An Overview of Servlet Technology 1.1  A Servlet's Job Servlets are Java programs that run on Web or application servers, acting as a middle layer between requests coming from Web browsers or other HTTP clients and databases or applications on the HTTP server. Their job is to perform the following tasks, as illustrated in Figure 1-1.39916
1．Read the explicit data sent by the client.
The end user normally enters this data in an HTML form on a Web page. However, the data could also come from an applet or a custom HTTP client program.
2．Read the implicit HTTP request data sent by the browser.
Figure 11 shows a single arrow going from the client to the Web server (the layer where servlets and JSP execute), but there are really two varieties of data: the explicit data that the end user enters in a form and the behindthescenes HTTP information. Both varieties are critical. The HTTP information includes cookies, information about media types and compression schemes the browser understands, and so on.
3．Generate the results.
This process may require talking to a database, executing an RMI or EJB call, invoking a Web service, or computing the response directly. Your real data may be in a relational database. Fine. But your database probably doesn't speak HTTP or return results in HTML, so the Web browser can't talk directly to the database. Even if it could, for security reasons, you probably would not want it to. The same argument applies to most other applications.You need the Web middle layer to extract the result.
4．Send the explicit data (i.e., the document) to the client.
This document can be sent in a variety of formats, including text (HTML or XML), binary (GIF images), or even a compressed format like gzip that is layered on top of some other underlying format. But, HTML is by far the most common format, so an important servlet/JSP task is to wrap the results inside of HTML.
5．Send the implicit HTTP response data.
Figure 11 shows a single arrow going from the Web middle layer (the servlet or JSP page) to the client. But, there are really two varieties of data sent: the document itself and the behindthescenes HTTP information. Again, both varieties are critical to effective development. Sending HTTP response data involves telling the browser or other client what type of document is being returned (e.g., HTML), setting cookies and caching parameters, and other such tasks.
1.2  The Advantages of Servlets Over "Traditional" CGI
Java servlets are more efficient, easier to use, more powerful, more portable, safer, and cheaper than traditional CGI and many alternative CGI-like technologies.
1．Efficient
With traditional CGI, a new process is started for each HTTP request. If the CGI program itself is relatively short, the overhead of starting the process can dominate the execution time. With servlets, the Java virtual machine stays running and handles each request with a lightweight Java thread, not a heavyweight operating system process. Similarly, in traditional CGI, if there are N requests to the same CGI program, the code for the CGI program is loaded into memory N times. With servlets, however, there would be N threads, but only a single copy of the servlet class would be loaded. This approach reduces server memory requirements and saves time by instantiating fewer objects. Finally, when a CGI program finishes handling a request, the program terminates. This approach makes it difficult to cache computations, keep database connections open, and perform other optimizations that rely on persistent data. Servlets, however, remain in memory even after they complete a response, so it is straightforward to store arbitrarily complex data between client requests.
2．Convenient
Servlets have an extensive infrastructure for automatically parsing and decoding HTML form data, reading and setting HTTP headers, handling cookies, tracking sessions, and many other such high-level utilities. In CGI, you have to do much of this yourself. Besides, if you already know the Java programming language, why learn Perl too? You're already convinced that Java technology makes for more reliable and reusable code than does Visual Basic, VBScript, or C++. Why go back to those languages for server-side programming? Servlet技术介绍英文文献和中文翻译:http://www.751com.cn/fanyi/lunwen_40636.html