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Java Web Application Technologies

<< Java Web Application Request Handling | Web Application Life Cycle >>
<< Java Web Application Request Handling | Web Application Life Cycle >>

Java Web Application Technologies

Notice that Java Servlet technology is the foundation of all the web application technologies, so
you should familiarize yourself with the material in
Chapter 4, "Java Servlet Technology"
even if
you do not intend to write servlets. Each technology adds a level of abstraction that makes web
application prototyping and development faster and the web applications themselves more
maintainable, scalable, and robust.
Web components are supported by the services of a runtime platform called a web container. A
web container provides services such as request dispatching, security, concurrency, and
life-cycle management. It also gives web components access to APIs such as naming,
transactions, and email.
Certain aspects of web application behavior can be configured when the application is installed,
or deployed, to the web container. The configuration information is maintained in a text file in
XML format called a web application deployment descriptor (DD). A DD must conform to the
schema described in the
Java Servlet Specification
.
This chapter gives a brief overview of the activities involved in developing web applications.
First it summarizes the web application life cycle. Then it describes how to package and deploy
very simple web applications on the Application Server. It moves on to configuring web
applications and discusses how to specify the most commonly used configuration parameters. It
then introduces an example, Duke's Bookstore, which illustrates all the Java EE web-tier
technologies, and describes how to set up the shared components of this example. Finally it
discusses how to access databases from web applications and set up the database resources
needed to run Duke's Bookstore.
JavaServer Pages
Standard Tag Library
JavaServer Faces
JavaServer Pages
JavaServlet
FIGURE 3­2
Java Web Application Technologies
Web Applications
Chapter 3 · Getting Started with Web Applications
79