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Lesson 5Servlet Course project
ObjectiveServlet plan for the course project

Java Servlet Course Project

Understand the Servlet plan for the course project.The servlets in this course will be of pracitcal Java Servlet use. You will be adding small features to an ever-growing servlet so that in the end, you will have a more useful example.

When it is finished, your servlet will
  1. gather data from an applet or an HTML form,
  2. read from and write to a database,
  3. and even send email to notify you that it has run.
These are activities that almost every interactive Web site will make use of. Many of the exercises will build on the solutions to earlier ones.
Those solutions will be available to you via XML.


History of Web Applications

While servlets can be used to extend the functionality of any Java-enabled server, today they are most often used to extend web servers, providing a powerful, efficient replacement for CGI scripts. When you use a servlet to create dynamic content for a web page or otherwise extend the functionality of a web server, you are in effect creating a web application. While a web page merely displays static content and lets the user navigate through that content, a web application provides a more interactive experience. A web application can be as simple as a keyword search on a document archive or as complex as an electronic storefront. Web applications are being deployed on the Internet and on corporate intranets and extranets, where they have the potential to increase productivity and change the way that companies, large and small, do business. While servlets can be used to extend the functionality of any Java-enabled server, today they are most often used to extend web servers, providing a powerful, efficient replacement for CGI scripts. When you use a servlet to create dynamic content for a web page or otherwise extend the functionality of a web server, you are in effect creating a web application. While a web page merely displays static content and lets the user navigate through that content, a web application provides a more interactive experience. A web application can be as simple as a keyword search on a document archive or as complex as an electronic storefront. Web applications are being deployed on the Internet and on corporate intranets and extranets, where they have the potential to increase productivity and change the way that companies, large and small, do business. To understand the power of servlets, we need to step back and look at some of the other approaches that can be used to create web applications.