Running Servlets

This lesson shows you a number of ways to invoke servlets:
 

Typing a servlet URL into a browser window

Servlets can be called directly by typing their URL into a browser's location window. This is how you access the main page of the Duke's Bookstore example. This section shows you the general form of a servlet URL.

Calling a servlet from within an HTML page

Servlet URLs can be used in HTML tags, where a URL for a CGI-bin script or file URL might be found. This section shows servlet URLs being used as the destination of an anchor, as the action in a form, and as the location to be used when a META tag directs that a page be refreshed. This section assumes knowledge of HTML. If you don't know HTML you can learn about it through various books or by looking at the HTML 3.2 Reference Specification.

From another servlet

Servlets can call other servlets. If the two servlets are run in different servers, one can make an HTTP request of the other. If the two servlets are being run by the same network service, then one servlet can call anther servlet's public methods directly.

This lesson assumes:
 

• Your machine, localhost, is running servletrunner or a servlet-enabled web browser such as the Java Web Server at port 8080

 
• The servlet example, Duke's Bookstore, is located in the top-level of that process's directory for servlets. For servletrunner, this means that the class files are in the servlet directory specified by the -d option.

 

If these two things are true, then you should be able to run the servlet example by typing in the URLs given in the example.