Servlets

Introduction to Servlet
Servlet Technology is used to create web applications. Servlet technology uses Java language to
create web applications.
Web applications are helper applications that resides at web server and build dynamic web pages. A
dynamic page could be anything like a page that randomly chooses picture to display or even a page
that displays the current time.

As Servlet Technology uses Java, web applications made using Servlet

are Secured, Scalable and Robust.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)

Before Servlets, CGI(Common Gateway Interface) programming was used to create web
applications. Here's how a CGI program works :

User clicks a link that has URL to a dynamic page instead of a static page.

The URL decides which CGI program to execute.

Web Servers run the CGI program in seperate OS shell. The shell includes OS enviroment
and the process to execute code of the CGI program.

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The CGI response is sent back to the Web Server, which wraps the response in an HTTP
response and send it back to the web browser.

Drawbacks of CGI programs

High resposne time because CGI programs execute in their own OS shell.

CGI is not scalable.

CGI programs are not always secure or object-oriented.

It is Platform dependent.

Because of these disadvantages, developers started looking for better CGI solutions. And then Sun
Microsystems developed Servlet as a solution over traditional CGI technology.

Advantages of using Servlets

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Less response time because each request runs in a separate thread.

Servlets are scalable.

Servlets are robust and object oriented.

Servlets are platform independent.

Steps to Create Servlet Application using tomcat

server
To create a Servlet application you need to follow the below mentioned steps. These steps are
common for all the Web server. In our example we are using Apache Tomcat server. Apache Tomcat
is an open source web server for testing servlets and JSP technology. Download latest version
of Tomcat Server and install it on your machine.
After installing Tomcat Server on your machine follow the below mentioned steps :
1.

Create directory structure for your application.

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2.

Create a Servlet

3.

Compile the Servlet

4.

Create Deployement Descriptor for your application

5.

Start the server and deploy the application

All these 5 steps are explained in details below, lets create our first Servlet Application.

1. Creating the Directory Structure

Sun Microsystem defines a unique directory structure that must be followed to create a servlet
application.

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Create the above directory structure inside Apache-Tomcat\webapps directory. All HTML, static
files(images, css etc) are kept directly under Web application folder. While all the Servlet classes
are kept inside classesfolder.
The web.xml (deployement descriptor) file is kept under WEB-INF folder.

Creating a Servlet
There are three different ways to create a servlet.

By implementing Servlet interface

By extending GenericServlet class

By extending HttpServlet class

But mostly a servlet is created by extending HttpServlet abstract class. As discussed

earlier HttpServlet gives the definition of service() method of the Servlet interface. The servlet
class that we will create should not override service() method. Our servlet class will override
only doGet() or doPost() method.
When a request comes in for the servlet, the Web Container calls the servlet's service() method
and depending on the type of request the service() method calls either
the doGet() or doPost() method.
NOTE: By default a request is Get request.
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.io.*;

public MyServlet extends HttpServlet

{
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResposne response)
throws ServletException

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{
response.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
out.println("<html><body>");
out.println("<h1>Hello Readers</h1>");
out.println("</body></html>");
}
}
Write above code in a notepad file and save it as MyServlet.java anywhere on your PC. Compile
it(explained in next step) from there and paste the class file into WEB-INF/classes/ directory that
you have to create inside Tomcat/webapps directory.

Compiling a Servlet
To compile a Servlet a JAR file is required. Different servers require different JAR files. In Apache
Tomcat server servlet-api.jar file is required to compile a servlet class.
Steps to compile a Servlet

Set the Class Path.

Download servlet-api.jar file.

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Paste the servlet-api.jar file inside Java\jdk\jre\lib\ext directory.

Compile the Servlet class.

NOTE: After compiling your Servlet class you will have to paste the class file into WEBINF/classes/directory.

Create Deployment Descriptor

Deployment Descriptor(DD) is an XML document that is used by Web Container to run Servlets
and JSP pages. DD is used for several important purposes such as:

Mapping URL to Servlet class.

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Initializing parameters.

Defining Error page.

Security roles.

Declaring tag libraries.

We will discuss about all these in details later. Now we will see how to create a simple web.xml file
for our web application.

