Servlet 2.4 Specification Notes

Note while reading servlet 2.4 specification.

SRV.1.1 What is a Servlet?
A servlet is a JavaTM technology-based Web component, managed by a container,
that generates dynamic content. Like other Java technology-based components,
servlets are platform-independent Java classes that are compiled to platform-neutral
byte code that can be loaded dynamically into and run by a Java technology-enabled
Web server. Containers, sometimes called servlet engines, are Web server extensions
that provide servlet functionality. Servlets interact with Web clients via a
request/response paradigm implemented by the servlet container.

SRV.1.2 What is a Servlet Container?
The servlet container is a part of aWeb server or application server that provides the
network services over which requests and responses are sent, decodes MIME-based
requests, and formats MIME-based responses. A servlet container also contains and
manages servlets through their lifecycle.

All servlet containers must support HTTP as a protocol for requests and
responses, but additional request/response-based protocols such as HTTPS
(HTTP over SSL) may be supported.

Sequence of Servlet Request & Response
The following is a typical sequence of events:
1. A client (e.g., a Web browser) accesses a Web server and makes an HTTP request.
2. The request is received by the Web server and handed off to the servlet container.
The servlet container can be running in the same process as the host
Web server, in a different process on the same host, or on a different host from
the Web server for which it processes requests.
3. The servlet container determines which servlet to invoke based on the configuration
of its servlets, and calls it with objects representing the request and response.
4. The servlet uses the request object to find out who the remote user is, what
HTTP POST parameters may have been sent as part of this request, and other
relevant data. The servlet performs whatever logic it was programmed with,
and generates data to send back to the client. It sends this data back to the client
via the response object.
5. Once the servlet has finished processing the request, the servlet container ensures
that the response is properly flushed, and returns control back to the host
Web server.

Comparing Servlets with Other Technologies
In functionality, servlets lie somewhere between Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
programs and proprietary server extensions such as the Netscape Server API
(NSAPI) or Apache Modules.
Servlets have the following advantages over other server extension mechanisms:
• They are generally much faster than CGI scripts because a different process
model is used.
• They use a standard API that is supported by many Web servers.
• They have all the advantages of the Java programming language, including
ease of development and platform independence.
• They can access the large set of APIs available for the Java platform.

Servlet Interface

The Servlet interface is the central abstraction of the Java Servlet API. All servlets
implement this interface either directly, or more commonly, by extending a class
that implements the interface. The two classes in the Java Servlet API that implement
the Servlet interface are GenericServlet and HttpServlet. For most purposes,
Developers will extend HttpServlet to implement their servlets.

SRV.2.1 Request Handling Methods
The basic Servlet interface defines a service method for handling client requests.
This method is called for each request that the servlet container routes to an instance
of a servlet.
The handling of concurrent requests to a Web application generally requires
that the Web Developer design servlets that can deal with multiple threads executing
within the service method at a particular time.
Generally the Web container handles concurrent requests to the same servlet
by concurrent execution of the service method on different threads.

SRV.2.1.1 HTTP Specific Request Handling Methods
The HttpServlet abstract subclass adds additional methods beyond the basic
Servlet interface that are automatically called by the service method in the
HttpServlet class to aid in processing HTTP-based requests. These methods are:
• doGet for handling HTTP GET requests
• doPost for handling HTTP POST requests
• doPut for handling HTTP PUT requests
• doDelete for handling HTTP DELETE requests
• doHead for handling HTTP HEAD requests
• doOptions for handling HTTP OPTIONS requests
• doTrace for handling HTTP TRACE requests
Typically when developing HTTP-based servlets, a Servlet Developer will
only concern himself with the doGet and doPost methods. The other methods are
considered to be methods for use by programmers very familiar with HTTP programming.

SRV.2.1.2 Additional Methods
The doPut and doDelete methods allow Servlet Developers to support HTTP/1.1
clients that employ these features. The doHead method in HttpServlet is a specialized
form of the doGet method that returns only the headers produced by the doGet
method. The doOptions method responds with which HTTP methods are supported
by the servlet. The doTrace method generates a response containing all instances of
the headers sent in the TRACE request.

SRV.2.1.3 Conditional GET Support
The HttpServlet interface defines the getLastModified method to support conditional
GET operations. A conditional GET operation requests a resource be sent only if
it has been modified since a specified time. In appropriate situations, implementation
of this method may aid efficient utilization of network resources.