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Common Methods


The methods that you write for your WebObjects application provide the behavior that makes your application unique. Because you are writing subclasses of WOApplication, WOSession, and WOComponent (in Java, WebApplication, WebSession, and Component), you inherit the methods provided by those classes. These inherited methods take care of the details of receiving HTTP requests and generating responses. However, you'll sometimes find that you need to override some of the inherited methods to perform certain tasks.

This chapter describes the types of methods that you generally write in a WebObjects application. These types are:

In cases where you override existing methods, those methods are invoked at standard, predictable times during the application's request-response loop (the main loop for a WebObjects application). For background on the request-response loop, see the chapter "WebObjects Viewed Through Its Classes".

As you're writing methods, refer to the class specifications for WOApplication, WOSession, and WOComponent to learn which messages you can send to these objects. The class specifications are in the online book WebObjects Class Reference.

Action Methods

Initialization and Deallocation Methods
The Structures of init and awake
Application Initialization
Session Initialization
Component Initialization

Request-Handling Methods
Taking Input Values From a Request
Invoking an Action
Limitations on Direct Requests
Generating a Response

First Section