params;
ajaxObject = getAjaxObject();
params = "?userId=" + userId
path = getInternalPath() + "someServlet" + params;
ajaxObject.open("GET", path, true);
ajaxObject.send();
// On ready state change stuff here
}
So let's say I have a URL like this...
https://localhost:8443/Instride/user/1/admin
And I wanted to use javascript to redirect the user to this this URL. Normally I would just do this...
window.location = "https://localhost:8443/Instride/user/1/admin";
But my idea is to create a javascript (no js frameworks please) function that could combine the ajax code with the window.location code. Basically what I would like to accomplish is to create a connection with the server via ajax, send a servlet on that server the url I would like the user to be redirected to, and then redirect the user to that URL. So that for however long it takes the user to connect to my server from wherever they are in the world they see a loading icon instead of a blank white page.
So to clarify exactly what I am trying to accomplish; I do not want to put window.location within the success of my ajax function (because that would be encompass two round trips), and I do not want to return a huge chunk of HTML for the requested resource and add it to the page. I want to establish a connection to the server with ajax, send a servlet the URL the user wants to go to, and then somehow override the ajax function to redirect that user. Is this possible?
And I know some of you might think this is stupid but it's not when you're talking about overseas users with slow dial up connections staring at white pages. If it's possible, I'd love to hear some insight. Thank you very much!
First, let me say that the best solution is finding what is causing the slowness and fixing it.
Now as to your question, yes you could do it. You could even shoehorn it onto an existing application. But it wouldn't be pretty. And it comes with it's own set of problems. But here are the steps:
Browser calls ajax cache service requesting "somepage.html"
Browser loads loading icon
Server creates somepage.html and caches it in a temporary cache, (ehcache or other library would be good, probably with file backing for the cache depending on size)
Server responds to ajax request with ID for cached page
Browser now redirects to "somepage.html?cacheId={cacheId}" where the id is from the ajax call.
Server uses a filter to see if any cache can be served up for the page instead of the actual page, thus speeding up the request.
Having said that, it would be better to just have the new page load quickly with a loading icon while it did any of the heavy lifting through ajax.
You can't do an AJAX request and a location change in one. If you want to do only one request you have to choose one of those methods. ie. return some data and replace content on your current page, or load a completely new page.
It doesn't make any sense to want to want to do both. What you could want is stateful URLs; where your URL matches the content displayed, even if that content comes from an AJAX request. In that case an easy solution is the use the # part of the URL which you can change freely (window.location.hash). Some modern browsers support changing the whole URL without causing the page to reload. I've used # with great success myself.

How to get textbox value in the same JSP without submiting it?

Actually i want to use the textbox value and set the session parameter in the same JSP page without submitting it or like using request or response object. This textbox value i want to use in the same JSP page for further use. How can i access the value of a text box in the same page?
You could either utilize the new HTML5 local storage (only supported in the more recent/modern browsers), or you could create a session cookie in JavaScript and store the value in there.
Note that none of those approaches will affect the server side HttpSession in any way. For that you simply can't go around sending a HTTP request containing the desired information, as that's the only way to send information from the client to server side. You could however consider using ajax to send the HTTP request asynchronously and fully transparently in the background.

