Deploying CFML on J2EE Servers

1
Deploying CFMLon J2EE Servers

• Vince Bonfanti
• President
• New Atlanta Communications, LLC

2
Introduction

• Vince Bonfanti
• President and co-founder of New Atlanta
• ServletExec, a Java Servlet/JSP web application
  server (1997)
• JTurbo, a Type 4 JDBC driver for Microsoft SQL
  Server (1998)
• BlueDragon, a CFML/JSP web application server
  (2002)
• Member of the Java Servlet and JSP Expert Groups
• Sun-sponsored Java Community Process for defining
  Java specs
• Todays presentation is one in a series
• Integrating CFML and J2EE Web Applications
  (CFNorth, May 2002)
• Intro to JSP for CFML Developers (Atlanta CFUG,
  July 2002)
• Deploying CFML on J2EE Servers
• vince_at_newatlanta.com
• Mention MDCFUG in subject or message body

3
Overview

• Motivation Why CFML on J2EE?
• What are Java Servlets?
• What are JavaServer Pages (JSP)?
• What is a J2EE Web Application (webapp)?
• BlueDragon Architecture
• Developing webapps that contain CFML pages
• Deploying a webapp in an open directory on Tomcat
• Configuring datasources
• Deploying webapps that contain CFML pages
• Using the BlueDragon WAR Deployment Wizard
• Creating CFML compiled binaries (deploying
  without CFML source!)
• Deploying a WAR file onto BEA WebLogic

4
Why CFML on J2EE?

• Many companies are standardizing on J2EE for
  their web application infrastructure (Internet
  and intranet)
• In-house corporate developers may be faced with
  top-down corporate decision to migrate to J2EE
• CFML consultants and solutions providers may be
  faced with client demands for J2EE-compatible
  solutions
• Existing CFML applications can be migrated to
  J2EE
• ColdFusion servers can be retired without
  rewriting CFML to JSP
• Benefits of J2EE scalability, robustness,
  reliability, portability can be realized
  immediately for CFML applications
• CFML is a legitimate presentation-layer
  technology for J2EE development
• CFML is superior to JSP in many ways
• CFML can provide full integration with J2EE
  technologies

5
What are Java Servlets?

• Java Servlets are alternatives to CGI and
  NSAPI/ISAPI web server extensions
• Java Servlets are compiled code, but are loaded
  dynamically
• .java source file gets compiled to byte code
  .class file
• Java Servlets are the core presentation-layer
  technology for J2EE
• JavaServer Pages (JSP) are built on Java Servlet
  plumbing
• Velocity template engine is a Java Servlet
• XML/XSLT transformation engines are implemented
  as servlets
• Compiled Java Servlets (.class) are fully
  portable across J2EE servers and servlet/JSP
  engines

6
A Simple Java Servlet

• public class DateServlet extends HttpServlet
• public void service( HttpServletRequest request,
  HttpServletResponse response )
• throws ServletException, IOException
• response.setContentType( "text/html" )
• PrintWriter out response.getWriter()
• out.print( "lthtmlgt" )
• out.print( "ltheadgtlttitlegtTodaylt/titlegtlt/headgt
  " )
• out.print( "ltbodygt" )
• out.print( "lth1gtToday is "
  java.util.Calendar.getInstance().getTime()
  "lt/h1gt" )
• out.print( "lt/bodygt" )
• out.print( "lt/htmlgt" )

7
DateServlet Output
8
What are JavaServer Pages?

• JSP is a scripting-based technology
• Similar to ASP and PHP, different than CFML
  tag-based approach
• JSP taglibs allow programmers to create CFML-like
  custom tags
• JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) recently reached
  1.0 status
• JSP scripting language is Java
• Do you have to know Java to write JSP pages? YES!
• Theoretically can support other scripting
  languages, but never will
• JSP is translated to a Java Servlet, compiled,
  executed
• .jsp --gt .java (servlet) --gt .class (servlet)
• JSP is another way to write servlets
• JSP (.jsp) is portable across J2EE servers
• Generated servlet (.java/.class) is NOT standard,
  but is proprietary to the servlet/JSP container
  that created it

9
JSP Elements

• Scripting Elements
• lt expression gt
• lt scriptlet gt
• lt! declaration gt
• Standard Actions
• ltjspuseBean/gt ltjspgetProperty/gt
• ltjspinclude/gt ltjspsetProperty/gt
• ltjspforward/gt ltjspparam/gt
• Page Directives
• lt_at_ page . . . gt
• lt_at_ include . . . gt
• lt_at_ taglib . . . gt

10
Example JSP Page

• lt!-- This JSP pages produces output that is
  exactly equivalent to
• the DateServlet example above --gt
• lt_at_ page language"java" contentType"text/html"
  gt
• lthtmlgt
• ltheadgt
• lttitlegtTodaylt/titlegt
• lt/headgt
• ltbodygt
• lth1gtToday is ltjava.util.Calendar.getInstance().g
  etTime()gtlt/h1gt
• lt/bodygt
• lt/htmlgt

