Usually, a servlet container does not initialize the servlets as soon as it starts up. It initializes a servlet when it receives a request for that servlet for the first time. This is called lazy loading. Although this process greatly improves the startup time of the servlet container, it has a drawback.
If the servlet performs many tasks at the time of initialization, such as caching static data from a database on initialization, the client that sends the first request will have a poor response time.
In many cases, this is unacceptable. The servlet specification defines the <load-on-startup> element, which can be specified in the deployment descriptor (web.xml) to make the servlet container load and initialize the servlet as soon as it starts up.
This process of loading a servlet before any request comes in is called preloading, or preinitializing, a servlet.
If the servlet performs many tasks at the time of initialization, such as caching static data from a database on initialization, the client that sends the first request will have a poor response time.
In many cases, this is unacceptable. The servlet specification defines the <load-on-startup> element, which can be specified in the deployment descriptor (web.xml) to make the servlet container load and initialize the servlet as soon as it starts up.
This process of loading a servlet before any request comes in is called preloading, or preinitializing, a servlet.
