Getting Started with Java Servlets using Apache JServ - Future Directions (
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At Java One this year, James Gosling announced project Jakarta, an Apache working group working on
a 100% Pure Java Servlet and JavaServer Page implementation to be used in the
Apache web server. As of this writing, developers are still waiting for the
release of Sun's JavaServer Web Development Kit source code. This promises to be
an exciting development for Apache Jserv, as future releases can (and hopefully)
coincide with the current JSDK specification.
Furthermore, the initial public release of the next version of the Servlet
specification, 2.2, is also available. Aside from some relatively minor API
changes and improvements, the new specifications introduces two new concepts.
First, there is the "Web Application" concept. A web application is all the
resources - servlets, jsp pages, images, classes, html pages and other resources
that can be bundled - which can be packaged an run in servlet engines from
different vendors. The next concept is a natural extension of the "Web
Application" idea, the "Web Application Archive." Similar in concept to the jar
files, all the resources associated in a web application would be bundled and
zipped up in to a single file. Ideally, these ".war" (Web ARchive) could be
distributed and easily plugged into servlet compliant web servers, greatly
easing the integration process.