ftp.pasteur.org/FAQ/

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ ftp.pasteur.org/FAQ/ / ftp-pasteur-org-FAQ.zip / FAQ / computer-lang / java / network-programming < prev

Wrap

Text File | 2004-04-18 | 39.7 KB | 1,058 lines

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: <computer-lang/java/network-programming_1082200966@rtfm.mit.edu> Supersedes: <computer-lang/java/network-programming_1079601013@rtfm.mit.edu> Expires: 31 May 2004 11:22:46 GMT X-Last-Updated: 2000/05/02 Organization: none From: dodo@fan.net.au (David Reilly) Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.answers,news.answers Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Subject: Java Network Programming FAQ Followup-To: poster Summary: This document answers frequently asked questions about Java Network Programming Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 17 Apr 2004 11:28:18 GMT Lines: 1037 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: 1082201298 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 576 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.lang.java.programmer:597041 comp.answers:56878 news.answers:269970 Archive-name: computer-lang/java/network-programming Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: May 2, 1999 Copyright: Copyright 1998-2000 David Reilly. All Rights Reserved. Maintainer: David Reilly (dodo@fan.net.au) URL: http://www.davidreilly.com/java/java_network_programming/ Java Network Programming FAQ. Copyright 1998, 1999 David Reilly. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------ Last modification date : May 2, 1999 This document contains the answers to commonly asked network programming questions posed by Java developers. Copies of this document mirrored at other sites may be out of date, please ensure that you're looking at a current version. The latest version of this document can be found at http://www.davidreilly.com/java/java_network_programming/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Table of contents Overview Legal Comments Books Websites Basic programming questions 1. Socket Questions 1.1 Should I use ServerSocket or DatagramSocket in my applications? 1.2 How do I get the IP address of a machine from its hostname? 1.3 How do I perform a hostname lookup for an IP address? 1.4 How can I find out who is accessing my server? 1.5 How can I find out the current IP address for my machine? 1.6 Why can't my applet connect via sockets, or bind to a local port? 1.7 What are socket options, and why should I use them? 1.8 When my client connects to my server, why does no data come out? 1.9 What is the cause of a NoRouteToHost exception? 2. HTTP Questions 2.1 How do I display a particular web page from an applet? 2.2 How do I display more than one page from an applet? 2.3 How can I fetch files using HTTP? 2.4 How do I use a proxy server for HTTP requests? 2.5 What is a malformed URL, and why is it exceptional? 2.6 How do I URL encode the parameters of a CGI script? 2.7 Why is a security exception thrown when using java.net.URL or java.net.URLConnection from an applet? 2.8 How do I prevent caching of HTTP requests? Advanced programming questions 3. Advanced networking concepts 3.1 How do I handle timeouts in my networking applications? 3.2 How do I control the amount of time a socket will linger before resetting? 3.3 What does the java.net.Socket.setTcpNoDelay method do, and what is Nagle's algorithm? 3.4 How do I implement a (FTP/HTTP/Telnet/Finger/SMTP/POP /IMAP/..../) client/server? 3.5 How do I implement PING in Java? 3.6 How can I send/receive email from Java? 4. Remote method invocation 4.1 What is remote method invocation? 4.2 When should I use remote method invocation? 4.3 Why can't I access RMI from C++? 4.4 Why won't my RMI implementation compile under JDK1.1? 4.5 Why won't my RMI implementation run under Java 2? 5. Common Object Request Broker Architecture 5.1 What is CORBA? 5.2 When should I use CORBA? 5.3 What support does Java have for CORBA? 5.4 How do I start the CORBA nameservice for Java 2? 6. Servlets 6.1 What are Java Servlets? 6.2 What do I need to develop servlets? 6.3 Where can I get more information on servlets? 6.4 How does servlet performance compare to applets? 6.5 How does servlet performance compare to CGI? 6.6 Should I use single-threaded, or multi-threaded servlets? 6.7 How do I send cookies from a servlet? 6.8 How do I read browser cookies from a servlet? 6.9 How do I make cookies expire after a set time period? 6.10 Why aren't cookies stored by my servlets accessible to my CGI scripts or ASP pages? 