Servlets- Introduction

Servlets - Introduction

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 components such as HTML. The web components typically execute in Web Server and respond to HTTP request.


1. CGI
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.

problem in cgi and how servlet is better

Disadvantages of CGI

  • If number of client s increases, it takes more time for sending response.

  • For each request, it starts a process and Web server is limited to start processes.

  • It uses platform dependent language e.g. C, C++, Perl.


2. Servlet

advantages of servlet
The web container creates threads for handling the multiple requests to the servlet.

  • Better performance: because it creates a thread for each request not process.

  • Portability: because it uses java language.

  • Robust: Servlets are managed by JVM, so we don’t need to worry about memory leak, garbage collection etc.

  • Secure: because it uses java language..