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How a Servlet Application works

Web container is responsible for managing execution of servlets and JSP pages for Java EE
application.
When a request comes in for a servlet, the server hands the request to the Web Container. Web
Container is responsible for instantiating the servlet or creating a new thread to handle the request.
Its the job of Web Container to get the request and response to the servlet. The container creates
multiple threads to process multiple requests to a single servlet.
Servlets don't have a main() method. Web Container manages the life cycle of a Servlet instance.

Quick Revision on How a Servlet works

1.

User sends request for a servlet by clicking a link that has URL to a servlet.

2.

The container finds the servlet using deployment descriptor and creates two objects :
a.

HttpServletRequest

b.

HttpServletResponse

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3.

Then the container creates or allocates a thread for that request and calls the
Servlet's service()method and passes the request, response objects as arguments.

4.

The service() method, then decides which servlet method, doGet() or doPost() to call,
based onHTTP Request Method(Get, Post etc) sent by the client. Suppose the client sent an
HTTP GET request, so the service() will call Servlet's doGet() method.

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5.

Then the Servlet uses response object to write the response back to the client.

6.

After the service() method is completed the thread dies. And the request and response
objects are ready for garbage collection.

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Servlet Life Cycle

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1.

Loading Servlet Class : A Servlet class is loaded when first request for the servlet is
received by the Web Container.

2.

Servlet instance creation :After the Servlet class is loaded, Web Container creates the
instance of it. Servlet instance is created only once in the life cycle.

3.

Call to the init() method : init() method is called by the Web Container on servlet instance
to initialize the servlet.

Signature of init() method :

public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException
4.

Call to the service() method : The containers call the service() method each time the
request for servlet is received. The service() method will then call
the doGet() or doPost() methos based ont eh type of the HTTP request, as explained in
previous lessons.

Signature of service() method :

public void service(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response) throws
ServletException, IOException
5.

Call to destroy() method: The Web Container call the destroy() method before removing
servlet instance, giving it a chance for cleanup activity.

Servlet API
Servlet API consists of two important packages that encapsulates all the important classes and
interface, namely :

javax.servlet

javax.servlet.http

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Some Important Classes and Interfaces of javax.servlet
INTERFACES

CLASSES

Servlet

ServletInputStream

ServletContext

ServletOutputStream

ServletConfig

ServletRequestWrapper

ServletRequest

ServletResponseWrapper

ServletResponse

ServletRequestEvent

ServletContextListener

ServletContextEvent

RequestDispatcher

ServletRequestAttributeEvent

SingleThreadModel

ServletContextAttributeEvent

Filter

ServletException

FilterConfig

UnavailableException

FilterChain

GenericServlet

ServletRequestListener

Some Important Classes and Interface of javax.servlet.http

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CLASSES

INTERFACES

HttpServlet

HttpServletRequest

HttpServletResponse

HttpSessionAttributeListener

HttpSession

HttpSessionListener

Cookie

HttpSessionEvent

Servlet Interface
Servlet Interface provides five methods. Out of these five methods, three methods are Servlet life
cyclemethods and rest two are non life cycle methods.

GenericServlet Class
GenericServlet is an abstract class that provides implementation of most of the basic servlet
methods. This is a very important class.
Methods of GenericServlet class

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public void init(ServletConfig)

public abstract void service(ServletRequest request,ServletResposne response)

public void destroy()

public ServletConfig getServletConfig()

public String getServletInfo()

public ServletContext getServletContext()

public String getInitParameter(String name)

public Enumeration getInitParameterNames()

public String getServletName()

public void log(String msg)

public void log(String msg, Throwable t)

HttpServlet class
HttpServlet is also an abstract class. This class gives implementation of various service() methods
ofServlet interface.
To create a servlet, we should create a class that extends HttpServlet abstract class. The Servlet
class that we will create, must not override service() method. Our servlet class will override only
the doGet()and/or doPost() methods.
The service() method of HttpServlet class listens to the Http methods (GET, POST etc) from
request stream and invokes doGet() or doPost() methods based on Http Method type.

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Heirarchy of the servlet :

Servlet
|
GenericServlet
|
HttpServet
PrintWriter prints text data to a character stream..
getWriter() returns A printwriter object that can send character text to the client

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