Java Servlet

Java Servlet

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet

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

Servlet technology is robust and scalable because of java language. Before

Servlet, CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripting language was common as a
server-side programming language. However, there were many disadvantages to
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?
o Servlet is a technology which is used to create a web application.
o Servlet is an API that provides many interfaces and classes including
documentation.
o Servlet is an interface that must be implemented for creating any Servlet.
o Servlet is a class that extends the capabilities of the servers and responds
to the incoming requests. It can respond to any requests.
o Servlet is a web component that is deployed on the server to create a
dynamic web page.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet

What is a 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 elements
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The web components typically execute in
Web Server and respond to the HTTP request.

CGI (Common 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 the number of clients increases, it takes more time for sending the
response.
2. For each request, it starts a process, and the web server is limited to start
processes.
3. It uses platform dependent language e.g. C, C++, perl.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet
Advantages 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 many
benefits over the Processes such as they share a common memory area,
lightweight, cost of communication between the threads are low. The advantages
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: JVM manages Servlets, so we don't need to worry about the
memory leak, garbage collection, etc.
4. Secure: because it uses java language.

Servlet API
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.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet
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

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet
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
Servlet interface provides commonbehaviorto all the servlets.Servlet interface
defines methods that all servlets must implement.

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.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet

GenericServlet class
GenericServlet class
implements Servlet, ServletConfig and Serializable interfaces. It provides the
implementation of all the methods of these interfaces except the service method.

GenericServlet class can handle any type of request so it is protocol-independent.

Methods of GenericServlet class

1. public void init(ServletConfig config) is used to initialize the servlet.

2. public abstract void service(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse
response) provides service for the incoming request. It is invoked at each
time when user requests for a servlet.
3. public void destroy() is invoked only once throughout the life cycle and
indicates that servlet is being destroyed.
4. public ServletConfig getServletConfig() returns the object of
ServletConfig.
5. public String getServletInfo() returns information about servlet such as
writer, copyright, version etc.
6. public void init() it is a convenient method for the servlet programmers,
now there is no need to call super.init(config)
7. public ServletContext getServletContext() returns the object of
ServletContext.
8. public String getInitParameter(String name) returns the parameter
value for the given parameter name.
9. public Enumeration getInitParameterNames() returns all the
parameters defined in the web.xml file.
10.public String getServletName() returns the name of the servlet object.
11.public void log(String msg) writes the given message in the servlet log
file.
12.public void log(String msg,Throwable t) writes the explanatory message
in the servlet log file and a stack trace.

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 Java Servlet

HttpServlet class
The HttpServlet class extends the GenericServlet class and implements Serializable interface.
such as doGet, doPost, doHead, doTrace etc.

Methods of HttpServlet class

There are many methods in HttpServlet class. They are as follows:

1. public void service(ServletRequest req,ServletResponse res) dispatches

the request to the protected service method by converting the request and
response object into http type.
2. protected void service(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse
res) receives the request from the service method, and dispatches the
request to the doXXX() method depending on the incoming http request
type.
3. protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse
res) handles the GET request. It is invoked by the web container.
4. protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse
res) handles the POST request. It is invoked by the web container.
5. protected void doHead(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse
res) handles the HEAD request. It is invoked by the web container.
6. protected void doOptions(HttpServletRequest req,
HttpServletResponse res) handles the OPTIONS request. It is invoked by
the web container.
7. protected void doPut(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse
res) handles the PUT request. It is invoked by the web container.
8. protected void doTrace(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse
res) handles the TRACE request. It is invoked by the web container.
9. protected void doDelete(HttpServletRequest req,
HttpServletResponse res) handles the DELETE request. It is invoked by
the web container.
10.protected long getLastModified(HttpServletRequest req) returns the
time when HttpServletRequest was last modified since midnight January
1, 1970 GMT.

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 Java Servlet

Life Cycle of a Servlet (Servlet Life Cycle)

The web container maintains the life cycle of a servlet instance. Let's see the life
cycle of the servlet:

1. Servlet class is loaded.

2. Servlet instance is created.
3. init method is invoked.
4. service method is invoked.
5. destroy method is invoked.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet

1) Servlet class is loaded

The classloader is responsible to load the servlet class. The servlet class is loaded
when the first request for the servlet is received by the web container.

