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    Chapter Six Servlets: Debre Markos University Department of Computer Science

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    Mehari Temesgen
    The document provides an introduction to servlets. It discusses that servlets are Java programs that run on a web server and are used to handle requests from the server, process requests, and return responses. It also describes the basic execution steps of servlets and some key aspects like the init(), service(), doGet(), doPost(), and destroy() methods that make up the servlet lifecycle. Additionally, it covers servlet packages, architecture, advantages over CGI, and how servlets can read form data submitted by users.

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    Chapter Six Servlets: Debre Markos University Department of Computer Science

    Uploaded by

    Mehari Temesgen
    59 views28 pages
    The document provides an introduction to servlets. It discusses that servlets are Java programs that run on a web server and are used to handle requests from the server, process requests, and return responses. It also describes the basic execution steps of servlets and some key aspects like the init(), service(), doGet(), doPost(), and destroy() methods that make up the servlet lifecycle. Additionally, it covers servlet packages, architecture, advantages over CGI, and how servlets can read form data submitted by users.

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    The document provides an introduction to servlets. It discusses that servlets are Java programs that run on a web server and are used to handle requests from the server, process requests, and return responses. It also describes the basic execution steps of servlets and some key aspects like the init(), service(), doGet(), doPost(), and destroy() methods that make up the servlet lifecycle. Additionally, it covers servlet packages, architecture, advantages over CGI, and how servlets can read form data submitted by users.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    59 views28 pages

    Chapter Six Servlets: Debre Markos University Department of Computer Science

    Uploaded by

    Mehari Temesgen
    The document provides an introduction to servlets. It discusses that servlets are Java programs that run on a web server and are used to handle requests from the server, process requests, and return responses. It also describes the basic execution steps of servlets and some key aspects like the init(), service(), doGet(), doPost(), and destroy() methods that make up the servlet lifecycle. Additionally, it covers servlet packages, architecture, advantages over CGI, and how servlets can read form data submitted by users.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 28

    Debre Markos University

    Department of Computer Science

    Chapter Six
    Servlets

    Advanced Programming(CoSc2084)

    03/18/2021
    Introduction
    * Today we all are aware of the need of creating dynamic web pages i.e
    the ones which have the capability to change the site contents
    according to the time or are able to generate the contents according to
    the request received by the client.
    * If you like coding in Java, then you will be happy to know that using
    Java there also exists a way to generate dynamic web pages and that
    way is Java Servlet.
    * But before we move forward with our topic let’s first understand the
    need for server-side extensions.
    * Servlets are the Java programs that runs on the Java-enabled web server
    or application server.
    * They are used to handle the request obtained from the web server,
    process the request, produce the response, then send response back to
    the web server
    * Servlets work on the server-side.
    * Servlets are capable of handling complex requests obtained from web
    server
    ……..
    Execution of Servlets :
    Execution of Servlets involves six basic steps:

    * The clients send the request to the web server.


    * The web server receives the request.
    * The web server passes the request to the corresponding servlet.
    * The servlet processes the request and generates the response in
    the form of output.

    * The servlet sends the response back to the web server.


    * The web server sends the response back to the client and the
    client browser displays it on the screen.
    Servlets Packages

    *Java Servlets are Java classes run by a web server that


    has an interpreter that supports the Java Servlet
    specification.

    *Servlets can be created using the javax.servlet and


    javax.servlet.http packages, which are a standard part
    of the Java's enterprise edition, an expanded version of
    the Java class library that supports large-scale
    development projects.
    ……..
    * These classes implement the Java Servlet and JSP
    specifications.

    * Java servlets have been created and compiled just like any
    other Java class.

    * After you install the servlet packages and add them to your
    computer's classpath, you can compile servlets with the
    JDK's Java compiler or any other current compiler.
    Servlets Architecture

    * Following diagram shows the position of Servlets in a Web


    Application
    What is CGI ?
    * CGI is actually an external application which is written by
    using any of the programming languages likeC or C++ and
    this is responsible for processing client requests and
    generating dynamic content.
    * In CGI application, when a client makes a request to access
    dynamic Web pages, the Web server performs the following
    operations:
    * It first locates the requested web page i.e the required CGI
    application using URL.
    * It then creates a new process to service the client’s
    request.
    * Invokes the CGI application within the process and passes
    the request information to the server.
    ……..
    * Collects the response from CGI application.
    * Destroys the process, prepares the HTTP response and sends it
    to the client.

    * So, in CGI server has to create and destroy the process for
    every request.

    * It’s easy to understand that this approach is applicable for


    handling few clients but as the number of clients increases,
    the workload on the server increases and so the time taken to
    process requests increases.
    Advantages of a Java Servlet
    * Servlet is faster than CGI as it doesn’t involve the creation of a
    new process for every new request received.
    * Servlets as written in Java are platform independent.
    * Removes the overhead of creating a new process for each
    request as Servlet doesn’t run in a separate process. There is
    only a single instance which handles all requests concurrently.
    This also saves the memory and allows a Servlet to easily manage
    client state.
    * It is a server-side component, so Servlet inherits the security
    provided by the Web server.
    * The API designed for Java Servlet automatically acquires the
    advantages of Java platform such as platform independent and
    portability. In addition, it obviously can use the wide range of
    APIs created on Java platform such as JDBC to access the
    database.
    Life Cycle of Servlet

    * A servlet life cycle can be defined as the entire process from


    its creation till the destruction.

    * The following are the paths followed by a servlet


    * The servlet is initialized by calling the init () method.
    * The servlet calls service() method to process a client's request.
    * The servlet is terminated by calling the destroy() method.
    * Finally, servlet is garbage collected by the garbage collector of
    the JVM.

