JSP links to other pages

Question

Hi,
I have a web app that does not use a framework. I do try to follow the MVC pattern though by having all requests go through one Controller Servlet.
I have a Home page jsp, which only has links to other pages. The Home JSP does not have a <form>. Just <a href's.
These links take the user from the home page to other pages which do work and submit forms. However, some of these pages (jsp's) need to be prepopulated with data. For example, I have a page which gives a random phrase from the Database when clicking on the submit button. But when I first get to the page by following the link from Home Page, it is empty. I want to arrive at the page and have it already gotten the first phrase for me.
One option I thought of is to have the link from the Home Page which took me to the Random Phrase page, go through the Controller servlet initially and have the Controller servlet, after having done the work of retrieving the phrase redirect to the Random Phrase page.
If this is the correct approach, how can I accomplish this? How do I have a <a href link in a jsp, redirect to a servlet right away without submitting a form or something?
Thanks.

Answer 1

So I put this in my home.jsp:
<a href="/Household/randomPhrase.php">Random Phrase of The Day</a> In web.xml I have this:
<servlet>
       <servlet-name>VHController</servlet-name>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
       <servlet-name>VHController</servlet-name>
       <url-pattern>*.php</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>According to the above, when I click on this link it should take me to the Servlet's doGet() method.
However, when I actually click on it, I get the following exception in the browser:
java.lang.NullPointerException
     com.myapp.servlet.VHController.doPost(VHController.java:47)
     com.myapp.servlet.VHController.doGet(VHController.java:35)All I do in the doGet() method is:
          response.setContentType("text/html");
          PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
          out.println("URL: " + request.getRequestURL());
          out.println("URL: " + request.getRequestURL());
          out.println("METHOD: " + request.getMethod());Could anyone suggest what the problem may be? Why I am not getting the expected behavior?
Thanks.