Data Access Options for Web Applications

Summary

In this chapter, you’ve learned the basics of using JDBC in a simple JSP application, the advantages of using an object-relational persistence framework, and how to design a sophisticated data access architecture.

With your new knowledge of basic JDBC concepts, you should be able to add data access to simple JSP applications by using JDBC code in JSP pages or by using the JSTL SQL tags. You should be able to access any sort of database as long as it has a JDBC driver. In addition, you should also be able to configure a JDBC driver by using either the old data manager approach or the newer JNDI data source technique.

With your new knowledge of the concepts behind O/R persistence frameworks, you should be able to work with any of the frameworks available from commercial software vendors and from open-source projects. Your knowledge of one-, two-, and three-layer architectures as well as your understanding of the flexibility-complexity trade-off will help you choose the appropriate architecture for your next JSP application.

You’ve also taken a close look at a complete example JSP application, the RSS newsreader, which illustrates how to use an O/R persistence framework within a modular three-layer architecture. You can use the RSS newsreader example as a starting point for your own projects. The example relies only on open-source components that are free of charge and free for you to distribute with your own applications.

You should now have enough knowledge to evaluate database access technologies and to design and implement database access within your JSP applications.