What is a Servlet?

Servlet can be described in many ways, depending on the context.

○​ Servlet is a technology which is used to create a web application.

○​ Servlet is an API that provides many interfaces and classes including
documentation.
○​ Servlet is an interface that must be implemented for creating any
Servlet.
○​ Servlet is a class that extends the capabilities of the servers and
responds to the incoming requests. It can respond to any requests.
○​ Servlet is a web component that is deployed on the server to create a
dynamic web page.

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.

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.

Web Terminology
Servlet Terminology Description

Website: static vs dynamic It is a collection of related web pages

that may contain text, images, audio
and video.

HTTP It is the data communication

protocol used to establish
communication between client and
server.
 HTTP Requests It is the request send by the
computer to a web server that
contains all sorts of potentially
interesting information.

Get vs Post It gives the difference between GET

and POST request.

Container It is used in java for dynamically

generating the web pages on the
server side.

Server: Web vs Application It is used to manage the network

resources and for running the
program or software that provides
services.

Content Type It is HTTP header that provides the

description about what are you
sending to the browser.

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.

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
Servlet interface provides common behavior to 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.

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

public void init(ServletConfig config) initializes the servlet. It is the life

cycle method of servlet and invoked
by the web container only once.
public void service(ServletRequest provides response for the incoming
request,ServletResponse response) request. It is invoked at each request
by the web container.

public void destroy() is invoked only once and indicates

that servlet is being destroyed.

public ServletConfig returns the object of ServletConfig.

getServletConfig()

public String getServletInfo() returns information about servlet

such as writer, copyright, version etc.

File: First.java
​ import java.io.*;
​ import javax.servlet.*;
​
​ public class First implements Servlet{
​ ServletConfig config=null;
​
​ public void init(ServletConfig config){
​ this.config=config;
​ System.out.println("servlet is initialized");
​ }
​
​ public void service(ServletRequest req,ServletResponse res)
​ throws IOException,ServletException{
​
​ res.setContentType("text/html");
​
​ PrintWriter out=res.getWriter();
​ out.print("<html><body>");
​ out.print("<b>hello simple servlet</b>");
​ out.print("</body></html>");
​
​ }
 ​ public void destroy(){System.out.println("servlet is destroyed");}
​ public ServletConfig getServletConfig(){return config;}
​ public String getServletInfo(){return "copyright 2007-1010";}
​
​ }

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.

You may create a generic servlet by inheriting the GenericServlet class and
providing the implementation of the service method.

Methods of GenericServlet class

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

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.

Servlet Example by inheriting the GenericServlet class

Let's see the simple example of servlet by inheriting the GenericServlet class.

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

File: First.java
​ import java.io.*;
​ import javax.servlet.*;
​
​ public class First extends GenericServlet{
​ public void service(ServletRequest req,ServletResponse res)
​ throws IOException,ServletException{
​
​ res.setContentType("text/html");
​
​ PrintWriter out=res.getWriter();
​ out.print("<html><body>");
​ out.print("<b>hello generic servlet</b>");
​ out.print("</body></html>");
​
​ }
​ }

HttpServlet class
The HttpServlet class extends the GenericServlet class and implements
Serializable interface. It provides http specific methods 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.
11.​

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.

As displayed in the above diagram, there are three states of a servlet: new, ready
and end. The servlet is in new state if servlet instance is created. After invoking
the init() method, Servlet comes in the ready state. In the ready state, servlet
performs all the tasks. When the web container invokes the destroy() method, it
shifts to the end state.

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()