Servlet filter in java

Servlet filter:

Servlet filters are the objects which are used to perform some filtering task. A filter can be applied to a servlet, jsp or html.

Servlet filters are mainly used for following tasks:

Pre-processing: Servlet filter is used for pre-processing of request before it accesses any resource at server side.
Post-processing: Servlet filter is used for post-processing of response before it sent back to client.

How to create a filter?

Implement javax.servlet.Filter interface to create a filter.

Filter interface:

To create a filter you have to implement filter interface. Filter interface is in javax.servlet package javax.servlet.Filter. It provides life cycle methods of a filter.

Methods of filter interface:

1. init(FilterConfig config): This method is used to initialize the filter. It is called only once by web container.

Syntax:

public void init(FilterConfig config)

2. doFilter(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response, FilterChain chain): This method is used for performing pre-processing and post-processing tasks. It is called every time for a request/response comes for a resource to which filter is mapped.

Syntax:

public void doFilter(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response, FilterChain chain)

3. destroy(): This method is called only once by the web container when filter is taken out of the service.

Syntax:

public void destroy()

FilterChain interface:

FilterChain object is used to call the next filter or a resource if it is the last filter in filter chaining.

Method of FilterChain interface:

1. doFilter(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response): This method is used to call the next filter in filter chaining.

Syntax:

public void doFilter(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) 
throws IOException, ServletException

How to define a filter in web.xml?

<filter> attribute is used to define a filter in web.xml.

Syntax:

//Other attributes.

<filter>

<filter-name>filterName </filter-name>

<filter-class>filterClass</filter-class>

</filter>

<filter-mapping>

<filter-name>filterName</filter-name>

<url-pattern>urlPattern</url-pattern>

</filter-mapping>

//Other attributes.

</web-app>

Example:

LoginFilter.java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import javax.servlet.Filter;
import javax.servlet.FilterChain;
import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;
import javax.servlet.RequestDispatcher;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
 
/**
* This class is used as a filter.
* @author w3spoint
*/
public class LoginFilter implements Filter {
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
 
	public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) 
		throws ServletException {
 
	}  
 
      public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, 
			ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) 
	                throws IOException, ServletException {  
 
	response.setContentType("text/html"); 
    	PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
 
    	//get parameters from request object.
    	String userName = request.getParameter("userName").trim();
    	String password = request.getParameter("password").trim();
 
    	//check for null and empty values.
    	if(userName == null || userName.equals("") || 
    			password == null || password.equals("")){
    		out.print("Please enter both username " +
    				"and password. <br/><br/>");
    		RequestDispatcher requestDispatcher = 
    			request.getRequestDispatcher("/login.html");
    		requestDispatcher.include(request, response);
    	}//Check for valid username and password.
    	else if(userName.equals("jai") && password.equals("1234")){
    		 chain.doFilter(request, response);
    	}else{
    		out.print("Wrong username or password. <br/><br/>");
    		RequestDispatcher requestDispatcher = 
    			request.getRequestDispatcher("/login.html");
    		requestDispatcher.include(request, response);
    	}	          
     }  
 
    public void destroy() {
 
    }  
}

WelcomeServlet.java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 
/**
 * This class is used to print login message 
 * if user logged in successfully.
 */
public class WelcomeServlet extends HttpServlet {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
 
   //no-argument constructor
    public WelcomeServlet() {
 
    }
 
    protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, 
		HttpServletResponse response)
	            throws ServletException, IOException {
	response.setContentType("text/html");  
        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();  
 
        out.print("<h1>You are logged in successfully.</h1>");  
        out.close();  
    }
}

login.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 
Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Login</title>
</head>
<body>
	<form action="WelcomeServlet" method="POST">
		Username:<input type="text" name="userName"/>
		<br/><br/>
		Password:<input type="password" name="password"/>
		<br/><br/> 
		<input type="submit" value="login"/> 
	</form>  
</body>
</html>

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" 
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" 
id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
 
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>WelcomeServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>
    	com.w3spoint.business.WelcomeServlet
    </servlet-class>
  </servlet>
 
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>WelcomeServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/WelcomeServlet</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
 
  <filter>  
  	<filter-name>LoginFilter</filter-name>  
  	<filter-class>
  		com.w3spoint.business.LoginFilter
  	</filter-class>  
  </filter>  
 
  <filter-mapping>  
  	<filter-name>LoginFilter</filter-name>  
  	<url-pattern>/WelcomeServlet</url-pattern>  
  </filter-mapping>  
 
   <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>login.html</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
 
</web-app>

Output:

servlet example 14 login

Enter username: jai and password: 1234
servlet example 14 value

Click on login button.
servlet example 14 welcome

Download this example.

Next Topic: FilterConfig interface with example.
Previous Topic: HttpSession in servlet with example.

Please Share