6.11 How can I void a cookie, and delete it from the browser? ------------------------------------------------------------ Overview This document contains the answers to commonly asked network programming questions posed by Java developers. If you have a question not addressed by this document, feel free to ask. My email is jnpfaq@davidreilly.com. Legal This document is Copyright 1998, David Reilly. All Rights are Reserved. No unauthorized mirroring or archiving of this FAQ is permitted, other than for personal use such as offline reading. Print distribution, or distribution on CD-ROM, WWW sites (personal or commercial), or other electronic distribution is strictly prohibited without prior permission. For redistribution rights, contact jnpfaq@davidreilly.com. This FAQ is no way connected with two books (published by Manning & O'Reilly) by the same name. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, and this document is no no way connected with Sun Microsystems. Comments This document is by no means complete, though hopefully it is error free :-). Anyone wishing to submit a question, or provide comments, can send email to jnpfaq@davidreilly.com Books Most good Java books contain at least one chapter of information on networking topics. However, for the network programmer, this is invariably not enough information! A trip to your local bookstore or library should turn up a few books on the topic. If not, the following resources might help you. Java Network Programming Author : Hughes, et al ISBNáá : 188477749X This book is one of the best books to begin network programming in Java with. Not to be confused with an O'Reilly book of the same name, Java Network Programming covers a wide range of topics, from datagrams to sockets, from message streams and encryption to remote method invocation (RMI), CORBA, Java servlets, and a heavy dose of cryptography and security. Packed full of code, this is the ultimate reference. A second edition of this book, covering Java Platform 2, has just been released, and is highly recommended. [more information] http://www.davidreilly.com/goto.cgi?isbn=188477749X Java Network Programming Author : Elliotte Rusty Harold ISBNáá : 1565922271 O'Reilly & Associates, in 1997 published a book by the name of "Java Network Programming". This book received favorable reviews in online stores like Amazon for the first couple of years, but is now woefully out of date, and not really a good choice. I've flicked through the title, and it doesn't cover newer topics like CORBA, new RMI features, or the revised servlet system development kit. A second edition of this title, bringing it up to speed, is in order. [more information] http://www.davidreilly.com/goto.cgi?isbn=1565922271 The Java Tutorial Author : Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath ISBNáá : 0201310074 Published by Addison-Wesley, and available on-line from Sun, the Java Tutorial provides a great introduction to the Java language, as well as advanced material on both basic networking topics, and advanced issues, such as RMI/CORBA. http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ Websites The official source of any Java related information is Sun Microsystem's Java site, located at http://java.sun.com/. Other recommended sites include the following Site : Java Coffee Break URL : http://www.javacoffeebreak.com/ Features many Java networking articles about advanced networking topics, such as RMI & CORBA, as well as an introduction to networking tutorial. Site : Java Networking FAQ URL : http://www.io.com/~maus/jnetfaq.html The Java Networking FAQ is an older FAQ, and doesn't cover many of the newer JDK1.1 networking features. However, its still a good reference for networking information. Site : JavaWorld URL : http://www.javaworld.com/ JavaWorld is an online magazine, published monthly. Covers a wide variety of topics, some of which are networking related. Site : Jguru URL : http://www.jguru.com/faq/Networking Offers a collection of networking FAQs for Java. ------------------------------------------------------------ Basic programming questions 1. Socket questions 1.1 Should I use ServerSocket or DatagramSocket in my applications? DatagramSocket allows a server to accept UDP packets, whereas ServerSocket allows an application to accept TCP connections. It depends on the protocol you're trying to implement. If you're creating a new protocol, and the choice is up to you, here's a few tips : DatagramSockets communciate using UDP packets. These packets don't guarantee delivery - you'll need to handle missing packets in your client/server ServerSockets communicate using TCP connections. TCP guarantees delivery, so all you need to do is have your applications read and write using a socket's InputStream and OutputStream. 