    * Now let us discuss the life cycle methods in details.


    The init() method

    * The init method is designed to be called only once.


    * It is called when the servlet is first created, and not called
    again for each user request.

    * So, it is used for one-time initializations, just as with the


    init method of applets.

    * The servlet is normally created when a user first invokes a


    URL corresponding to the servlet, but you can also specify
    that the servlet be loaded when the server is first started
    ……..
    * When a user invokes a servlet, a single instance of each servlet
    gets created, with each user request resulting in a new thread
    that is handed off to doGet or doPost as appropriate.

    * The init() method simply creates or loads some data that will
    be used throughout the life of the servlet.

    * The init method definition looks like this:


    * public void init()throws ServletException{
    * // Initialization code...
    *}
    The service() method
    *The service() method is the main method to perform the
    actual task.

    *The servlet container (i.e. web server) calls the service()


    method to handle requests coming from the
    client( browsers) and to write the formatted response
    back to the client.

    *Each time the server receives a request for a servlet, the


    server spawns a new thread and calls service.
    ……..
    * The service() method checks the HTTP request type (GET,
    POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) and calls doGet, doPost, doPut,
    doDelete, etc. methods as appropriate.

    * Here is the signature of this method:


    public void service(ServletRequest request,

    ServletResponse response)

    throwsServletException,IOException{

    // servicing code

    }
    ……..
    * The service () method is called by the container and service
    method invokes doGet, doPost, doPut, doDelete, etc.
    methods as appropriate.

    * So you have nothing to do with service() method but you


    override either doGet() or doPost() depending on what type
    of request you receive from the client.

    * The doGet() and doPost() are most frequently used methods


    with in each service request.

    * Here is the signature of these two methods.


    Servlets Form Data/query data
    * Before looking into how a servlet can read data submitted
    via a form, it is necessary to understand how data from an
    HTML form is passed to the web server by the browser.

    * There are two common ways of passing data from the web
    browser to the web server.

    * They are called POST and GET methods. Both of these


    methods pass the data in a 'key=value' format. The key for
    each data field is specified as part of the tag describing the
    relevant field.
    GET method:
    * The GET method sends the encoded user information appended
    to the page request. The page and the encoded information are
    separated by the ? character as follows:
    * http://www.test.com/hello?key1=value1&key2=value2
    * The GET method is the default method to pass information
    from browser to web server and it produces a long string that
    appears in your browser's Location: box.
    * Never use the GET method if you have password or other
    sensitive information to pass to the server. The GET method has
    size limitation: only 1024 characters can be in a request string.
    * This information is passed using QUERY_STRING header and will
    be accessible through QUERY_STRING environment variable and
    Servlet handles this type of requests using doGet() method
    POST method:
    * A generally more reliable method of passing information to
    a backend program is the POST method.

    * This packages the information in exactly the same way as


    GET methods, but instead of sending it as a text string after
    a ? in the URL it sends it as a separate message.

    * This message comes to the backend program in the form of


    the standard input which you can parse and use for your
    processing.

    * Servlet handles this type of requests using doPost() method.


    Reading Form Data using Servlet:

    * Servlets handles form data parsing automatically using the


    following methods depending on the situation:

    * getParameter(): You call request.getParameter() method to


    get the value of a form parameter.

    * getParameterValues(): Call this method if the parameter


    appears more than once and returns multiple values, for
    example checkbox.
    The doGet() Method

    * A GET request results from a normal request for a URL or


    from an HTML form that has no METHOD specified and it
    should be handled by doGet() method.
    public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,

    HttpServletResponse response)

    throwsServletException,IOException{

    // Servlet code

    }
    The doPost() Method

    * A POST request results from an HTML form that specifically


    lists POST as the METHOD and it should be handled by
    doPost() method.
    public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,

    HttpServletResponse response)

    throwsServletException,IOException{

    // Servlet code

    }
    The destroy() method
    * The destroy() method is called only once at the end of the life cycle
    of a servlet.

    * This method gives your servlet a chance to close database


    connections, halt background threads, write cookie lists or hit counts
    to disk, and perform other such cleanup activities.

    * After the destroy() method is called, the servlet object is marked for
    garbage collection.

    * The destroy method definition looks like this:


    public void destroy(){

    // Finalization code...

    }
    ……..
    * Servlets are Java classes which service HTTP requests and
    implement the javax.servlet.Servlet interface.

    * Web application developers typically write servlets that


    extend javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet, an abstract class
    that implements the Servlet interface and is specially
    designed to handle HTTP requests
    Sample Code for Hello World
    Following is the sample source code structure of a servlet example to write
    Hello World:

    // Import required java libraries

    import java.io.*;

    import javax.servlet.*;

    import javax.servlet.http.*;

    // Extend HttpServlet class

    public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet{

    private String message;

    public void init()throwsServletException

    {
    ……..
    // Do required initialization

    message ="Hello World";

    public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,

    HttpServletResponse response)

    throwsServletException,IOException

    // Set response content type

    response.setContentType("text/html");

    // Actual logic goes here.

    PrintWriter out= response.getWriter();

    out.println("<h1>"+ message +"</h1>");

    }
    ……..
    public void destroy()

    // do nothing.

    The object is marked for garbage collection.

    The destroy method definition looks like this:

    public void destroy()

    // Finalization code...

    }
    OU
    K Y
    A N
    TH
    RY
    VE
    ! !
    C H
    MU

    03/18/2021

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