I am now learning while developing my Java web app using JSF, and I was asked to study on using Javascript to create datatable/report dynamically and present it via .html/.xhtml. I am required to use Datatables.net to produce the table. The backend process is using Java instead of Php. Since it is so rare to use this method, I got no idea on this. My thought so far is:

MySQL data --convert to (processed by Java code)--> Json --read by-> Javascript

How do I process the SQL data? Can I directly run the query inside Java like:

SELECT 
CONCAT("[",
     GROUP_CONCAT(
          CONCAT("{name:'",NAME,"'"),
          CONCAT("email:'",email,"'"),
          CONCAT(",address:'",address,"'}")
     )
,"]") AS JSON FROM customer

If so, how do I parse the data out and make sure Javascript will read it?

The another way I found is to use some library like Gson or something similar.

Explanations or examples about this issue is much appreciated.