2) Servlet instance is created

The web container creates the instance of a servlet after loading the servlet class.
The servlet instance is created only once in the servlet life cycle.

3) init method is invoked

The web container calls the init method only once after creating the servlet instance.
The init method is used to initialize the servlet. It is the life cycle method of the
javax.servlet.Servlet interface. Syntax of the init method is given below:

public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException

4) service method is invoked

The web container calls the service method each time when request for the servlet
is received. If servlet is not initialized, it follows the first three steps as described
above then calls the service method. If servlet is initialized, it calls the service
method. Notice that servlet is initialized only once. The syntax of the service
method of the Servlet interface is given below:

public void service(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response)

throws ServletException, IOException

5) destroy method is invoked

The web container calls the destroy method before removing the servlet instance
from the service. It gives the servlet an opportunity to clean up any resource for
example memory, thread etc. The syntax of the destroy method of the Servlet
interface is given below:

public void destroy()

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 Java Servlet

Steps to create a servlet example

There are given 6 steps to create a servlet example. These steps are required for
all the servers.

The servlet example can be created by three ways:

1. By implementing Servlet interface,

2. By inheriting GenericServlet class, (or)
3. By inheriting HttpServlet class

The mostly used approach is by extending HttpServlet because it provides http

request specific method such as doGet(), doPost(), doHead() etc.

Here, we are going to use apache tomcat server in this example. The steps are
as follows:

1. Create a directory structure

2. Create a Servlet
3. Compile the Servlet
4. Create a deployment descriptor
5. Start the server and deploy the project
6. Access the servlet

1)Create a directory structures

The directory structure defines that where to put the different types of files so
that web container may get the information and respond to the client.

The Sun Microsystem defines a unique standard to be followed by all the server
vendors. Let's see the directory structure that must be followed to create the
servlet.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet

As you can see that the servlet class file must be in the classes folder. The
web.xml file must be under the WEB-INF folder.

2)Create a Servlet
There are three ways to create the servlet.

1. By implementing the Servlet interface

2. By inheriting the GenericServlet class
3. By inheriting the HttpServlet class

The HttpServlet class is widely used to create the servlet because it provides methods to
handle http requests such as doGet(), doPost, doHead() etc.
In this example we are going to create a servlet that extends the HttpServlet class.
In this example, we are inheriting the HttpServlet class and providing the implementation
of the doGet() method. Notice that get request is the default request.

import javax.servlet.http.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import java.io.*;
public class DemoServlet extends HttpServlet{
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req,HttpServletResponse res)
throws ServletException,IOException
{

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet
res.setContentType("text/html");//setting the content type
PrintWriter pw=res.getWriter();//get the stream to write the data

//writing html in the stream

pw.println("<html><body>");
pw.println("Welcome to servlet");
pw.println("</body></html>");

pw.close();//closing the stream

}
}

3)Compile the servlet

For compiling the Servlet, jar file is required to be loaded. Different Servers
provide different jar files:

Jar file Server

1) servlet-api.jar Apache Tomcat

2) weblogic.jar Weblogic

3) javaee.jar Glassfish

4) javaee.jar JBoss

Two ways to load the jar file

1. set classpath
2. paste the jar file in JRE/lib/ext folder

Put the java file in any folder. After compiling the java file, paste the class file of
servlet in WEB-INF/classes directory.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet
4)Create the deployment descriptor (web.xml file)

The deployment descriptor is an xml file, from which Web Container gets the
information about the servet to be invoked.

The web container uses the Parser to get the information from the web.xml file.
There are many xml parsers such as SAX, DOM and Pull.

There are many elements in the web.xml file. Here is given some necessary
elements to run the simple servlet program.

web.xml file
<web-app>

<servlet>
<servlet-name>sonoojaiswal</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>DemoServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>sonoojaiswal</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/welcome</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>
Description of the elements of web.xml file

There are too many elements in the web.xml file. Here is the illustration of some
elements that is used in the above web.xml file. The elements are as follows:

<web-app> represents the whole application.

<servlet> is sub element of <web-app> and represents the servlet.

<servlet-name> is sub element of <servlet> represents the name of the servlet.

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet
<servlet-class> is sub element of <servlet> represents the class of the servlet.

<servlet-mapping> is sub element of <web-app>. It is used to map the servlet.

<url-pattern> is sub element of <servlet-mapping>. This pattern is used at client

side to invoke the servlet.

