A servlet is managed through a well defined life cycle that defines how it is loaded and instantiated, is initialized, handles requests from clients, and is taken out of service. This life cycle is expressed in the API by the init, service, and destroy methods of the javax.servlet.Servlet interface that all servlets must implement directly or indirectly through the GenericServlet or HttpServlet abstract classes.

Servlet class loading and instantiation.

The servlet container is responsible for loading and instantiating servlets. The loading and instantiation can occur when the container is started, or delayed until the container determines the servlet is needed to service a request.

When the servlet engine is started, needed servlet classes must be located by the servlet container. The servlet container loads the servlet class using normal Java class loading facilities. The loading may be from a local file system, a remote file system, or other network services.

After loading the Servlet class, the container instantiates it for use.

Servlet class initialization.

After the servlet object is instantiated, the container must initialize the servlet before it can handle requests from clients. Initialization is provided so that a servlet can read persistent configuration data, initialize costly resources (such as JDBC connections), and perform other one-time activities. The container initializes the servlet instance by calling the init method of the Servlet interface with a unique (per servlet declaration) object implementing the ServletConfig interface.

public interface Servlet {

	public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException;

}
					

This configuration object allows the servlet to access name-value initialization parameters from theWeb application's configuration information. The configuration object also gives the servlet access to an object (implementing the ServletContext interface) that describes the servlet's runtime environment.

During initialization, the servlet instance can throw an UnavailableException or a ServletException. In this case, the servlet must not be placed into active service and must be released by the servlet container. The destroy method is not called as it is considered unsuccessful initialization.

A new instance may be instantiated and initialized by the container after a failed initialization. The exception to this rule is when an UnavailableException indicates a minimum time of unavailability, and the container must wait for the period to pass before creating and initializing a new servlet instance.

Request handling.

After a servlet is properly initialized, the servlet container may use it to handle client requests. Requests are represented by request objects of type ServletRequest. The servlet fills out response to requests by calling methods of a provided object of type ServletResponse. These objects are passed as parameters to the service method of the Servlet interface.

public interface Servlet {

	public void service(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res)
		throws ServletException, IOException;

}
					

In the case of an HTTP request, the objects provided by the container are of types HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse.

public abstract class HttpServlet extends javax.servlet.GenericServlet 
	implements java.io.Serializable {

	protected void service(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res)
		throws ServletException, IOException;

}
					

Note that a servlet instance placed into service by a servlet container may handle NO requests during its lifetime.

End of service.

The servlet container is not required to keep a servlet loaded for any particular period of time. A servlet instance may be kept active in a servlet container for a period of milliseconds, for the lifetime of the servlet container (which could be a number of days, months, or years), or any amount of time in between.

When the servlet container determines that a servlet should be removed from service, it calls the destroy method of the Servlet interface to allow the servlet to release any resources it is using and save any persistent state. For example, the container may do this when it wants to conserve memory resources, or when it is being shut down.

public interface Servlet {

	public void destroy();

}
					

Before the servlet container calls the destroy method, it must allow any threads that are currently running in the service method of the servlet to complete execution, or exceed a server-defined time limit.

Once the destroy method is called on a servlet instance, the container may not route other requests to that instance of the servlet. If the container needs to enable the servlet again, it must do so with a new instance of the servlet's class.

After the destroy method completes, the servlet container must release the servlet instance so that it is eligible for garbage collection.

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