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Servlets

This lecture covers the JEE's approach to server-side processing. It introduces the overall Tomcat architecture and focuses on the servlet container. The hands-on lab session will walk you through the installation of Tomcat and introduces you to the capabilities of its three engines, Coyote, Catalina, and Jasper.

Outline

The Architecture
  • Tomcat = Coyote + Catalina + Jasper. It is a reference implementation of Sun's Servlet/JSP standards.
  • Coyote is a connector, Catalina is a servlet container, and Jasper is a JSP compiler.
  • Client uses HTTP to reach a Web Server which has a module (Apache) or a plug-in (IIS) for JK filtering.
  • The web server uses NFS to serve static files, CGI to run scripts out of process, or the JK protocol to contact Coyote in process.
  • You supply your servlet subclass to Catalina and it handles the request.
  • Coyote today comes with an HTTP version that bypasses the JK protocol; i.e. it acts as a web server with NFS, CGI, and SSI. Hence, the whole system is self-contained and 100% Java.
  • To enable MVC, servlets are used as controllers, POJO's and Beans for the business model, and JSP for the view.
The Life Cycle
  • Server makes one instance of your servlet
  • It invokes the init method on it. You may need to instantiate POJO's/beans or initialize in init.
  • It creates a pool of threads ready to invoke your servlet's service method.
  • When a client connects, a thread is (randomly) chosen and assigned to serve this request.
  • There is no client-to-thread mapping: the same client may get served by the same or a different thread.
  • When it is time to stop this servlet, the server invokes its destroy method then unloads it.
The API
  • No need to override service since it filters based on the request method. Override either doGet or doPost (or both)
  • The request object enables you to retrieve socket data, HTTP data, the headers, the parameters, and the payload (for POST).
  • Note that parameters are available as Map<String,String[]> and that for payloads you can have a raw stream or a wrapped up one.
  • The response object allows you to set the HTTP response line and headers as well as the payload.

To Do

  • Read Sections 6.1 through 6.5 of our textbook.
  • Take an overall look at the servlet API (accessible from our Resources Page.
  • Come to Prism for a hands-on lecture
servlets.txt · Last modified: 2008/02/04 19:05 by roumani