Options for passing data across HTTP redirects

I am working on a Web application and need to pass data across HTTP redirects. For example:
http://foo.com/form.html
POSTs to
http://foo.com/form/submit.html
If there is an issue with the data, the Response is redirected back to
http://foo.com/form.html?error=Some+error+message
and the query param "error"'s value is displayed on the page.
Is there any other reliable way to pass data across redirects (ie HTTP headers, etc.).
Passing the data as query params works but isn't ideal because:
its cleartext (and in the query string, so SSL cant be relied on to encyrpt) so I wouldn't want to pass sensitive data
URIs are limited in length by the browser (albiet the length is generally fairly long).
IMPORTANT: This platform is state-less and distributed across many app servers, so I can't track the data in a server-side session object.
From the client-server interaction point of view, this is a server internal dispatch issue.
Browsers are not meant to re-post the entity of the initial request automatically according to the HTTP specification: "The action required MAY be carried out by the user agent without interaction with the user if and only if the method used in the second request is GET or HEAD."
If it's not already the case, make form.html dynamic so that it's an HTML static file. Send the POST request to itself and pre-fill the value in case of error. Alternatively, you could make submit.html use the same template as form.html if there is a problem.
its cleartext (and in the query string, so SSL cant be relied on to
encyrpt) so I wouldn't want to pass sensitive data
I'm not sure what the issue is here. You're submitting everything over plain HTTP anyway. Cookie, query parameters and request entity will all be visible. Using HTTPS would actually protect all this, although query parameters can still be an issue with browser history and server logs (that's not part of the connection, which is what TLS protects).
I think using cookies would be a reasonable solution depending on the amount of data. As you can't track it on the server side (by using a sessions for example, which would be much simpler)
You can store error message in database on server and reference to it by id:
http://foo.com/form.html?error_id=42
If error texts are fixed you even don't need to use a database.
Also, you can use Web Storage. Instead of redirection with "Location" header you can display output page with this JavaScript:
var error_message = "Something is wrong";
if( typeof(Storage) !== "undefined" ) {
localStorage.error_message = error_message;
else {
// fallback for IE < 8
alert(error_message);
}
location.href = "new url";
And after redirection you can read localStorage.error_message using JavaScript and display the message.

Simple example of JQuery Address to manage application state

I'm using the jQuery Address library to re-write my URL depending on what the user is doing in the page. The intention is to allow users to bookmark pages and come back later. The page never refreshes as all server interaction is done via ajax.
jQuery Address is writing URLs like this:
http://localhost:9000/#/u/scott_tiger
I need a to set up a route in Play to be able to route that request through to the appropriate controller. So I set this up:
GET /#/u/{username} Controller.showUser
This doesn't work though, the route definition gets ignored. I've tried loads of things such as trying to escape the "#" and replacing it with a variable that I've populated with Character.toString(35). None of this works.
Does anyone know how I can either define the route properly or get jQuery Address not to write the "#".
EDIT: The "#" doesn't get sent to the server does it. Doh! OK, question is revised.
No. The # and the part of the URL after that is not sent to the server. So your play app on the server will never see such URLs.
HTML5 solution
You need to handle these URLs on the client side using JavaScript. In modern browsers with good HTML5 support, you can modify the address without reloading the page. See Manipulating the browser history on how to do it for these browsers. And see When can I use... for browser support.
#-URLs
On Internet Explorer and older versions of other browsers you need to use # URLs and use JavaScript to load the state (e.g. get the user page /u/scott_tiger in your example). See How to run a JavaScript function when the user is visiting an hash link (#something) using JQuery? for how to do this in JavaScript. Also if a user bookmarks a page with a #-URL you need to reload the state.
See also: What's the shebang/hashbang (#!) in Facebook and new Twitter URLs for?
JavaScript libraries
You may use JavaScript libraries to handle this for you history.js is an example. Also bigger frameworks like Backbone.js handle this.
Does anyone know how I can get jQuery Address not to write the "#".
If you don't write the #-part of the URL, the state can not be linked. So you can not get back to e.g. Scott Tigers profile page if you bookmark the page, because the URL is only http://localhost:9000/ and you will arrive on the front page, while the user though he would arrive on the profile page.
Armed with my new understanding of URLs (thanks #Jonas) I realised that I'd missed half of the story.
I'm using JQuery Address to change the URL depending on what you click in the application. This works great and on lots of browsers. What I was missing was using JQuery Address to watch for external address changes (bookmarks, history, back/forward) and respond accordingly. i.e. set the page up correctly by firing the appropriate Ajax calls and rendering that data appropriately.
Changing the address
$.address.title("new title describing application state");
$.address.parameter("q", "val1");
$.address.parameter("g", "val2");
$.address.update();
Restoring the state
$.address.externalChange(function(event) {
var val1 = event.parameters["q"];
var val2 = event.parameters["g"];
// do something with those values
});

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