Java servlets are fast becoming indispensable enterprise components, as they provide a means to build scalable and portable business services that communicate over the Web. This book provides a comprehensive guide to developing applications based on the Java Servlet 2.3 API, a part of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition 1.3. The book reveals how and where servlets fit into an enterprise solution, and addresses issues such as security, scalability, performance and design. It walks you through the API covering the role of all the classes and interfaces and provides lots of example applications to demonstrate servlets in action. The book also covers the key role that servlets play in the new web services development model. What does this book cover? *The servlet container and the services it provides *Creating and deploying web applications in Tomcat *Persisting the state of servlets *Filters and Event Listeners *Security and Container Authentication *Debugging servlets *The effects of classloading and synchronization on the behavior of web applications *Optimizing the performance of web applications *Using servlets as agents with web services