servlet

servlet definition - computer

A Java application that runs in a Web server or application server and provides server-side processing such as accessing a database and e-commerce transactions. Widely used for Web processing, servlets are designed to handle HTTP requests (get, post, etc.) and are the standard Java replacement for a variety of other methods, including CGI scripts, Active Server Pages (ASPs) and proprietary C/C++ plug-ins for specific Web servers (ISAPI, NSAPI).

Because they are written in Java, servlets are portable between servers and operating systems. The servlet programming interface (Java Servlet API) is a standard part of the J2EE platform. If a Web server, such as Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS), does not run servlets natively, a third-party servlet plug-in can be installed to add the runtime support. See servlet container, Java, application server, JSP, J2EE, ISAPI, NSAPI and CGI script.


JAVA.GIF


Servlets Run in the Server

Servlets, as well as JavaServer Pages (JSPs), are server-side applications. The Web server or application server must support servlet processing, which became available as part of the Java 2 platform.






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