Servlet Life Cycle

SERVLET LIFE CYCLE

The life cycle of a servlet is controlled by the container in which the servlet has been deployed. When a request is mapped to a servlet,

1.     If an instance of the servlet does not exist, the Web container

a.     Loads the servlet class.

b.     Creates an instance of the servlet class.

c.      Initializes the servlet instance by calling the init method. Initialization is covered in Initializing a Servlet.

2.     Invokes the service method, passing a request and response object. Service methods are discussed in the section Writing Service Methods.

If the container needs to remove the servlet, it finalizes the servlet by calling the servlet's destroy method. Finalization is discussed in Finalizing a Servlet.

Handling Servlet Life-Cycle Events

You can monitor and react to events in a servlet's life cycle by defining listener objects whose methods get invoked when life cycle events occur. To use these listener objects, you must define the listener class and specify the listener class.

Defining The Listener Class

You define a listener class as an implementation of a listener interface. Table 10-3 lists the events that can be monitored and the corresponding interface that must be implemented. When a listener method is invoked, it is passed an event that contains information appropriate to the event. For example, the methods in the HttpSessionListener interface are passed an HttpSessionEvent, which contains an HttpSession.