Register Training This month's featured new course on the Register's Training Site is a comprehensive examination of Java servlets.

Our training operatives have sent the following explanatory blurb:

The Servlet API was developed to leverage the advantages of the Java platform to solve the issues of CGI and proprietary APIs. It's a simple API supported by virtually all Web servers and even load-balancing, fault-tolerant Application Servers. It solves the performance problem by executing all requests as threads in one process, or in a load-balanced system, in one process per server in the cluster.

Servlets have been quick to gain acceptance because, unlike many new technologies that must first explain the problem or task they were created to solve. Servlets are a clear solution to a well-recognized and widespread need, generating dynamic web content. From corporations down to individual Web programmers, people who struggled with the maintenance and performance problems of CGI-based web programming are turning to Servlets for their power, portability and efficiency. Others, who were perhaps intimidated by CGI programming's apparent reliance on manual HTTP communication and the Peri and C languages, are looking to Servlets as a manageable first step into the world of Web programming.

This course is essential for those who are interested in extending the functionality of a Web server e.g. to generate dynamic content. It is also helpful for CGI programmers, Server-Side JavaScript programmers and Java applet programmers.

The course covers such technologies as Server Side Programming, Servlet Basics, Advanced Servlet Features like Session Tracking and Interservlet Communication.

A prior Knowledge of: Core Java Programming and Applets & HTML Programming should be considered a prerequisite for this course.

Alternatively, if you fancy studying something else to broaden your skills horizons, then we're certain that at least one of more than 490 online courses will be more to your taste. A year's access to the complete range costs just just £99 - or $149. The benefits of home self-study are legion: you can study as many courses as you want; choose from a wide range of topics and learning levels; download and print courses to peruse at leisure; learn at your own pace; and when the time comes, sit exams for selected courses and gain certificates of achievement.

There's a full list of currently-available courses here. ®