1.2 How do I get the IP address of a machine from its hostname? The InetAddress class is able to resolve IP addresses for you. Obtain an instance of InetAddress for the machine, and call the getHostAddress() method, which returns a string in the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx address form. InetAddress inet = InetAddress.getByName("www.davidreilly.com"); System.out.println ("IP : " + inet.getHostAddress()); 1.3 How do I perform a hostname lookup for an IP address? The InetAddress class contains a method that can return the domain name of an IP address. You need to obtain an InetAddress class, and then call its getHostName() method. This will return the hostname for that IP address. Depending on the platform, a partial or a fully qualified hostname may be returned. InetAddress inet = InetAddress.getByName("209.204.220.121"); System.out.println ("Host: " + inet.getHostName()); 1.4 How can I find out who is accessing my server? If you're using a DatagramSocket, every packet that you receive will contain the address and port from which it was sent. DatagramPacket packet = null; // Receive next packet myDatagramSocket.receive ( packet ); // Print address + port System.out.println ("Packet from : " + packet.getAddress().getHostAddress() + ':' + packet.getPort()); If you're using a ServerSocket, then every socket connection you accept will contain similar information. The Socket class has a getInetAddress() and getPort() method which will allow you to find the same information. Socket mySock = myServerSocket.accept(); // Print address + port System.out.println ("Connection from : " + mySock.getInetAddress().getHostAddress() + ':' + mySock.getPort()); 1.5 How can I find out the current IP address for my machine? The InetAddress has a static method called getLocalHost() which will return the current address of the local machine. You can then use the getHostAddress() method to get the IP address. InetAddress local = InetAddress.getLocalHost(); // Print address System.out.println ("Local IP : " + local.getHostAddress()); 1.6 Why can't my applet connect via sockets, or bind to a local port? Applets are subject to heavy security constraints when executing under the control of a browser. Applets are unable to access the local file-system, to bind to local ports, or to connect to a computer via sockets other than the computer from which the applet is loaded. While it may seem to be an annoyance for developers, there are many good reasons why such tight constraints are placed on applets. Applets could bind to well known ports, and service network clients without authorization or consent. Applets executing within firewalls could obtain privileged information, and then send it across the network. Applets could even be infected by viruses, such as the Java StrangeBrew strain. Applets might become infected without an applet author's knowledge and then send information back that might leave hosts vulnerable to attack. Signed applets may be allowed greater freedom by browsers than unsigned applets, which could be an option. In cases where an applet must be capable of network communication, HTTP can be used as a communication mechanism. An applet could communicate via java.net.URLConnection with a CGI script, or a Java servlet. This has an added advantage - applets that use the URLConnection will be able to communicate through a firewall. 1.7 What are socket options, and why should I use them? Socket options give developers greater control over how sockets behave. Most socket behavior is controlled by the operating system, not Java itself, but as of JDK1.1, you can control several socket options, including SO_TIMEOUT, SO_LINGER, TCP_NODELAY, SO_RCVBUF and SO_SNDBUF. These are advanced options, and many programmers may want to ignore them. That's OK, but be aware of their existence for the future. You might like to specify a timeout for read operations, to control the amount of time a connection will linger for before a reset is sent, whether Nagle's algorithm is enabled/disabled, or the send and receive buffers for datagram sockets. 1.8 When my client connects to my server, why does no data come out? This is a common problem, made more difficult by the fact that the fault may lie in either the client, or the server, or both. The first step is to try and isolate the cause of the problem, by checking whether the server is responding correctly. If you're writing a TCP service, then you can telnet to the port the server uses, and check to see if it is responding to data. If so, then the fault is more than likely in the client, and if not, you've found your problem. A debugger can be very helpful in tracking down the precise location of server errors. You could try jdb, which comes with JDK, or use an IDE's debugger like Visual J++ or Borland JBuilder. If your fault looks like it is in the client, then it can often be caused by buffered I/O. If you're using a buffered stream, or a writer (such as PrintWriter), you may need to manually flush the data. Otherwise, it will be queued up but not sent, causing both client and server to stall. The problem can even be intermittent, as the buffer will flush sometimes (when it becomes full) but not other times. 