Class HttpServlet

java.lang.Object
jakarta.servlet.GenericServlet
jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServlet
All Implemented Interfaces:
Servlet, ServletConfig, Serializable

public abstract class HttpServlet extends GenericServlet
Provides an abstract class to be subclassed to create an HTTP servlet suitable for a Web site. A subclass of HttpServlet must override at least one method, usually one of these:
  • doGet, if the servlet supports HTTP GET requests
  • doPost, for HTTP POST requests
  • doPut, for HTTP PUT requests
  • doDelete, for HTTP DELETE requests
  • init and destroy, to manage resources that are held for the life of the servlet
  • getServletInfo, which the servlet uses to provide information about itself

There's almost no reason to override the service method. service handles standard HTTP requests by dispatching them to the handler methods for each HTTP request type (the doXXX methods listed above).

Likewise, there's almost no reason to override the doOptions and doTrace methods.

Servlets typically run on multithreaded servers, so be aware that a servlet must handle concurrent requests and be careful to synchronize access to shared resources. Shared resources include in-memory data such as instance or class variables and external objects such as files, database connections, and network connections. See the Java Tutorial on Multithreaded Programming for more information on handling multiple threads in a Java program.

See Also: