Phase 2 Deadline -- Thurs. Nov. 5 @ 6 PM.

Servlets
A servlet is a server side application that handles requests from clients. 
- Most servlets are threaded, meaning clients can be handled concurrently.
   * Behavior of doGet() and doPost().
   * Most of the time a servlet creates a thread to service a client, provides the service, and the thread dies.
- Servlets have state, i.e. they can hold values indefinitely while they are deployed.
- Servlets are loaded when first accessed, not when they are deployed.

- web.xml directs how a URL is used to access the actual servlet class
  * the URL need not actually show the path. It can when the servlet is in the classes directory.
  -> You can't have a servlet right in the classes directory in GWT
  -> GWT packages its stuff and a servlet below the classes directory has to be part of a package.

Continuing on Oct 28 2020 ....

In accessing a servlet, the directory comes first, followed by the handle for the servlet.
- This handle is interpreted within the <servlet-mapping> and <servlet> xml tags.
  * web.xml takes the servlet's url mapping and directs it to the actual servlet class.
- The <servlet> tag associates a name (designated in <servlet-name>) for the servlet with the actual class. The <servlet-mapping> tag associates the URL with the servlet's name, i.e. <servlet-name>



The classes directory in a deployment is in the classpath.

The HttpServletResponse provides a Writer that writes directly to the requestor.
- If the request is directly from a web page, the response overwrites the content with whatever the HttpServletResponse sends.

service() is part of GenericServlet. 
-  We use the do___() functions because those can be accessed via an html form.

In making a service request, there's several methods. GET & POST are most prevalent.
- GET encodes the form data in the URL query string
- POST provides the data via the session's request header.