JS (Java Servlets)

JS (Java Servlets)

Internet evolution [1]

The internet


Internet started of as a
static content
dispersal and delivery mechanism
,
where files residing on servers
anywhere in the world can be
served to a browser connected to
the internet using the HTTP protocol


The
need
for sharing dynamic
content (
time variant
,
person variant
etc.,) led to the evolution of the CGI
(Common Gateway Interface)
mechanism


CGI programs were originally written
on C and generate HTML
dynamically based on the request
passed to it from the server
.

–
Problems with CGI were

•
CGI model was very slow, as it was
based on starting new processes for
each client request. CPU speed and
memory capacity became
bottlenecks

•
Tasks performed by the programs
such as opening database
connections had to be repeated
every time

•
Merging of static presentation and
dynamic business logic affected
application development turnaround
times

Internet evolution [2]

Sun’s response


Sun’s response to this
technological problem
was

t
he
servlet

technology



Servlet architecture eliminates
the need for reloading a servlet
for every browser request. The
JVM stays running and handles
each servlet request using a
lightweight Java thread, and
not a heavyweight operating
system process as is the case
with CGI programs


If request is made for a servlet
N times, there will be N servlet
threads but only a single copy
of the servlet class.

–
The servlet technology
revolutionized web application
development using Java
technologies

Introduction to Java servlets

Servlets introduction


Servlets are the
Java counter
part to non
-
Java dynamic web
content technologies

such as
CGI and ASP.NET
.


Java EE provides the
Java
Servlet API
, which is a protocol
by which a Java class may
respond to HTTP requests



A Java servlet is a Java class
that conforms to the Java
Servlet API


Servlets are generally not tied
to any specific client
-
server
protocol, but are most often
used with HTTP protocol


The word “Servlet” is often
used in the meaning of HTTP
servlet


A software developer may use
a Servlet to add dynamic
content to a Web server
(java
enabled)
using the Java
platform
.

•
The generated content is
commonly HTML, but may be
XML as well

The servlet environment

Servlets environment


Servlets are Java classes
that can be loaded
dynamically and run by a
Java enabled Web server.


The Web server provides
support for servlets with
extensions called
servlet
engines
.


Browsers interact with the
servlet using the HTTP
request / response protocol


Servlet container provides the
following services and
functionality


•
The network services over which the
requests and responses are sent

•
Registers the servlet against one or
more URLs

•
Manages the servlet lifecycle

•
Decodes MIME based requests

•
Constructs MIME based responses

•
Supports the HTTP protocol

•
A Servlet container can also enforce
security restrictions on the
environment, such as requesting to
login to access
specific
web page
s

Servlet lifecycle diagram

InitDemo.java

code demonstrates that the init() method is called only once and the doGet() method is called with every


invocation of the servlet.

The servlet execution
environment (server)

Execution environment


The servers use
ServletConfig

interface to
pass initialization and
context information to
servlets, which consists of


Initialization information
consists of a series of
initialization parameters (init
parameters) and


a
ServletContext
object, that
provides information about the
server / execution environment


•
The ServletContext interface defines
a series of methods that can be
used to communicate with the
server in non
-
request specific
manner.

•
This includes the following

•
Finding path information

•
Accessing other servlets
running on the server

•
Writing to the server log file.

•
ServerInfo.java

code


The servlet API

The servlet API


The central abstraction in
the servlet API is the
Servlet

interface. All servlets
implement this interface
directly or more commonly
by extending a class that
implements the same


Most servlets extend one of the
standard implementations of
that interface viz.,
javax.servlet.GenericServlet

or
javax.servlet.HttpServlet


•
Unlike a regular Java program, a
servlet does not have a main()
method.

•
Instead, certain methods of a servlet
are invoked by the server in the
process of handling requests.

•
Each time the server dispatches a
request to a servlet, it invokes the
servlets service() method

Servlet API diagram

A
generic

servlet should
override its service() method
to handle requests as
appropriate for the servlet.

The service() method accepts
two parameters, request object
and a response object. The
request object tells the servlet
about the request, while the
response object is used to
return a response.

A
HTTP servlet
instance

usually does not override the
service() method.

Instead, it overrides doGet()
to handle GET requests and
doPost() to handle POST
requests.

A HTTP servlet can override
either or both of these
methods depending on the
type of requests it needs to
handle.

The service() method of
HttpServlet handles the setup
and dispatching to all the
doXXX() methods,
which is
why it should not be
overwritten
.

The HTTP Request (client
information)

Client information


For each HTTP request, a
servlet has the ability to find
out about the client machine
making the request from the
HttpServletRequest

object


This information can be used to
used for logging access data or
restricting access to certain
clients


A Servlet can use
getRemoteAddr()

and
getRemoteHost()

on the
request object to retrieve the IP
address and the host name of
the client machines

•
It is possible to retrieve all
information related to the request,
such as

•
The request method by using
getMethod()

•
The URL as sent by the client
by using getRequestURL()

•
The query string (if it exists) by
using getQueryString() method

•
Any HTTP header details by
using the getHeader() method
(e.g. request.getHeader(“User
-
Agent”))

•
ClientInfo.java

code

The HTTP Response

HTTP response


A response from a web
server to a HTTP request
contains the following


Status line


Some response headers


A blank line followed by


The body of the response


As seen from the previous two
examples, the HTTP response
has to be built by the servlet


First step should be to set the
content type of the response by
using the setContentType()
method

•
The servlet should get a PrintWriter
object using the getWriter() method.
The PrintWriter object will enable
sending of character text to the
client

•
The body of the response, viz., the
HTML text is created by a sequence
of
out.println

statements with the
appropriate text as required

•
This is the simple form of generating
a HTTP response

•
There are other things possible
in the response
–

such as
indicating an error condition,
setting various HTTP headers
as part of the HTTP response
to control application behaviour
on the client side.