Filters are pluggable classes that stand between the client and a target component (like a servlet or JSP), within a web application. We can do pre or post processing of request/response data while it is coming from client to a servlet or from the servlet back to a client. 

Create a Servlet TargetServlet with URL Pattern as “/TargetServlet” and print some content to console from its doGet method. Code for TargetServlet is given in the end.

Now create a filter that will have the same url pattern for the servlet.

package com.javajee.filters;

 

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.servlet.Filter;

import javax.servlet.FilterChain;

import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;

import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;

import javax.servlet.annotation.WebFilter;

 

@WebFilter("/TargetServlet")

public class FirstFilter implements Filter {

 

  public FirstFilter() {

  }

 

  public void init(FilterConfig fConfig) throws ServletException {

  }

 

  public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,

      FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {

 

    System.out.println("Inside FirstFilter. Before FilterChain.doFilter");

    chain.doFilter(request, response);

    System.out.println("Inside FirstFilter. After FilterChain.doFilter");

  }

 

  public void destroy() {

  }

}

Execute the original servlet using the specified url pattern and you will get the below output in console:

Inside FirstFilter. Before FilterChain.doFilter

TargetServlet.doGet

Inside FirstFilter. After FilterChain.doFilter

FilterChain Demo

Create another filter exactly as FirstServlet with the same url pattern "/TargetServlet" and name it as SecondServlet.

Modify the SecondServlet's doFilter method print statements to reflect the servlet name as SecondServlet:

public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,

      FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {

 

    System.out.println("Inside SecondServlet. Before FilterChain.doFilter");

    chain.doFilter(request, response);

    System.out.println("Inside SecondServlet. After FilterChain.doFilter");

  }

Execute the original servlet using the specified url pattern and you will get the below output in console:

Inside FirstFilter. Before FilterChain.doFilter

Inside SecondFilter. Before FilterChain.doFilter

TargetServlet.doGet

Inside SecondFilter. After FilterChain.doFilter

Inside FirstFilter. After FilterChain.doFilter

Complete Code

TargetServlet Code

package com.javajee.servlets;

 

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;

import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

@WebServlet("/TargetServlet")

public class TargetServlet extends HttpServlet {

  private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

 

  public TargetServlet() {

    super();

  }

 

  protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

      throws ServletException, IOException {

    System.out.println("TargetServlet.doGet");

  }

}

SecondServlet.java

package com.javajee.filters;

 

import java.io.IOException;import javax.servlet.Filter;

import javax.servlet.FilterChain;

import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;

import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;

import javax.servlet.annotation.WebFilter;

@WebFilter("/TargetServlet")

public class SecondFilter implements Filter {

  public SecondFilter() {

  }

  public void init(FilterConfig fConfig) throws ServletException {

  }

  public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,
      FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {

    System.out.println("Inside SecondFilter. Before FilterChain.doFilter");

    chain.doFilter(request, response);

    System.out.println("Inside SecondFilter. After FilterChain.doFilter");

  }

  public void destroy() {

  }

}

Development and Execution Environment

Eclipse Luna Java EE IDE for Web Developers and Apache Tomcat 8.0.18, using Servlet spec 3.1.