Servlets: Introduction to Servlets

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Intro to Servlets

Road Map
Servlet Architecture Overview Servlets in Context
Other options for server side development

Advantages of Servlets Introduction to Java Server Pages (JSP)

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Intro to Servlets

Architectural Overview

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What is a Servlet?

Javas answer to the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Applet: a java program that runs within the web browser. Servlet: a java program that runs within the web server. Rapidly becoming the standard for building web applications.

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Intro to Servlets

Life of a Servlet
1)

Regardless of the application, servlets usually carry out the following routine: Read any data sent by the user
Capture data submitted by an HTML form.

2)

Look up any HTTP information

3)

Generate the Results

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Life of a Servlet (cont.)

5) Set the Appropriate HTTP headers

6) Send the document back to the client

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Life of a Servlet
Database 3 1,2 Web Browser 6 Web Server Java Servlet

4,5

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What can you build with Servlets?

Search Engines Personalization Systems E-Commerce Applications Shopping Carts Product Catalogs Intranet Applications Groupware Applications: bulletin boards, file sharing, etc.

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Intro to Servlets

Servlets in Context

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Intro to Servlets

Server Side Options

There are many options for creating server side applications. We will examine some of these options briefly. This better enables us to understand servlets within the broader context of web development. Also enables us to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of servlets.

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Server Side Options

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Common Features
All server side frameworks share a common set of features:
Read data submitted by the user Generate HTML dynamically based on user input Determine information about the client browser Access Database systems Exploit the HTTP protocol
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Decision Points
When evaluating which server side framework to use, you need to consider a number of critical factors:
Ease of development:
How easily can you build new applications?

Performance:
How fast can the framework respond to queries?

Scalability:
Can the framework scale to thousands, millions of users?

Security:
Are there any inherent security vulnerabilities?

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Option 1: CGI

Represents one of the earliest, practical methods for generating web content. Primarily written in the Perl programming language. Unfortunately, traditional CGI programs suffer from scalability and performance problems. Lets examine these two problems

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CGI Architecture
1)

2)
3)

Browser initiates request Web server receives the request. For each request, web server spawns a new operating system process to execute the CGI/Perl Program. Create New process

Web Browser

Web Server

Perl/CGI

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CGI Architecture

For each browser request, the web server must spawn a new operating system process.
Perl 1

Browser 1 Browser 2 Web Server Perl 2

Browser N
Perl N
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CGI Architecture

Spawning a new operating system process for each request takes time and memory. Hence, traditional CGI programs have inherent performance and scalability problems. Every other server architecture tries to address these problems.

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Option 2: Fast CGI

Developed by Open Market as an option for developing faster, more scalable CGI programs. Fast CGI works by creating a pool of processes for handling CGI requests. When a CGI request comes in, Fast CGI picks one of the processes from the pool and assigns it to the task. Without the overhead of creating new operating system processes, FastCGI is much faster than traditional CGI. For more information, see http://www.fastcgi.com
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Option 3: Mod Perl

A module of the Apache Web Server. Embeds the Perl interpreter directly within the web server. Perl programs are therefore precompiled. Because Perl is embedded within the Server, Mod Perl does not need to create a new process for each request. Like FastCGI, Mod Perl is much faster than traditional CGI. For more information, see: http://perl.apache.org

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Option 4: ASP

Active Server Pages Runs on Microsofts Web Server: Internet Information Server (IIS) Programmers add ASP code directly into their HTML pages. When a client requests a page, the Web Server takes the HTML page, runs the ASP code within the page, and returns a complete HTML page. Faster than traditional CGI, but only works on Microsoft IIS.
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Option 5: Cold Fusion

Developed by Allaire Corporation (now owned by Macromedia.) Provides excellent database access and database tools. Great platform for rapid prototyping and rapid development. For more information: http://www.macromedia.com

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Option 6: PHP

An open source project written entirely by volunteers Provides simple, but powerful database access. Also great for rapid development. For additional information: http://www.php.net

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Advantages of Servlets

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Advantages of Servlets
Servlets have six main advantages:
Efficient Convenient Powerful Portable Secure Inexpensive

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Advantage 1: Efficient

For each browser request, the servlet spawns a light weight thread. This is faster and more efficient that spawning a new operating system process. Hence, servlets have better performance and better scalability than traditional CGI.

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Advantage 2: Convenient
Servlets include built-in functionality for:
Reading HTML form data Handling cookies Tracking user sessions Setting HTTP headers

Java is object oriented

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Advantage 3: Powerful
Servlets can talk directly to the web servers. Multiple servlets can share data:
Particularly important for maintaining database connections.

Includes powerful techniques for tracking user sessions.

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Advantage 4: Portable

One of the advantages of Java is its portability across different operating systems. Servlets have the same advantages. You can therefore write your servlets on Windows, then deploy them on UNIX. You can also run any of your servlets on any Java-enabled web server, with no code changes.
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Advantage 5: Secure

Traditional CGI programs have a number of known security vulnerabilities. Hence, you usually need to include a separate Perl/CGI module to supply the necessary security protection. Java has a number of built-in security layers. Hence, servlets are considered more secure than traditional CGI programs.
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Advantage 6: Inexpensive

You can download free servlet kits for development use. You can therefore get started for free! Nonetheless, production strength servlet web servers can get quite expensive.

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Java Server Pages

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Java Server Pages

Related to Java Servlets Can be used alone or in conjunction with servlets Represent (yet) another method for creating server side applications

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Servlets v. JSP
Servlets
code looks like a regular Java program.

JSP
embed Java commands directly within HTML

Lets examine a Servlet program next to a JSP program Each of these prints, Hello, World!

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import java.io.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*;

A Java Servlet : Looks like a regular Java program

public class HelloWorld extends HttpServlet { public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res) throws ServletException, IOException { res.setContentType("text/html"); PrintWriter out = res.getWriter(); out.println("<HTML>"); out.println("<HEAD><TITLE>Hello World</TITLE></HEAD>"); out.println("<BODY>"); out.println("<BIG>Hello World</BIG>"); out.println("</BODY></HTML>"); } }
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<html> <head> <title>Hello, World JSP Example</title> </head> <body> <h2> Hello, World! The current time in milliseconds is <%= System.currentTimeMillis() %> </h2> </body> Embedded Java </html>
command to print current time.
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A JSP Page : Looks like a regular HTML page.

Summary

Servlet: a java program that runs within the web server. Servlets have lots of advantages over other server side scripting options. Servlets look like regular Java code with some HTML. Java Server Pages look like HTML with some Java.

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