What is Apache Tomcat Server

I am currently trying to learn framework like struts,spring.Before that i never develop projects with Java for web.As you dive into these subjects you face with new applications,Apache Tomcat Server is one of them.

What is Apache Tomcat Server?

Apache Tomcat server as the name implies is a server designed as servlet container and Java Server Page(JSP) engine by Apache Software Foundation(ASF).Important thing is it is not Apache Web Server which is designed for HTTP server with C language implementation.Latest version is 6.0.x while i am writing this article.As i learn Tomcat Server has 3 main parts.

1. Catalina
2. Coyote
3. Jasper

Catalina is the Tomcat Servlet container.It implements the Sun Microsystem’s specifications for the Java Server Pages and servlets.

Coyote is the HTTP connector of the Tomcat server.Which gets the request from TCP specified port and forward them to Tomcat server to process and also gets the response from server and send them to client,this is Coyote’s basic job in Tomcat Server.

Jasper is a Java Server Page engine of the Tomcat Server.Actually it is now called Jasper 2 because there is a new specification on Java Server Pages side by Sun.Jasper parses JSP files and send them to Catalina to compile them as servlets and jasper can detect pages if it is JSP page or not.

There are also other Application servers you can look at them for comparison from here.