外文翻译-JSP应用框架(6)

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conventional CGI programs. Second, the write-once, run-anywhere nature of Java means that servlets are portable between operating systems that have a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

A servlet looks and feels like a miniature web server. It receives a request and renders a response. But, unlike conventional web servers, the servlet application programming interface (API) is specifically designed to help Java developers create dynamic applications.

The servlet itself is simply a Java class that has been compiled into byte code, like any other Java object. The servlet has access to a rich API of HTTP-specific services, but it is still just another Java object running in an application and can leverage all your other Java assets.

To give conventional web servers access to servlets, the servlets are plugged into containers. The servlet container is attached to the web server. Each servlet can declare what URL patterns it would like to handle. When a request matching a registered pattern arrives, the web server passes the request to the container, and the container invokes the servlet.

But unlike CGI programs, a new servlet is not created for each request. Once the container instantiates the servlet, it will just create a new thread for each request. Java threads are much less expensive than the server processes used by CGI programs. Once the servlet has been created, using it for additional requests incurs very little overhead. Servlet developers can use the init() method to hold references to expensive resources, such as database connections or EJB Home Interfaces, so that they can be shared between requests. Acquiring resources like these can take several seconds—which is longer than many surfers are willing to wait.

The other edge of the sword is that, since servlets are multithreaded, servlet developers must take special care to be sure their servlets are thread-safe. To learn more about servlet programming, we recommend Java Servlets by Example, by Alan R. Williamson [Williamson]. The definitive source for Servlet information is the Java Servlet Specification [Sun, JST]. JavaServer Pages: