How to call servlet through a JSP page

Question

I would like to call a Servlet through a JSP page. What is the method to call?

Answer 1

You could use <jsp:include> for this.

<jsp:include page="/servletURL" />

It's however usually the other way round. You call the servlet which in turn forwards to the JSP to display the results. Create a Servlet which does something like following in doGet() method.

request.setAttribute("result", "This is the result of the servlet call");
request.getRequestDispatcher("/WEB-INF/result.jsp").forward(request, response);

and in /WEB-INF/result.jsp

<p>The result is ${result}</p>

Now call the Servlet by the URL which matches its <url-pattern> in web.xml, e.g. http://example.com/contextname/servletURL.

Do note that the JSP file is explicitly placed in /WEB-INF folder. This will prevent the user from opening the JSP file individually. The user can only call the servlet in order to open the JSP file.

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If your actual question is "How to submit a form to a servlet?" then you just have to specify the servlet URL in the HTML form action.

<form action="servletURL" method="post">

Its doPost() method will then be called.

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See also:

• Servlets info page - Contains a hello world
• How to call servlet class from HTML form
• How do I pass current item to Java method by clicking a hyperlink or button in JSP page?
• Show JDBC ResultSet in HTML in JSP page using MVC and DAO pattern
• Design Patterns web based applications

Answer 2

You can use RequestDispatcher as you usually use it in Servlet:

<%@ page contentType="text/html"%>
<%@ page import = "javax.servlet.RequestDispatcher" %>
<%
     RequestDispatcher rd = request.getRequestDispatcher("/yourServletUrl");
     request.setAttribute("msg","HI Welcome");
     rd.forward(request, response);
%>

Always be aware that don't commit any response before you use forward, as it will lead to IllegalStateException.

Answer 3

there isn't method to call Servlet. You should make mapping in web.xml and then trigger this mapping.

Example: web.xml:

  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>hello</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>test.HelloServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>hello</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/hello</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

This mapping means that every call to http://yoursite/yourwebapp/hello trigger this servlet For example this jsp:

<jsp:forward page="/hello"/>