11
Generated Java Servlet

• import com.newatlanta.servletexec.JSP10HttpJspPage
  
• import com.newatlanta.servletexec.JSP10Servlet
• public final class _today_xjsp extends
  JSP10HttpJspPage
• public void _jspService( HttpServletRequest
  request, HttpServletResponse response )
• throws ServletException, java.io.IOException
• response.setContentType( "text/html" )
• JspFactory na_jsp_factory
  JspFactory.getDefaultFactory()
• PageContext pageContext
  na_jsp_factory.getPageContext( this, request,
  response,
• "null", true, 8, true )
• ServletConfig config pageContext.getServ
  letConfig()
• ServletContext application
  pageContext.getServletContext()
• Object page this
• JspWriter out pageContext.getOut()
• HttpSession session pageContext.getSessi
  on()

12
Generated Servlet (cont.)

• try
• out.print( "lthtmlgtltheadgtlttitlegtTodaylt/titl
  egtlt/headgtltbodygtlth1gtToday is " )
• out.print( String.valueOf(
  java.util.Calendar.getInstance().getTime() ) )
• out.print( "lt/bodygtlt/htmlgt" )
• catch ( Throwable t )
• pageContext.handlePageException( t )
• finally
• out.flush()
• na_jsp_factory.releasePageContext(
  pageContext )

13
JSP Tag Libraries

• JSP custom tags (taglibs) allow Java programmers
  to add CFML-like tags to JSP
• Like Java CFX, but more powerful
• Theoretically, taglibs can eliminate Java code
  from JSP pages
• JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) 1.0 released in
  June
• Variable creation and display (expression
  language)
• Flow control conditional statements, loops
• SQL Database access
• XML processing
• XML-compliance sometimes leads to awkward syntax
• JSTL cant do ltCFIFgt ltCFELSEIFgt ltCFELSEgt
  lt/CFIFgt
• JSTL cant do ltCFIF variable EQ valuegt
• JSTL cant do ltCFSET variablevaluegt

14
JSTL SQL example

• lt_at_ taglib prefix"sql" uri"http//java.sun.com/j
  stl/sql" gt
• lt_at_ taglib prefix"c" uri"http//java.sun.com/jst
  l/core" gt
• ltsqlquery var"films"
• dataSource"jdbcodbcows,sun.jdbc
  .odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver"gt
• SELECT FROM Films
• lt/sqlquerygt
• lthtmlgt
• ltheadgtlttitlegtSQL Query Examplelt/titlegtlt/headgt
• ltbodygt
• ltulgt
• ltcforEach var"film" items"films"gt
• ltligtltcout value"film.MovieTitle"/gt
• lt/cforEachgt
• lt/ulgt
• lt/bodygtlt/htmlgt

15
What is a J2EE Webapp?

• A web application is a collection of servlets,
  html pages, classes, and other resources that
  make up a complete application on a web server.
  The web application can be bundled and run on
  multiple containers from multiple vendors.
• -- Java Servlet Specification Version 2.3
• A J2EE webapp is characterized by a specific
  directory structure and a configuration file
  named web.xml
• A J2EE webapp can be bundled and deployed as a
  single component within a Web ARchive (WAR) file
• Just a ZIP file containing the webapp with the
  .war extension

16
Webapp Directory Structure

• A J2EE webapp consists of a single directory into
  which all content files (HTML, GIF, JPEG, JSP,
  CFML) are placed
• This is referred to as the webapp top-level
  directory
• May contain arbitrary subdirectories to hold
  content
• The WEB-INF subdirectory contains files that will
  not be served to the client
• The web.xml deployment descriptor is placed
  within the WEB-INF subdirectory
• The WEB-INF/classes and WEB-INF/lib
  subdirectories contain Java .class and .jar files
  (these could contain servlets, JSP tag libraries,
  JDBC drivers, etc.)

17
Webapp Context Path

• When deploying a webapp, the J2EE server needs to
  know two things
• The location of the webapp directory or WAR file
• The URL Context Path used to specify the webapp
• The URL Context Path is similar to a virtual
  directory
• All URLs that start with the Context Path are
  mapped to the webapp for processing
• http//www.newatlanta.com/contextPath/index.jsp
• Using Context Paths allows multiple web
  applications to be deployed on a single J2EE
  server
• Web applications are completely independent

18
BlueDragon Architecture

• BlueDragon is CFML runtime that is implemented as
  a standard Java Servlet
• The BlueDragon runtime servlet can be built into
  a standard J2EE webapp
• web.xml is configured to direct processing for
  all .cfm pages to the BlueDragon servlet
• Just add CFML (.cfm) pages and deploy!
• BlueDragon compiles CFML pages into an internal
  representation that is cached and executed from
  RAM
• Compiled CFML pages can be stored and deployed in
  files called BlueDragon Archives (BDA)
• No need to deploy CFML source files

19
Demonstration

• The worlds simplest J2EE webapp
• Manually creating a WAR file
• The BlueDragon webapp template
• Developing webapps that contain CFML pages
• Deploying as an open directory on Tomcat
• Configuring datasources
• Deploying webapps that contain CFML pages
• Using the BlueDragon WAR Deployment Wizard
• Creating compiled BDA archives
• Deploying a WAR file on BEA WebLogic

20
BlueDragon vs CFMX

• Demonstration shows four things that
  BlueDragon/J2EE can do today that CFMX/J2EE
  cannot
• Deploy on Tomcat
• Create a WAR file that can be deployed onto any
  standard J2EE application server
• Create CFML compiled binary archives (BDA) that
  can be deployed instead of CFML source files
• Deploy WAR files to BEA WebLogic