The old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" also applies to the Internet. Many times a Website needs to represent numeric data with a realtime chart or graph. In this article, Ken McCrary describes a design approach and a sample Java servlet that you can use to construct realtime images. (2,500 words)
2. Take control of the servlet environment, Part 2
In this installment, Thomas Davis and Craig Walker demonstrate the power of the RSEF framework by implementing a wrapper that gives you greater control over session management. Session state can be stored in the browser, in the server's memory, or in the database. You can have all three solutions at your fingertips, painlessly interchangeable. (2,200 words)
3. Take control of the servlet environment, Part 3
Browser cookies are wolves in sheep's clothing. Developers use these incredibly simple and useful mechanisms to create Web-based applications that rely on the persistence of sessions. However, cookies feature an odd little problem in relation to subdomains. Thomas Davis and Craig Walker detail that problem in this final article in their servlet series and introduce a clever solution. Then, they take advantage of that cookie power to improve their session solution from last month. (2,000 words)
Java servlet programming provides an easy way to send HTML files to client Web browsers. However, many Websites today provide access to documents that are not in HTML, including Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel files. This tip shows you how to send non-HTML files to Web browser clients from Java servlets, using PDF and Microsoft Word files as examples. In fact, you can send any file whose format is represented by a MIME type, using this tip. Also learn how to interact with firewalls via a servlet. (1,500 words)
