Java™ Performance and Scalability, Volume 1: Server-Side Programming Techniques

Chapter 10. Servlets

Data flowing on the WWW can vary significantly with regard to its life span. On one extreme is static data. Static data never changes, at least as long as the server is up and running. On the other extreme is dynamic data. Dynamic data could be instantaneously outdated, like stock market quotes. Other types of data fall somewhere in the middle between those two extremes. Whereas static data typically resides on the server's file system, dynamic data is typically generated by a server-side executable program. The de facto standard for dynamic data generation used to be the Common Gateway Interface, otherwise known as CGI. CGI was there first and it is still the dominant vehicle for dynamic data. The problem with CGI is that ...