Learn the basics of Java servlets, how they interact with JSPs, and why they are useful for web development. This article covers the servlet lifecycle, service method, benefits, and challenges.

In Java, we use servlets (and the Java Servlet API) for this purpose. Think of a servlet as a tiny server whose job is to accept requests and issue responses.

Although the Javadoc -based API information for Java EE 5 briefly discusses alternative methods in HttpServlet that can be overridden, many tutorials available even today focus on doGet and doPost.

For example, you can use the Java Servlet API to get the input parameters from the request object and use the getParameter () method to decode and normalize the input values.