1.9 What is the cause of a NoRouteToHost exception? Usually this means that there isn't an active Internet connection through which a socket connection may take place, or that there is a nasty little firewall in the way. Firewalls are the bane of users and developers alike - while useful for security, they make legitimate networking software harder to support. Your best option is to try using a SOCKS proxy, or to use a different protocol, like HTTP. If you still have firewall problems, you can manually specify a HTTP proxy server (see section 2.4) This is a common problem, made more difficult by the fact that the fault may lie in either the client, or the server, or both. The first step is to try and isolate the cause of the problem, by checking whether the server is responding correctly. 2. HTTP Questions 2.1 How do I display a particular web page from an applet? An applet can instruct a web browser to load a particular page, using the showDocument method of the java.applet.AppletContext class. If you want to display a web page, you first have to obtain a reference to the current applet context. The following code snippet shows you how this can be done. The show page method is capable of displaying any URL passed to it. import java.net.*; import java.awt.*; import java.applet.*; public class MyApplet extends Applet { // Your applet code goes here // Show me a page public void showPage ( String mypage ) { URL myurl = null; // Create a URL object try { myurl = new URL ( mypage ); } catch (MalformedURLException e) { // Invalid URL } // Show URL if (myurl != null) { getAppletContext().showDocument (myurl); } } } 2.2 How do I display more than one page from an applet? The showDocument method of the AppletContext interface is overloaded - meaning that it can accept more than one parameter. It can accept a second parameter, which represents the name of the browser window that should display a page. For example, myAppletContext.showDocument (myurl, "frame1") will display the document in frame1. If there exists no window named frame1, then a brand new window will be created. 2.3 How can I fetch files using HTTP? The easiest way to fetch files using HTTP is to use the java.net.URL class. The openStream() method will return an InputStream instance, from which the file contents can be read. For added control, you can use the openConnection() method, which will return a URLConnection object. Here's a brief example that demonstrates the use of the java.net.URL.openStream() method to return the contents of a URL specified as a command line parameter. import java.net.*; import java.io.*; public class URLDemo { public static void main(String args[]) { try { // Check to see that a command parameter was entered if (args.length != 1) { // Print message, pause, then exit System.err.println ("Invalid command parameters"); System.in.read(); System.exit(0); } // Create an URL instance URL url = new URL(args[0]); // Get an input stream for reading InputStream in = url.openStream(); // Create a buffered input stream for efficency BufferedInputStream bufIn = new BufferedInputStream(in); // Repeat until end of file for (;;) { int data = bufIn.read(); // Check for EOF if (data == -1) break; else System.out.print ( (char) data); } } catch (MalformedURLException mue) { System.err.println ("Invalid URL"); } catch (IOException ioe) { System.err.println ("I/O Error - " + ioe); } } } 2.4 How do I use a proxy server for HTTP requests? When a Java applet under the control of a browser (such as Netscape or Internet Explorer) fetches content via a URLConnection, it will automatically and transparently use the proxy settings of the browser. If you're writing an application, however, you'll have to manually specify the proxy server settings. You can do this when running a Java application, or you can write code that will specify proxy settings automatically for the user (providing you allow the users to customize the settings to suit their proxy servers). To specify proxy settings when running an application, use the -D parameter : jre -DproxySet=true -DproxyHost=myhost -DproxyPort=myport MyApp Alternately, your application can maintain a configuration file, and specify proxy settings before using a URLConnection : // Modify system properties Properties sysProperties = System.getProperties(); // Specify proxy settings sysProperties.put("proxyHost", "myhost"); sysProperties.put("proxyPort", "myport"); sysProperties.put("proxySet", "true"); 2.5 What is a malformed URL, and why is it exceptional? When you create an instance of the java.net.URL class, its constructor can throw a MalformedURLException. This occurs when the URL