About Creating Web Applications

Task

Guideline

Using a text editor to create files

Create the files using your preferred text editor or IDE.

Specifying literal text

In the JSP files, type text exactly as you want it to appear in the document that you want Integration Server to return to the client.

Invoking a service from a web application

To invoke an Integration Server service from a servlet, invoke it directly. For an example, see Invoking an Integration Server Service from a Servlet.

To invoke an Integration Server service from a JSP, you must use the webMethods tag library for JSP.

Using the webMethods tag library for JSP

In the JSP files, use tags from the webMethods tag library for JSP to invoke Integration Server services and obtain pipeline data. To use the webMethods tag library for JSP, do the following:

Add this directive above all tags in a JSP file:

<%@ taglib uri="http://webm-taglib.tld"
prefix="webm" %>

The system uses the prefix webm in front of each tag name in the tag library descriptor file (e.g., <webm:value>).

Insert tags at the points where you want their results to appear. For example, if you have a customer’s last name stored in the LastName pipeline variable and want to insert the name into a table cell, your tag might look like this:

Set up the web application package so you can use webMethods tags within your web application. For instructions, see Setting Up a Package so a Web Application Can Use the webMethods Tags for JSP.

Important:

Keep the number of tags in a single JSP to a minimum. A good practice is to only include the tags needed to perform a single task in each JSP. A side benefit of keeping JSPs small is that small JSPs are easier to debug and use.

For a summary of webMethods tags for JSP and instructions for using them, see webMethods Tag Library for JSP.

Storing supporting web resource files

Create supporting web resource files for the JSP (for example, HTML pages or image and sound files) as necessary. Store these files in appropriate subdirectories, as described in The Integration Server Package Directory Structure.

Selecting a file extension

Save the JSP in a text file with a “.jsp” extension (for example, showorders.jsp).