WebSphere V3.5 Handbook

5.2. How servlets work

In order to understand how WebSphere works with servlets, we have to know how servlets themselves work. In the following subsections, we briefly examine the servlet process flow, skim through the Java Servlet API, and discuss the servlet life cycle.

5.2.1. Servlet process flow

Servlets implement a common request/response paradigm for the handling of the messaging between the client and the server. The Java Servlet API defines a standard interface for the handling of these request and response messages between the client and server.

Figure 50 shows a high-level client-to-servlet process flow:

Figure 50. High-level client-to-servlet process flow

1.	The client sends a request to the server.
2.	The server sends the request ...