is invalid. When it is thrown, it isn't because the host machine is down, or the URL path points to a missing file; a malformed URL exception is thrown when the URL cannot be correctly parsed. Common mistakes include :- * leaving out a protocol (eg "www.microsoft.com" instead of "http://www.microsoft.com/") * specifying an invalid protocol (eg "www://netscape.com") * leaving out the ':' character (eg http//www.micrsoft.com/) MalformedURLException will not be thrown if :- * the host name is invalid (eg "www.microsoft-rules-the-world.com") * the path is invalid (eg "http://www.microsoft.com/company_secrets.htm") 2.6 How do I URL encode the parameters of a CGI script? This is an important question, as many Java applications and applets interact with server side applications, servlets, and CGI scripts. Let's take a look at how URL encoding works first though. A URL can be used to invoke a server side application or script's GET method. The first part of the URL will be the name of the server side script, followed by a question mark '?' character. After that will come the name of each parameter, and '=' sign to separate name from value, and a '&' character to indicate the next parameter. Here's a fictitious example. http://www.yourwebhost.com/yourcgi.cgi?name=your%20name&emai l=email@email.com We can't include spaces or other high/low ASCII values, so the space character has been substituted for %20 in this example. Java provides a URLEncoder class to do this for us - we need only construct the URL and pass it to the URLEncoder. Here's a quick code example to demonstrate. String encodedURL = "http://www.yourwebhost.com/yourcgi?name=" + // encode as value may have spaces or other characters URLEncoder.encode("david reilly" ); System.out.println ("Encoded URL - " + encodedURL); 2.7 Why is a security exception thrown when using java.net.URL or java.net.URLConnection from an applet? Web browsers impose security restrictions on applets, which prevent applets from establishing network connections to servers other than that from which they were loaded. Like socket connections, HTTP connections will cause security exceptions to be thrown. If you absolutely, positively, have to access other hosts (and replacing your applet with a Java servlet is impractical), consider using a digitally signed applet. 2.8 How do I prevent caching of HTTP requests? By default, caching will be enabled. You must use a URLConnection, rather than the URL.openStream() method, and explicitly specify that you do not want to cache the requests. This is achieved by calling the URLConnection.setUseCaches(boolean) method with a value of false. Advanced programming questions 3. Advanced networking concepts 3.1 How do I handle timeouts in my networking applications? If your application is written for JDK1.1 or higher, you can use socket options to generate a timeout after a read operation blocks for a specified length of time. This is by far the easiest method of handling timeouts. A call to the java.net.Socket.setSoTimeout() method allows you to specify the maximum amount of time a Socket I/O operation will block before throwing an InterruptedIOException. This allows you to trap read timeouts, and handle them correctly. For an article on the subject, see http://www.javacoffeebreak.com/articles/network_timeouts/. If you're trying to handle connection timeouts, or if your application must support earlier versions of Java, then another option is the use of threads. Multi-threaded applications can wait for timeouts, and then perform some action (such as resetting a connection or notifying the user). However, you as a programmer should avoid writing complex multi-threaded code - particularly in your clients. There's usually an easy way to encapsulate the complexity of multi-threading, and provide a simple non-blocking I/O version. An article that demonstrates this technique for connect operations is available at http://www.javaworld.com/jw-09-1999/jw-09-timeout.html 3.2 How do I control the amount of time a socket will linger before resetting? When a socket wishes to terminate a connection it can "linger", allowing unsent data to be transmitted, or it can "reset" which means that all unsent data will be lost. You can explicitly set a delay before a reset is sent, giving more time for data to be read, or you can specify a delay of zero, meaning a reset will be sent as soon as the java.net.Socket.close() method is invoked. The socket option SO_LINGER controls whether a connection will be aborted, and if so, the linger delay. Use the java.net.Socket.setSoLinger method, which accepts as parameters a boolean and an int. The boolean flag will activate/deactivate the SO_LINGER option, and the int will control the delay time. 3.3 What does the java.net.Socket.setTcpNoDelay method do, and what is Nagle's algorithm? This method controls the socket option TCP_NODELAY, which allows applications to enable or disable Nagle's algorithm. Nagle's algorithm (described in RFC 896), conserves bandwidth by minimizing the number of segments that are sent. When applications wish to decrease network latency and increase performance, they can disable Nagle's algorithm. Data will be sent earlier, at the cost of an increase in bandwidth consumption. 