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getAttribute() – Passing data from Server to JSP

Last Updated : 03 Dec, 2018
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Suppose some data at the Server side has been created and now in order to pass that information in a JSP page, there is a need of request.getAttribute() method. This, in fact differentiates the getAttribute() and getParameter() methods. The latter is used to pass Client side data to a JSP.

Implementation
1) First create data at the server side and pass it to a JSP. Here a list of student objects in a servlet will be created and pass it to a JSP using setAttribute().
2) Next, the JSP will retrieve the sent data using getAttribute().
3) Finally, the JSP will display the data retrieved, in a tabular form.

Servlet to create data and dispatch it to a JSP : StudentServlet.java




package saagnik;
  
import java.io.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
  
public class StudentServlet extends HttpServlet {
  
  protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
                                HttpServletResponse response)
    throws ServletException, IOException
    {
     response.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
     try (PrintWriter out = response.getWriter()) {
       out.println("<!DOCTYPE html>");
       out.println("<html>");
       out.println("<head>");
       out.println("<title>Servlet StudentServlet</title>");
       out.println("</head>");
       out.println("<body>");
  
       // List to hold Student objects
       ArrayList<Student> std = new ArrayList<Student>();
  
       // Adding members to the list. Here we are 
       // using the parameterized constructor of 
       // class "Student.java"
       std.add(new Student("Roxy Willard", 22, "B.D.S"));
       std.add(new Student("Todd Lanz", 22, "B.Tech"));
       std.add(new Student("Varlene Lade", 21, "B.B.A"));
       std.add(new Student("Julio Fairley", 22, "B.Tech"));
       std.add(new Student("Helena Carlow", 24, "M.B.B.S"));
  
       // Setting the attribute of the request object
       // which will be later fetched by a JSP page
         request.setAttribute("data", std);
  
       // Creating a RequestDispatcher object to dispatch
       // the request the request to another resource
         RequestDispatcher rd = 
             request.getRequestDispatcher("stdlist.jsp");
  
       // The request will be forwarded to the resource 
       // specified, here the resource is a JSP named,
       // "stdlist.jsp"
          rd.forward(request, response);
            out.println("</body>");
            out.println("</html>");
        }
    }
    /** Following methods are used to handle
        requests coming from the Http protocol request.
        Inspects method of HttpMethod type
        and if the request is a POST, the doPost() 
        method will be called or if it is a GET,
        the doGet() method will be called. 
    **/
    @Override
    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
                        HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException
    {
        processRequest(request, response);
    }
    @Override
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,
                        HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException
    {
        processRequest(request, response);
    }
    @Override
    public String getServletInfo()
    {
        return "Short description";
    }
}


JSP to retrieve data sent by servlet “StudentServlet.java” and display it : stdlist.jsp




<%@page import="saagnik.Student"%>
<%@page import="java.util.ArrayList"%>
<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   <title>Student List</title>
  </head>
  <body>
      <h1>Displaying Student List</h1>
      <table border ="1" width="500" align="center">
         <tr bgcolor="00FF7F">
          <th><b>Student Name</b></th>
          <th><b>Student Age</b></th>
          <th><b>Course Undertaken</b></th>
         </tr>
        <%-- Fetching the attributes of the request object
             which was previously set by the servlet 
              "StudentServlet.java"
        --%> 
        <%ArrayList<Student> std = 
            (ArrayList<Student>)request.getAttribute("data");
        for(Student s:std){%>
        <%-- Arranging data in tabular form
        --%>
            <tr>
                <td><%=s.getName()%></td>
                <td><%=s.getAge()%></td>
                <td><%=s.getCrs()%></td>
            </tr>
            <%}%>
        </table
        <hr/>
    </body>
</html>


The Student.java class




package saagnik;
  
public class Student {
    private int age;
    private String name;
    private String crs;
    // Parameterized Constructor to set Student
    // name, age, course enrolled in.
    public Student(String n, int a, String c)
    {
        this.name = n;
        this.age = a;
        this.crs = c;
    }
    // Setter Methods to set table data to be
    // displayed
    public String getName() { return name; }
    public int getAge() { return age; }
    public String getCrs() { return crs; }
}


Running the application
1) Run the servlet “StudentServlet.java”, which will pass student data to JSP page “stdlist.jsp”.
2) The JSP page “stdlist.jsp” retrieves the data and displays it in a tabular form.

Note : Entire application has been developed and tested on NetBeans IDE 8.1

Output
Displaying Student Data : stdlist.jsp
Displaying Student data



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