servlets
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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 ininit
. - 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 eitherdoGet
ordoPost
(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.
- Come to Prism on Thu for a hands-on lecture
servlets.1191953877.txt.gz · Last modified: 2007/10/09 18:17 by roumani