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Chapter

16

his chapter discusses using HTML forms as front ends to servlets or

other server side programs. These forms provide simple and reliable

T

user interface controls to collect data from the user and transmit it to

the servlet. The following chapter discusses the use of applets as servlet front

ends. Using applets in this role requires considerably more effort and has some

security limitations. However, it permits a much richer user interface and can

support significantly more efficient and flexible network communication.

To use forms, you'll need to know where to place regular HTML files in

order to make them accessible to the Web server. This location varies from

server to server, but with the JSWDK and Tomcat, you place an HTML file in

install_dir/webpages/path/file.html

 and then access it via

http://localhost/path/file.html

 (replace 

localhost

 with the real

hostname if running remotely).

16.1 How HTML Forms Transmit Data

HTML forms let you create a variety of user interface controls to collect

input on a Web page. Each of the controls typically has a name and a value,

where the name is specified in the HTML and the value comes either from

the HTML or by means of user input. The entire form is associated with the

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