In this chapter, we are going to take a break from using Eclipse to develop applications for the client side. Instead, we are going to explore how Eclipse can be used to develop web-based Java applications. In order to develop such applications, we are going to use Java servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP). To run and deploy our example applications, we are going to use Apache Tomcat. Different from desktop applications that run in a standalone fashion, web applications run in a server. Thus, this chapter also details how to deploy Java servlets and JavaServer Pages on a server, namely, Apache Tomcat.
This chapter starts off with a brief introduction to the benefits of Java-based web technologies. Then, we present some background on servlets and JavaServer Pages. We also briefly describe the role that Apache Tomcat plays in implementing these technologies. If you are already familiar with these topics, just skim these first sections and skip to...