Communicator e3000 MPE/iX Release 6.5 Express 2 (Software Release C.65.02) (30216-90322)

32 Chapter3

Technical Articles

Java Servlets for MPE/iX

By Barbara Dubbert

Commercial Systems Division

Java Servlets for MPE/iX is add-on functionality to the Apache Web Servers for MPE/iX.

With this new functionality, Java servlets can be compiled and run on the MPE platform.

Java servlets are server-side Java code for creating dynamic web pages and developing

web applications. Servlets are similar to java applets except they run on a server instead

of in a browser

Java Servlets for MPE/iX runs with Apache 1.3.9 for MPE/iX and HP WebWise Secure Web

Server for MPE/iX.

Servlets vs CGI

Servlets provide a powerful alternative to traditional CGI. Servlets can be used wherever

CGI might normally be used yet they allow for session persistence and have faster startup

times than traditional CGI . Servlets also have all the advantages of the Java language

such as ease of development, platform independence, and a large set of available APIs.

Like CGI, servlets extend the functionality of a web server. For example, a servlet could be

written to do any of the following:

• Process and/or store data from an HTML form

• Provide dynamic content (such as returning the results from a database query)

• Manage state information such as for an online shopping cart system

But servlets have several advantages over CGI:

• They do not run as a separate process and so do not incur the overhead of creating a

new process for every request.

• Servlets stays in memory between requests and do not need to be loaded and started as

a CGI program would.

• Servlets can run as a single instance answering all requests concurrently. With only

one instance, memory is better utilized and servlets can easily manage persistent data.

• A servlet can run in its own zone (restricted area) for increased security.

Release Information

Java Servlets for MPE/iX is currently available as an individual patch from the HP

Response Center. It is not part of the Express 2 release. Java Servlets can be installed on

either MPE/iX Release 6.0 or 6.5 and run with either Apache 1.3.9 or WebWise Secure Web

Server for MPE/iX. The HPRC can provide you with the correct patch version for your

release and web server.

WebWise Secure Web Server is available for ordering. For information on obtaining

WebWise, please visit the WebWise site on Jazz at

http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/webwise/.