3.4 How do I implement a (FTP/HTTP/Telnet/Finger/SMTP/ POP/IMAP/..../) client/server? Your first step towards creating such systems will be to read the relevant Request For Comments (RFCs) document. Not sure which one? There are specific search engines, such as http://www.rfc-editor.org/, that will allow you to search for the name of a protocol, and to then read relevant documents. These RFCs describe the protocol you wish to implement. 3.5 How do I implement PING in Java? Java includes support for UDP and TCP sockets. PING requires support for the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). Your only choice (at the moment), is to use native code, or to use java.lang.Runtime to execute an external ping application. You won't be able to develop a 100% Pure implementation. NB - A native implementation that uses the Java Native Interface (JNI) is available for PING, in both English and Spanish. For more details, see http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bit/5716/ping/ 3.6 How can I send/receive email from Java? You can choose to implement Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), to send email, and either POP or IMAP to receive email. However, an easier alternative is to use the JavaMail API, which provides a set of classes for mail and messaging applications. Royalty-free implementations of the API are now available from Sun for SMTP, POP and IMAP - and many other mail systems are supported by third-parties. For more information, visit the official JavaMail page, at http://java.sun.com/products/javamail/ 4. Remote method invocation 4.1 What is remote method invocation? Remote method invocation (RMI), is a mechanism for invoking an object's methods, even though the object is executing on a foreign Java Virtual Machine (JVM). RMI is similar to remote procedure calls (RPCs), but has an added advantage - method signatures can contain Java objects as well as primitive data types. Even objects that a foreign JVM has never encountered before can be used, so new tasks and methods can be passed across a network. 4.2 When should I use remote method invocation? Here's a few rules of thumb : * When you wish to execute code on remote systems (distributed systems) * When you have a network that has machines capable of supporting JVMs on all machines you would wish to connect to RMI * When you don't want your RMI applications to be used from machines that don't support JVMs, or from applications written in C++/Ada/Cobol/Fortran/ [insert non-java lang here] 4.3 Why can't I access RMI from C++? Remote method invocation allows method signatures to contain Java objects, and C++ isn't capable of executing Java bytecode. If your RMI system only used primitive data types, you might be able to write a software bridge between the two - but this isn't direct remote method invocation. You'd be better off investigating CORBA. 4.4 Why won't my RMI implementation compile under JDK1.1? Under JDK1.02, RMI implementations extend java.rmi.server.UnicastRemoteServer. This changed in JDK1.1 - you should now extend java.rmi.server.UnicastRemoteObject. 4.5 Why won't my RMI implementation run under Java 2? If you're running the client or server with Java 2, then you'll need to specify a security policy file, to prevent SecurityExceptions being thrown. This policy file will allow your application to bind to a local port (if a service), and to connect to remote hosts (if a client). The following changes should be made when running the cilent/server : java -Djava.security.policy=java.policy yourserver You'll also need to create a policy file (if one does not already exist). Here's a sample policy file that will allow you to accept conections from ports higher than 1024, but connect to all ports as a client. grant { permission java.net.SocketPermission "*:1024-65535", "connect,accept,resolve"; permission java.net.SocketPermission "*:1-1023", "connect,resolve"; }; 5. Common Object Request Broker Architecture 5.1 What is CORBA? CORBA stands for Common Object Request Broker Architecture. CORBA is a mechanism that allows applications to invoke object methods that will execute on remote systems. CORBA isn't limited to any single platform, or language. CORBA systems are written in C++, Ada, Java, and other languages. This makes it more interoperable than remote procedure calls and remote method invocation. 