A servlet is a Java class used to extend the capabilities of servers that host server-side web applications. Servlets can respond to requests and generate responses. The base class for all servlets is javax.servlet.GenericServlet, defines a generic, protocol-independent servlet.
By far the most common type of servlet is an HTTP servlet. This type of servlet is used for handling HTTP requests and generating HTTP responses. An HTTP servlet is a class that extends the javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet class, which is a subclass of javax.servlet.GenericServlet.
A servlet must implement one or more methods to respond to specific HTTP requests. These methods are overridden from the parent HttpServlet class. As can be seen in the following table, these methods are named in such a way that knowing which one to use is intuitive:
|
HTTP request |
HttpServlet method |
