Servlets in J2SE and J2EE

Added 31 Jul 2008

One of the first things you should note about Servlet API 2.3 is that servlets now depend on the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 1.2 (also known as J2SE 1.2 or JDK 1.2). This small, but important, change means you can now use J2SE 1.2 features in your servlets and be guaranteed that the servlets will work across all servlet containers. Previously, you could use J2SE 1.2 features, but servers were not required to support them.

The Servlet API 2.3 is slated to become a core part of Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition 1.3 (J2EE 1.3). The previous version, Servlet API 2.2, was part of J2EE 1.2. The only noticeable difference is the addition of a few relatively obscure J2EE-related deployment descriptor tags in the web.xml DTD: to support "administered objects," such as those required by the Java Messaging System (JMS); to allow either shared or exclusive access to a resource reference; and to specify the security identity of a caller to an EJB. Most servlet authors need not concern themselves with those J2EE tags; you can get a full description from the J2EE 1.3 specification