Add/Edit data in a SQL database using HTML Forms Text Input boxes

Question

I am working on a Java Web Application in NetBeans. I have made a JSP page that can add a row to a SQL database, but I want to allow for user input. To this end, I have made some Text Input boxes. I want the user to be able to enter in a string and then have those strings saved as varchar data to the SQL database. Is there a way to make this happen?

Here is the code for making one of the text input:

<p>Name</p>
<input type="text" name="Name" value="" size="100"/>

Here is the code for adding a row to the database:

    <sql:update var="attempt1" dataSource="jdbc/testaddressbook">
        INSERT INTO people (fullName, address, telephone, email)
        VALUES ("testerName3", "testerAddress", "testerPhone", "testerEmail")
    </sql:update>

gerrytan · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-28 05:59:29Z

You need some basic understanding of JDBC (Java Data Base Connectivity) and Servlet. There are tons of way to achieve what you want, but below is a minimal example to give you some idea:

1. Create a servlet to handle the user input and insert the data into SQL

package mycoolapp;

public RegistrationServlet extends HttpServlet {
  protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res) throws ServletException, IOException {

    // Obtain submitted form data
    String name = req.getParameterName("Name");
    String address = req.getParameterName("Address");
    String phone = req.getParameterName("Phone");
    String email = req.getParameterName("Email");

    // Setup your database datasource, this is different for each db vendor. On production environment most likely you need a connection pooled datasource
    DataSource ds = // setup ds here..
    Connection conn = ds.getConnection();

    // Prepare the SQL statement to insert, plug in the values
    PreparedStatement stmt = conn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO people (fullName, address, telephone, email) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)");
    stmt.setString(1, name);
    stmt.setString(2, address);
    stmt.setString(3, phone);
    stmt.setString(4, email);

    // Execute the insert
    stmt.executeUpdate();
    conn.close();

    // Dispatch into success page
    RequestDispatcher requestDispatcher = req.getRequestDispatcher("/registerSuccess.jsp");
    requestDispatcher.forward(req, res);
  }
}

2. Declare and map the servlet on your WEB-INF/web.xml deployment descriptor

Below setting will map the servlet into http://myhost/mywarname/register

<web-app>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-class>mycoolapp.RegistrationServlet</servlet-class>
    <servlet-name>RegistrationServlet</servlet-name>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>RegistrationServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/register</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

3. Configure your form to post into the servlet

<form method="post" action="register">
  ....
</form>

Few words of warning:

Servlet code above does not come with appropriate exception and error handling
JDBC code above does not come with appropriate transaction management
The above example is by no mean the industry standard best practice, it is in fact an old & obsolete approach. It shows the fundamental how java servlets and database interaction works. When you're building a proper application, consider using web framework such as Spring, JSF or others.

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