5)Start the Server and deploy the project

To start Apache Tomcat server, double click on the startup.bat file under apache-
tomcat/bin directory.

ServletRequest Interface
An object of ServletRequest is used to provide the client request information to a
servlet such as content type, content length, parameter names and values, header
informations, attributes etc.

index.html
<form action="welcome" method="get">
Enter your name<input type="text" name="name"><br>
<input type="submit" value="login">
</form>
DemoServ.java
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import java.io.*;
public class DemoServ extends HttpServlet{
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req,HttpServletResponse res)
throws ServletException,IOException
{
res.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter pw=res.getWriter();
String name=req.getParameter("name");//will return value
pw.println("Welcome "+name);
pw.close();
}}

Created By Foram Chudasama

 Java Servlet

RequestDispatcher in Servlet
The RequestDispatcher interface provides the facility of dispatching the request
to another resource it may be html, servlet or jsp. This interface can also be used
to include the content of another resource also. It is one of the way of servlet
collaboration.

There are two methods defined in the RequestDispatcher interface.

Methods of RequestDispatcher interface

The RequestDispatcher interface provides two methods. They are:

1. public void forward(ServletRequest request,ServletResponse

response)throws ServletException,java.io.IOException:Forwards a
request from a servlet to another resource (servlet, JSP file, or HTML file)
on the server.
2. public void include(ServletRequest request,ServletResponse
response)throws ServletException,java.io.IOException:Includes the
content of a resource (servlet, JSP page, or HTML file) in the response.

SendRedirect in servlet

The sendRedirect() method of HttpServletResponse interface can be used to

redirect response to another resource, it may be servlet, jsp or html file.

It accepts relative as well as absolute URL.

It works at client side because it uses the url bar of the browser to make another
request. So, it can work inside and outside the server.

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 Java Servlet

Difference between forward() and sendRedirect()

method

forward() method sendRedirect() method

The forward() method works at server side. The sendRedirect()

method works at client
side.

It sends the same request and response objects to It always sends a new
another servlet. request.

It can work within the server only. It can be used within and
outside the server.

Example: Example:
request.getRequestDispacher("servlet2").forward( response.sendRedirect("s
request,response); ervlet2");

Syntax of sendRedirect() method

1. public void sendRedirect(String URL)throws IOException;

Example of sendRedirect() method

1. response.sendRedirect("http://www.javatpoint.com");

Session Tracking in Servlets

Session simply means a particular interval of time.

Session Tracking is a way to maintain state (data) of an user. It is also known

as session management in servlet.

Http protocol is a stateless so we need to maintain state using session tracking

techniques. Each time user requests to the server, server treats the request as the
new request. So we need to maintain the state of an user to recognize to particular
user.

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 Java Servlet

Why use Session Tracking?

To recognize the user It is used to recognize the particular user.

Session Tracking Techniques

There are four techniques used in Session tracking:

1. Cookies
2. Hidden Form Field
3. URL Rewriting
4. HttpSession

Event and Listener in Servlet

Events are basically occurrence of something. Changing the state of an object is
known as an event.

We can perform some important tasks at the occurrence of these exceptions, such
as counting total and current logged-in users, creating tables of the database at
time of deploying the project, creating database connection object etc.

There are many Event classes and Listener interfaces in the javax.servlet and
javax.servlet.http packages.

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 Java Servlet

Event classes
1. ServletRequestEvent
2. ServletContextEvent
3. ServletRequestAttributeEvent
4. ServletContextAttributeEvent
5. HttpSessionEvent
6. HttpSessionBindingEvent

Event interfaces
The event interfaces are as follows:

1. ServletRequestListener
2. ServletRequestAttributeListener
3. ServletContextListener
4. ServletContextAttributeListener
5. HttpSessionListener
6. HttpSessionAttributeListener
7. HttpSessionBindingListener
8. HttpSessionActivationListener

Servlet Filter
A filter is an object that is invoked at the preprocessing and postprocessing of a
request.

It is mainly used to perform filtering tasks such as conversion, logging,

compression, encryption and decryption, input validation etc.

The servlet filter is pluggable, i.e. its entry is defined in the web.xml file, if we
remove the entry of filter from the web.xml file, filter will be removed
automatically and we don't need to change the servlet.

Created By Foram Chudasama