Using and Writing Java Servlets

by Petr Sorfa

Creating dynamic web pages is necessary if a web site wants to display the current state of data accurately, for example showing temperatures around the world. There are several ways to accomplish this, such as using Perl or shell scripts. In this article, I discuss the viability of using Java programs (servlets) with a web server. A servlet is a Java application that performs a task that may generate a dynamic web page or process input from a web page form.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Servlets

The first advantage is that only one instance of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) needs to be started. For each servlet, a new thread is created and managed by the same JVM. In contrast, Perl and shell CGI (common gateway interface) scripts require a new process to be created each time the script is run. This may become a problem if dynamic web pages are being created for many (possibly thousands) of web pages per minute. The JVM itself is more efficient because it only needs to keep one copy of the actual servlet code to create the dynamic portions, such as variable data and program context, for each instance of the servlet. Another plus is that if you have Java expertise, it is not necessary to relearn a new scripting language with a new set of APIs and quirks.

Since the JVM has a rapport with the web server, it is possible for servlets to communicate to the server directly. This, of course, poses a security risk but does allow servlets to be written that manipulate the web server on the fly.

The user does not need to have a Java-capable browser because there are still many small internet devices that do not have the capacity to run complex Java APIs. Also, the Java servlet code is portable across operating systems and machine architectures.

None of the graphical user interface components of the Java API can be used by a servlet, as its display is an HTML web page. However, it is possible to use the imaging APIs to create graphs and display them as a final rendered image. In addition, the servlet has access not only to a vast amount of standard APIs for accessing databases and other information but also to third party APIs for Java.

As Java progresses through various versions, APIs are deprecated and eventually discarded, and sometimes even the language itself is changed. This may not cause a problem as the Java-generated pseudo code (a type of machine-independent machine code) can still execute on a different version of the JVM. However, at some point (several years down the line) you will be required to recompile and port the servlet with the Java Development Kit (JDK) of the day.

Another disadvantage is that Java, unfortunately, is slow. Although great strides have been made in performance improvements, Java code will not be as fast as native executables but probably is faster than several other popular scripting languages.

Since the servlet manager (in this case Tomcat) is a Java program and is separate from the web server, Apache, the communication between the two is not instantaneous. This may produce a performance hitch on heavily active web servers.

Getting Started

The biggest hiccup with servlets is the installation and running of the various components that are required for servlet support. Here is a list of some requirements:

  • A Java installation. Although some Linux distributions provide Java, the version may be limited in its API set or may be an older version.

  • A web server that can support servlets. There are several available. In this tutorial, I use Apache but recommend Jetty as well. You need to have Apache installed and functioning for servlet support. Most Linux distributions install Apache by default and already have it running, so this may not be a problem.

  • You need a mechanism by which the web server can execute Java servlets. For example, a popular servlet support extension to Apache is Tomcat. However, Linux distributions most likely will not provide this mechanism, and you will need to download it from the Web.

Gotchas for Apache and Tomcat

You need to inform Tomcat of the location of the Java distribution; if the installation process does not detect it at install time, you will need to edit /etc/rc.d/init.d/tomcat. Be particularly careful if you have more than one version of Java installed (e.g., 1.1.18 and 1.2.2).

Also, whenever Tomcat is restarted, the Apache server must be restarted as well. This is to establish the communication path between Apache and Tomcat. The Apache server can be restarted without having to restart Tomcat.

Making Sure It Works

Point your web browser to http://localhost.localdomain/examples/servlets/, and execute any one of the examples to confirm that your installation and environment is a success. Another way is to use http://localhost:8080/.

If you do experience problems, you will need to revisit the setup documentation. Unfortunately, the documentation is not very user-friendly for any of the servlet enablers I use. You also can read the various FAQs and forums available on the Apache web site and servlet enablers.

The First Servlet

Listing 1 is an example of creating a servlet. This example will generate a web page that will display a simple message.

Listing 1. First Servlet

Note that a servlet extends the HttpServlet class. This is located in the Tomcat installation directory, in this instance /var/tomcat/lib/servlet.jar. When you want to generate HTML output, it is necessary to obtain the output channel with response.getWriter(). It also is necessary to set the CLASSPATH to include the full names of the .jar files, e.g.,

export CLASSPATH=/var/tomcat/lib/servlet.jar:$CLASSPATH

Next, compile with javac FirstServlet.java. Ensure that you are using the same JDK that Tomcat has been set up to use (as described previously).

To make things simpler for the this exercise, place the generated .class files into /var/tomcat/webapps/examples/servlets (the actual configuration of Apache and Tomcat are beyond the scope of this article). To execute the servlet, open the web page at http://localhost.localdomain/examples/servlet/FirstServlet or http://localhost:8080/servlet/FirstServlet. And viola, the output seen below has been created dynamically:

Hello Fellow Servlets

Creating a Table of Useful Information

Listing 2 not only demonstrates how to display useful information, but also shows the security concerns involved. Servlets must be written so that no input from a remote browser can give a cracker access to certain resources. Even something simple, like causing an error in the servlet, may cause the JVM to perform differently.

Listing 2. TableServlet

The example generates the HTML code for a table, which a selective query populates by the output provided from a system API to retrieve certain configuration variable settings (see Listing 3). This, for instance, can be used as a template to a database query using JDBC (Java Database Connectivity).

Listing 3. TableServlet Output

Processing Form Input

Listing 4 demonstrates how a servlet can not only generate dynamic web pages, but also process incoming data via an HTML form. To process input from a form, it is necessary for the servlet to override two functions: doGet and doPost. The doGet function always needs to be defined and forms the default behavior of the servlet and the processing of HTML form data sent via the GET method. The doPost function is used only when HTML form data is sent using the POST method, which is a more robust way than the GET method. In this example, doGet reports an error because it will be invoked only if the HTML form data was not sent with the POST method. In the doPost function, the request.getParameter calls are used to retrieve the corresponding parameter's value. Those of you who have used other CGI scripts may notice that this is a very simple and straightforward way to retrieve these values, which usually can end up being an onerous task.

Listing 4. InputServlet

Listing 5 shows the HTML input form, which a servlet could also have generated. Figure 1 shows a snapshot of this form.

Listing 5. InputServlet HTML Input Form

Using and Writing Java Servlets

Figure 1. InputServlet HTML Input Form Snapshot

The output reorganizes the entered data and displays it as an HTML page:

Hello, your name is Polly, Molly Polly

Again, this data could have been passed to a file or database.

More and More

Of course, these examples show servlets completing simple tasks. Servlets can be expanded easily to handle cookies and keep a session for a person's range of activities, such as logging in to access certain data and then logging out.

Conclusion

The configuration of the web server to support servlets can be troublesome. However, servlets, with the power of the Java API set, can provide complex dynamic webs pages and form processing.

Resources

Petr Sorfa is a member of Santa Cruz Operation's Development Systems Group, where he is the maintainer of the cscope and Sar3D open-source projects.

email: petr@sco.com

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