Servlet Tutorial

Servlet technology is used to create web application (resides at server side and generates
dynamic web page).

Servet technology is robust and scalable as it uses the java language. Before Servlet, CGI
(Common Gateway Interface) scripting language was used as a server-side programming
language. But there were many disadvantages of this technology. We have discussed these
disadvantages below.

There are many interfaces and classes in the servlet API such as Servlet, GenericServlet,
HttpServlet, ServletRequest, ServletResponse etc.

What is a Servlet?
Servlet can be described in many ways, depending on the context.

 Servlet is a technology i.e. used to create web application.

 Servlet is an API that provides many interfaces and classes including documentations.
 Servlet is an interface that must be implemented for creating any servlet.
 Servlet is a class that extend the capabilities of the servers and respond to the
incoming request. It can respond to any type of requests.
 Servlet is a web component that is deployed on the server to create dynamic web
page.
Do You Know ?

 What is the web application and what is the difference between Get and Post request ?
 What information is received by the web server if we request for a servlet ?
 How to run servlet in Eclipse, MyEclipse and Netbeans IDE ?
 What are the ways for servlet collaboration and what is the difference between
RequestDispatcher and sendRedirect() method ?
 What is the difference between ServletConfig and ServletContext interface?
 How many ways we can maintain state of an user ? Which approach is mostly used in
web development ?
 How to count total number of visitors and total response time for a request using
Filter ?
 How to run servlet with annotation ?
 How to create registration form using Servlet and Oracle database ?
 How can we upload and download file from the server ?

What is web application?

A web application is an application accessible from the web. A web application is composed
of web components like Servlet, JSP, Filter etc. and other components such as HTML. The
web components typically execute in Web Server and respond to HTTP request.

CGI(Commmon Gateway Interface)

CGI technology enables the web server to call an external program and pass HTTP request
information to the external program to process the request. For each request, it starts a new
process.
Disadvantages of CGI

There are many problems in CGI technology:

1. If number of clients increases, it takes more time for sending response.

2. For each request, it starts a process and Web server is limited to start processes.
3. It uses platform dependent language e.g. C, C++, perl.

Advantage of Servlet

There are many advantages of Servlet over CGI. The web container creates threads for
handling the multiple requests to the servlet. Threads have a lot of benefits over the Processes
such as they share a common memory area, lighweight, cost of communication between the
threads are low. The basic benefits of servlet are as follows:

1. better performance: because it creates a thread for each request not process.
2. Portability: because it uses java language.
 3. Robust: Servlets are managed by JVM so no need to worry about momory leak,
garbage collection etc.
4. Secure: because it uses java language..

Servlet Terminology
1. Basics of Servlet
2. HTTP
3. Http Request Methods
4. Difference between Get and Post
5. Anatomy of Get Request
6. Anatomy of Post Request
7. Content Type

There are some key points that must be known by the servlet programmer like server,
container, get request, post request etc. Let's first discuss these points before starting the
servlet technology.

The basic terminology used in servlet are given below:

1. HTTP
2. HTTP Request Types
3. Difference between Get and Post method
4. Container
5. Server and Difference between web server and application server
6. Content Type
7. Introduction of XML
8. Deployment

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)

1. Http is the protocol that allows web servers and browsers to exchange data over the
web.
2. It is a request response protocol.
3. Http uses reliable TCP connections bydefault on TCP port 80.
4. It is stateless means each request is considered as the new request. In other words,
server doesn't recognize the user bydefault.
Http Request Methods

Every request has a header that tells the status of the client. There are many request methods.
Get and Post requests are mostly used.

The http request methods are:

 GET
 POST
 HEAD
 PUT
 DELETE
 OPTIONS
 TRACE

HTTP
Description
Request
GET Asks to get the resource at the requested URL.
Asks the server to accept the body info attached. It is like GET request with
POST
extra info sent with the request.
Asks for only the header part of whatever a GET would return. Just like GET
HEAD
but with no body.
TRACE Asks for the loopback of the request message, for testing or troubleshooting.
PUT Says to put the enclosed info (the body) at the requested URL.
DELETE Says to delete the resource at the requested URL.
Asks for a list of the HTTP methods to which the thing at the request URL can
OPTIONS
respond

What is the difference between Get and Post?

There are many differences between the Get and Post request. Let's see these differences:

GET POST
 In case of post request, large amount of
1) In case of Get request, only limited amount of
data can be sent because data is sent in
data can be sent because data is sent in header.
body.
2) Get request is not secured because data is Post request is secured because data is
exposed in URL bar. not exposed in URL bar.
3) Get request can be bookmarked Post request cannot be bookmarked
4) Get request is idempotent. It means second
request will be ignored until response of first Post request is non-idempotent
request is delivered.
5) Get request is more efficient and used more than Post request is less efficient and used
Post less than get.

Anatomy of Get Request

As we know that data is sent in request header in case of get request. It is the default request
type. Let's see what informations are sent to the server.

Anatomy of Post Request

As we know, in case of post request original data is sent in message body. Let's see how
informations are passed to the server in case of post request.

Container

It provides runtime environment for JavaEE (j2ee) applications.

It performs many operations that are given below:

1. Life Cycle Management

2. Multithreaded support
3. Object Pooling
4. Security etc.

Server

It is a running program or software that provides services.

There are two types of servers:

 1. Web Server
2. Application Server

Web Server

Web server contains only web or servlet container. It can be used for servlet, jsp, struts, jsf
etc. It can't be used for EJB.

Example of Web Servers are: Apache Tomcat and Resin.

Application Server

Application server contains Web and EJB containers. It can be used for servlet, jsp, struts, jsf,
ejb etc.

Example of Application Servers are:

1. JBoss Open-source server from JBoss community.

2. Glassfish provided by Sun Microsystem. Now acquired by Oracle.
3. Weblogic provided by Oracle. It more secured.
4. Websphere provided by IBM.

Content Type

Content Type is also known as MIME (Multipurpose internet Mail Extension) Type. It is a
HTTP header that provides the description about what are you sending to the browser.

There are many content types:

 text/html
 text/plain
 application/msword
 application/vnd.ms-excel
 application/jar
 application/pdf
 application/octet-stream
 application/x-zip
 images/jpeg
 video/quicktime etc.

Servlet API
 1. Servlet API
2. Interfaces in javax.servlet package
3. Classes in javax.servlet package
4. Interfaces in javax.servlet.http package
5. Classes in javax.servlet.http package

The javax.servlet and javax.servlet.http packages represent interfaces and classes for servlet
api.

The javax.servlet package contains many interfaces and classes that are used by the servlet
or web container. These are not specific to any protocol.

The javax.servlet.http package contains interfaces and classes that are responsible for http
requests only.

Let's see what are the interfaces of javax.servlet package.

Interfaces in javax.servlet package

There are many interfaces in javax.servlet package. They are as follows:

1. Servlet
2. ServletRequest
3. ServletResponse
4. RequestDispatcher
5. ServletConfig
6. ServletContext
7. SingleThreadModel
8. Filter
9. FilterConfig
10. FilterChain
11. ServletRequestListener
12. ServletRequestAttributeListener
13. ServletContextListener
14. ServletContextAttributeListener

Classes in javax.servlet package

There are many classes in javax.servlet package. They are as follows:

1. GenericServlet
2. ServletInputStream
3. ServletOutputStream
4. ServletRequestWrapper
5. ServletResponseWrapper
6. ServletRequestEvent
7. ServletContextEvent
8. ServletRequestAttributeEvent
9. ServletContextAttributeEvent
10. ServletException
 11. UnavailableException

Interfaces in javax.servlet.http package

There are many interfaces in javax.servlet.http package. They are as follows:

1. HttpServletRequest
2. HttpServletResponse
3. HttpSession
4. HttpSessionListener
5. HttpSessionAttributeListener
6. HttpSessionBindingListener
7. HttpSessionActivationListener
8. HttpSessionContext (deprecated now)

Classes in javax.servlet.http package

There are many classes in javax.servlet.http package. They are as follows:

1. HttpServlet
2. Cookie
3. HttpServletRequestWrapper
4. HttpServletResponseWrapper
5. HttpSessionEvent
6. HttpSessionBindingEvent
7. HttpUtils (deprecated now)

Servlet Interface
1. Servlet Interface
2. Methods of Servlet interface

Servlet interface provides common behaviour to all the servlets.

Servlet interface needs to be implemented for creating any servlet (either directly or
indirectly). It provides 3 life cycle methods that are used to initialize the servlet, to service the
requests, and to destroy the servlet and 2 non-life cycle methods.

Methods of Servlet interface

There are 5 methods in Servlet interface. The init, service and destroy are the life cycle
methods of servlet. These are invoked by the web container.

Method Description
initializes the servlet. It is the life cycle method
public void init(ServletConfig config)
of servlet and invoked by the web container
 only once.
public void service(ServletRequest provides response for the incoming request. It is
request,ServletResponse response) invoked at each request by the web container.
is invoked only once and indicates that servlet is
public void destroy()
being destroyed.
public ServletConfig getServletConfig() returns the object of ServletConfig.
returns information about servlet such as writer,
public String getServletInfo()
copyright, version etc.

Servlet Example by implementing Servlet interface

Let's see the simple example of servlet by implementing the servlet interface.

It will be better if you learn it after visiting steps to create a servlet.

File: First.java

1. import java.io.*;
2. import javax.servlet.*;
3.
4. public class First implements Servlet{
5. ServletConfig config=null;
6.
7. public void init(ServletConfig config){
8. this.config=config;
9. System.out.println("servlet is initialized");
10. }
11.
12. public void service(ServletRequest req,ServletResponse res)
13. throws IOException,ServletException{
14.
15. res.setContentType("text/html");
16.
17. PrintWriter out=res.getWriter();
18. out.print("<html><body>");
19. out.print("<b>hello simple servlet</b>");
20. out.print("</body></html>");
21.
22. }
23. public void destroy(){System.out.println("servlet is destroyed");}
24. public ServletConfig getServletConfig(){return config;}
25. public String getServletInfo(){return "copyright 2007-1010";}
26.
27. }