The Developer's Guide to the Java(TM) Web Server(TM): Building Effective and Scalable Server-Side Applications - Softcover

Woods, Dan; Pekowsky, Larne; Snee, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 020137949X ISBN 13: 9780201379495

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1999

Synopsis

The Java(TM) Web Server has emerged as a powerful tool for creating dynamic, interactive Web applications. Web sites using cutting-edge servlet technology with the Java Web Server have better performance, security, scalability, and cross-platform flexibility than those using CGI and other server-side technologies.

The Developer's Guide to the Java(TM) Web Server provides a comprehensive description of the Java Web Server and specific techniques for putting this technology to work. The book describes the underlying servlet technology, reviews Java Web Server features, explores design options, and demonstrates the development process.

Drawing on their unparalleled real-world experience creating one of the largest web sites using the Java Web Server, the authors present many proven design and coding techniques. In addition, a plethora of working examples form the framework for an application that features registration, communication with existing Web services, error reporting, and templating.

In this book, you will find detailed information on topics such as:

-- The Servlet API
Each Java Web Server feature thoroughly explained
Creating, configuring, and managing servlets
Templating and session tracking
Writing thread-safe code
Optimizing code for the Java virtual machine and Java class libraries
Communicating with external applications with sockets, CORBA, RMI, e-mail, and JDBC(TM)
Java Web Server application design
Debugging, stress testing, and performance tuning
Customizing security
Building services

The accompanying CD-ROM includes the sample applications and code examples from the book.

With its focus on practical techniques for solving real-world challenges, this book gives you the knowledge and skills to apply the Java Web Server to your own server-side Web applications.

About this title

Review

In The Developer's Guide to the Java Web Server, the authors write from their experience building a high-traffic Web site to demonstrate and describe the implementation of servlets and Java Server Pages (JSPs) on the Java Web Server (JWS). The book includes a tour of critical JWS features and essential server-side programming techniques (like CGI and ASPs).

Even with the nod to standard CGI and Active Server Pages, the authors tend to favor Java servlets, especially when combined with JSPs. Provided you can commit to JWS, this servlet/JSP combination is a strong choice. The authors also cover HTML templates, JSP basics, and even include a "how to" section on tracking session information in servlets (through cookies or servlet APIs). The major code example here is a text-based, servlet-powered gaming engine. Readers will also find that the book touches on JWS Web administration, which is graphical and browser-based (thanks to Java).

The book's introduction to coding servlets is as good as any, especially because the authors discuss topics like manipulating thread safety to affect performance. Further sections offer invaluable advice for optimizing servlets and JWS culled from the authors' experience developing a JWS Web site that opened successfully to 2.5 million hits.

Later chapters look at APIs that extend the reach of servlets, from socket and e-mail APIs to JDBC and RMI/CORBA. After tackling servlet debugging, the authors describe ways to "stress-test" servlets, allowing you to ensure your Web site will function when it goes online. Even their checklist for finding the cause of performance bottlenecks is something that every potential JWS developer will want to read! Overall, this text is a must-have resource for building real-world, scalable Web sites powered by Java. --Richard Dragan

From the Inside Flap

This book was born of the excitement of using a fine piece of technology. The authors discovered the Java(TM) Web Server(TM), used it for a major project, and loved it so much that we wanted to share our experience with the world at large.

The Java Web Server is like an addictive drug. After one taste you want more. After a month of regular use, you are hooked. And it is never possible to forget the experience. If this technology has the same effect on readers as it had on the authors, then we can expect many more Java Web Server programming zealots in the next few years.

We hope that this book provides you with a guide to the "charms" of the Java Web Server, and that your experience is as satisfying as ours has been. The book is presented in five parts: Overview, A Guide to Administration and Features, Coding Techniques, Application Development Techniques, and Java Web Server Internals.

Part I, Overview, starts with a comparison of the Java Web Server and other application architectures for the Web (Chapter 1). After the case for the Java Web Server is presented, the chapter moves on to overviews of the Java Web Server and the Servlet API. Chapter 2 describes the sample applications presented in the book.

Part II, A Guide to Administration and Features, walks through each of the server's features in detail. The reader learns how to create servlets (Chapter 3), how to configure and manage them (Chapter 4), and how to use functions like templating (Chapter 5), Java Server Pages (Chapter 6), session tracking (Chapter 7), and internationalization and localization (Chapter 8).

Part III, Coding Techniques, dives into the guts of coding applications properly to achieve maximum performance in the Java Web Server. First servlets and the Servlet API are dissected (Chapter 9), followed by recommendations for writing thread-safe code (Chapter 10).

The following chapters cover optimizing performance of the Java virtual machine (Chapter 11) and the Java Class Libraries (Chapter 12). The last three chapters in this part cover techniques for communicating with external applications (Chapters 13, 14, and 15). In these chapters, servlets that communicate through sockets, e-mail, JDBC, RMI, and CORBA are described.

The focus of Part IV, Application Development Techniques, is designing, debugging, stress testing, and tuning the performance of applications. Chapters 16 through 19 contain battle-tested practical tips for development.

Part V, Java(TM) Web Server(TM) Internals, groups several topics together--security, customizing, logging, and building services based on the Java Server Infrastructure--which are based on the low-level constructs of the Java Web Server and are the most likely to change in future releases. Many of the classes discussed in Chapters 20 through 22 will eventually be replaced by new implementations.

The appendix, Developer Resources, identifies helpful resources, both written and available on the Internet. Suggestions for Reading This Book

Those who are new to the Java Web Server and servlet programming, or those who prefer a top-down explanation, from the general to the specific, will probably want to read the book straight through. Those who prefer an explanation that starts from the inside of an application--the guts of the code--and proceeds outward will probably find it more useful to read Part I, then jump to Part III, and then Part IV. These readers can refer to Part II as questions arise.

We hope that developers reading this book find, as we did, that the Java Web Server is the gateway to a world of rapid development for scalable applications. 020137949XP04062001

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 020137949X
• ISBN 13: 9780201379495
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 577