In early 1997, JavaSoft (a company that has since been reintegrated into Sun Microsystems as the Java Software division) finalized Java servlets. This consolidated the scattered technologies into a single, standard mechanism for developing modular server-side Java code. Java servlets were designed to work with both Java-based and non-Java based servers. Support for servlets has since been implemented in nearly every web server-Apache to Zeus-as well as some non-web servers.

Servlets execute within the web server's process space and they persist between invocations, which gives them tremendous performance benefits over CGI programs. They have full access to the various Java APIs and third-party component classes, making them ideal for use in communicating with applets, databases, and RMI servers. Best of all, servlets are portable among operating systems and among servers. Hunter's new book, Java Servlet Programming covers the Java Servlet API, a standard extension to Java that provides a generic mechanism for extending the functionality of any kind of server.

Java Servlet Programming covers everything you need to know to write effective servlets and includes over 100 examples you can use as the basis of your own servlets. "My goal has always been to make this book the definitive source for servlet programming information." says Hunter, "The way I see it, my job has been to scout ahead and explore the servlet landscape -- cutting paths and marking pitfalls, giving the reader a detailed map of the terrain. It's been a long effort, and with the book's release I'm happy that people can finally take advantage of my work."

About the Authors:

William "Will" Crawford got involved with Web development back in 1995. He has worked at the Children's Hospital Informatics Program in Boston, where he helped develop the first Web-based electronic medical record system and was involved in some of the first uses of Java at the enterprise level. Will currently heads the product development team at Invantage, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts, startup developing Java-based intranet tools for the pharmaceutical industry.

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