Using JSPs to Send NOT-MODIFIED-SINCE Header

[Tony LaPaso <to...@absolutejava.com>]

Hi all,

In looking at past posts, I'm afraid I know the horrible answer
to this issue but I thought I'd ask just in case I missed
anything.

Let me start by saying I'm using Tomcat v4.0.4 beta 3.

As you know, when a client (usually a web browser) has a cached
version of a resource (usually a web page) it can send an
"If-Modified-Since" header to the HTTP server. The server
compares the time/date stamp specified in the header with that of
the requested resource. If the resource has *not* been modified
since the time specified in the "If-Modified-Since" header, the
server sends back a 304 (Not-Modified) response, effectively
telling the client (usually a web browser) that its cached
version of the resource is still valid.

When writing a servlet, it's easy to handle this sort of
scenario. The javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet class has a
"service()" method. This method first checks if the incoming HTTP
method is a GET. If it is, the "service()" method proceeds to
call the "getLastModified()" method of the servlet. As a
developer, you can override "getLastModified()" to return a long
value representing the last time the requested resource was
changed. Depending on the value returned by "getLastModified()"
(note that -1 is returned if you don't override the method) the
"service()" method may simply return a 304, Not-Modified response
rather than calling the servlet's "doGet()" method.

Now, the $18.32 Question: How do you ensure "getLastModified()"
is called in JSP?

No, you cannot simply do this:

<%!
   public long getLastModified() {
      return xxx;
   }
%>

The problem is that the above method will never be called by the
container.

I traced through some of the Tomcat/Catalina/Jasper code and it
seems to me that the response code is being set to 200/OK very
early on in the processing.

I also took a cursory look at the JSP spec and didn't find any
indication of setting a "Not-Modified" response code...so, I am
thinking this is something that is (strangely) missing in the JSP
specification. I have a JSP page that needs to update itself once
per day. Therefore, it would be very handy to have the
"getLastModified()" functionality enjoyed by servlet writers.

Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks...


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