5.2 When should I use CORBA? Here's a few rules of thumb : * When you wish to use services that are running on remote machines (distributed systems) * When you have a heterogeneous networking environment, containing systems that aren't capable of supporting JVMs because a port is not yet available * When you want your applications to be accessed by other systems written in C, C++, Ada, Cobol, and other languages (including Java) 5.3 What support does Java have for CORBA? Third party class libraries allow you to write CORBA application clients and services in earlier versions of Java, but support for CORBA is also included with the newly released Java 2 Platform. Clients and services can be written (though an extra download of the idltojava tool is required). For more information on Java IDL, see the article "Java and CORBA - a smooth blend", available from : http://www.javacoffeebreak.com/articles/javaidl/javaidl.html 5.4 How do I start the CORBA nameservice for Java 2? The nameservice can be started by running the tnameserv command, which should be located in your Java 2 binaries directory. Remember however that this service will run continuously, so you'll need to run it in a separate console window. 6. Java Servlets 6.1 What are servlets? Servlets are server-side Java applications, as opposed to client-side applets or standalone applications. While servlets are compatible with many different types of servers, typically they are used in web servers, as a replacement for CGI scripts or Active-Server Pages (ASP). Java servlets offer many advantages over other forms of server-side processing. Apart from the obvious (they are written in the Java programming language, a big plus after all), servlet based applications are far easier to write than CGI scripts. There's no need to write code for parsing HTTP request parameters, as this code is provided by the javax.servlet.http package. You have access to the entire Java API, with no networking restrictions (making servlets far more attractive than applets). There are also performance increases over CGI scripts, as servlets persist over time, and do not create a new process for every connection. 6.2 What do I need to develop servlets? To develop servlets, you need a basic familiarity with Java I/O streams, HTML, and the HyperText-Transfer Protocol (HTTP). You'll also need to download the Java Servlet Development Kit (JSDK) which is freely available from Sun Microsystems. Finally, you'll need a web-server that supports servlets, or a servlet engine which augments your server's capability. 6.3 Where can I get more information on servlets? Gamelan's TechFocus recently published a two-part introductory tutorial on servlets, which I can highly recommend. For more information see http://www.gamelan.com/journal/techworkshop/ I also highly recommend the book, Developing Java Servlets, by James Goodwill. The publisher is Sams, and the ISBN is 0672316005 For more information, see http://www.davidreilly.com/goto.cgi?isbn=0672316005 6.4 How does servlet performance compare to applets? Client-side Java has been dogged by performance problems due to slow loading times, older JVMs without JIT compilation, and inefficient coding. Applets have gained a reputation of poor performance, which often gives Java itself a bad name. Server-side Java, however, doesn't suffer from the same performance problems. The speed of execution is much better, as the server administrator can install more recent JVMs (some of which are optimized for server-side processing). The load time is virtually instantaneous, as there is no network latency to contend with. You're also in a better position regarding security restrictions - servlets can establish network connections without the sandbox problems that plague unsigned applets.á 6.5 How does servlet performance compare to CGI? Servlet performance is often far superior to CGI. Rather than forking a new process for each request, a pool of threads can be used to execute servlet requests. Servlets persist across connections, so there's no need to perform initialization tasks repeatedly. This, when coupled with a fast JVM and servlet engine, can offer better performance than CGI. 6.6 Should I use single-threaded, or multi-threaded servlets? By default, servlets are multi-threaded. If you specifically require a single-threaded servlet, you should implement the javax.servlet.SingleThreadModel interface. This guarantees that no two threads will be operating on the same instance of the servlet, but still allows concurrent execution of the servlet. The servlet engine will maintain a pool of available threads, and create new instances of the servlet as required. This can cause performance problems however, and should be used sparingly except on low-traffic servers. 