Java Web App Question

[James Perry]

Hey,

I am a BSc(Hons) Business Information Systems student. For my
disseration, I am designing and developing a Java web application for a
charity. The local chairty provides free IT training and lessons to
disadvantaged people around the regional community. They have a access
database, which is not very relational, and it doesn't store essential
date nore provide statistics they are wanting. I proposed a MySQL DB and
have it accessible by a Java Web Application using JSP/Servlets. The
charity director and project co-ordinator like the idea of being able to
access it 24/7. This system allows their clients to register, view
lessons, enroll on lessons and request loan items.

I've analysed their forms and their process and normalised their datal
which has given this proposed ERD:

http://www.jamesaperry.co.uk/ukonline/lds.html

To view the template and the proposed functionality of the administrator
interface, go to URL:

http://www.jamesaperry.co.uk/ukonline/

I am going to use the MVC architecture as I previosuly used PHP for web
apps but fed of the messy programming where you have presentation and
business logic incorporated. I have some questions though. Should I have
a front controller which directs the request to the respective servet?
or should it be directed straigh to the respective JSP? How does the
JDBC work within a web app?

I would be very gratefull if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Many many thanks.

- James

 

[frankgerlach22]

Having an E/R diagramm is definitely a good starting point. MySQL and
JSP are a solid combination. Many experts would probably suggest to use
struts (from the apache project) for MVC. In my opinion it is
sufficient to encapsulate complex code in java classes, so that the JSP
pages do not become too big(and difficult to debug). Regarding your
jdbc question: you can use it directly in your JSP code and with MySQL
you don't even need session pooling/reuse. MySQL is amazingly fast when
connecting to the server. This is very different to ORACLE....

 

[elmar.schraml]

Using the Struts framework is definitely a good idea. Not only will you
have a first-rate MVC architecture (without having to figure a lot of
design decisions yourself, since it sounds to me like you are new to
MVC), you will also find many people who are using the same framework,
making it much easier to ask for help than when using some design you
cooked up yourself.

The website is found at http://struts.apache.org/
Hope that helps,
Elmar