A servlet is a Java programming language class used to extend the capabilities of servers that host applications accessed through a request-response programming model
. Servlets are commonly used to extend the applications hosted by web servers and are platform-independent
. They run on a Java-enabled web server or application server and handle requests obtained from the web server
. Key aspects of servlets include:
- Life-cycle methods : All servlets must implement the Servlet interface, which defines life-cycle methods
- GenericServlet : When implementing a generic service, you can use or extend the GenericServlet class provided with the Java Servlet API
- HttpServlet : The HttpServlet class provides methods, such as doGet and doPost, for handling HTTP-specific services
- Single instance : Servlets have only a single instance that handles all requests concurrently, which saves memory and allows a servlet to easily manage the client state
- Server-side component : Servlets are server-side components, inheriting the security provided by the web server
Servlets are part of the Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and are one of the components that can run with a web server
. They offer advantages such as platform independence, efficient memory usage, and the ability to handle various types of requests
