Preface | Java Servlet Programming (Java Series)

Java Servlet Programming, 2nd Edition > Preface

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Since I wrote the first edition of this book, servlets and the server-side Java platform have grown in popularity beyond everyone's wildest expectations. Adoption is pervasive. Web server vendors now offer servlet support as a standard feature. The Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), specification has included servlets as a core component, and application server vendors wouldn't be caught dead without a scalable servlet implementation. It's more than just vendor-driven hype too. Servlets have become the basis for JavaServer Pages (JSP) and other frameworks, and servlet technology now supports such high-traffic sites as ESPN.com and AltaVista.com.

Not surprisingly, the servlet landscape looks somewhat different today than it did when the first edition went to print. The Servlet API has undergone two revisions, with a third revision on the way. The familiar startup companies Live Software and New Atlanta that once made money selling the JRun and ServletExec servlet engines (now called servlet containers) have gotten themselves noticed and were purchased by larger web-focused companies, Allaire and Unify, respectively. They now offer features above and beyond basic servlet support in an effort to differentiate themselves.

Amazingly, the official javax.servlet and javax.servlet.http packages have been the first Java classes to be officially released as open source. They were transferred to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) and now reside at http://jakarta.apache.org. The packages continue to follow the Servlet API specification, but bug fixes and specification updates can now be handled by a set of trusted open source developers including yours truly, who recently had the chance to fix a bug to improve conditional GET request handling in HttpServlet. In addition, the server that acts as the Servlet API reference implementation was also transferred to the ASF and made available as open source under the name Apache Tomcat. Tomcat has since become one of the most popular servlet containers. For more information, see http://opensource.org.

The servlet world has changed, and this book brings you up-to-date. It explains everything you need to know about Java servlet programming, from start to finish. The first five chapters cover the basics: what servlets are, what they do, and how they work. The following 15 chapters are where the true meat is they explore the things you are likely to do with servlets and the tools you're likely to use. You'll find numerous examples, several suggestions, a few warnings, and even a couple of true hacks that somehow made it past technical review.

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