Servlet Container

[Danish Shaukat]

Hi all !
Can anyone tell what exactly does a SERVLET CONTAINER mean??
Also whats a servlet engine and whats the difference between container and engine.
Regards
Danish Shaukat
[This message has been edited by Danish Shaukat (edited April 01, 2001).]

[Karthik Guru]

hi,
This from what i know ....may be i'm wrong..someon else can defintely correct it.. :-)
Servlet containers are same as servlet engines, they execute and manage servlets. A servlet container is usually written in Java and is either part of a Web server (if the Web server is also written in Java) or otherwise associated with and used by a Web server. When a servlet is called (such as when a servlet is specified by URL), the Web server passes the HTTP request to the servlet container. The container, in turn, passes the request to the servlet. In the course of managing a servlet, a simple container performs the following:
creates an instance of the servlet and calls its init() method to initialize it
calls the service() method of the servlet
calls the destroy() method of the servlet to discard it when appropriate, so that it can be garbage collected
guys correct me if i'm wrong
karthik.