6.7 How do I send cookies from a servlet? HTTP is a stateless protocol, which makes tracking user actions difficult. One solution is to use a cookie, which is a small piece of data sent by a web browser every time it requests a page from a particular site. Servlets, and CGI scripts, can send cookies when a HTTP request is made - though as always, there is no guarantee the browser will accept it. Cookies are represented by the javax.servlet.http.Cookie class. Cookie has a single constructor, which takes two strings (a key and a value). // Create a new cookie Cookie cookie = new Cookie ("counter", "1"); Adding a cookie to a browser is easy. Cookies are sent as part of a HTTPServletResponse, using the addCookie( Cookie ) method. You can call this method multiple times, but remember that most browsers impose a limit of ten cookies, and 4096 bytes of data per hostname. public void doGet (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException { response.addCookie(new Cookie("cookie_name", "cookie_value")); } 6.8 How do I read browser cookies from a servlet? Reading cookies from a servlet is quite easy. You can gain access to any cookies sent by the browser from the javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest passed to the servlet's doGet, doPost, etc methods. HttpServletResponse offers a method, Cookies[] getCookies() which returns an array of Cookie objects. However, if no cookies are available, this value may be null, so be sure to check before accessing any array elements. // Check for cookies Cookie[] cookie_jar = request.getCookies(); // Check to see if any cookies exists if (cookie_jar != null) { for (int i =0; i< cookies.length; i++) { Cookie aCookie = cookie_jar[i]; pout.println ("Name : " + aCookie.getName()); pout.println ("Value: " + aCookie.getValue()); } } 6.9 How do I make cookies expire after a set time period? Depending on how you use the data stored in a cookie, it is sometimes a good idea to make the cookie expire. Since anyone using the browser will have the cookie sent on their behalf, it may appear to be a legitimate user when in actual fact it is not. This often happens in places like Internet cafes, school or university computing labs, or libraries. If your cookie sends a user identifier that facilitates access to sensitive data, or allows changes to be made (for example, a web-based email service), then you should expire cookies after a small time period. If the user keeps using your servlet, you always have the option of resending the cookie with a longer duration. To specify an expiration time, you can use the setMaxTime(int) method of javax.servlet.http.Cookie. It takes as a parameter the number of seconds before the cookie will expire. For example, for a five minute expiration, we would do the following :- // Create a new cookie for userID from a fictitious // method called getUserID Cookie cookie = new Cookie ("userID", getUserID()); // Expire the cookie in five minutes (5 * 60) cookie.setMaxTime( 300 ); When the cookie is sent back to the browser, using HttpServletResponse.addCookie(Cookie), it will only be returned by the browser until the expiration date occurs. If you'd prefer, you can also specify a negative value for setMaxTime(int), and the cookie will expire as soon as the browser exits. Note however that not everyone will shutdown their browser, and it might be available for minutes, hours even days. Finally, specifying a value of zero will expire the cookie instantly. 6.10 Why aren't cookies stored by my servlets accessible to my CGI scripts or ASP pages? By default, cookies are accessible to every HTTP request for the current directory, and any subdirectories. Now on most web servers and servlet engines, servlets are located in a special directory. For example, when using servletrunner (which ships with the Java Servlet Development Kit), servlets must be invoked under the /servlet/ directory. egáhttp://webserver/servlet/servletname If you want your cookies to be accessible elsewhere, you must specify the root path of your webserver, using the javax.servlet.Cookie.setPath( String ) method. // Create a cookie for everyone to share Cookie myCookie = new Cookie ("counter", "1"); // Set path for cookie myCookie.setPath( "/" ); Once you've set the path, any script (for example, stored in /cgi-bin/) can access the cookies stored by your servlets. 6.11 How can I void a cookie, and delete it from the browser? You can specify an expiration date, using the setMaxTime(int) method of javax.servlet.http.Cookie. Specifying a expiration time of zero will void the cookie, and delete it from the browser. // Expire the cookie immediately cookie.setMaxTime( 0 ); // Send cookie back to the browser to void it response.addCookie(cookie); ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1998, 1999 David Reilly. All Rights Reserved.