Web Application Specifications

Overview

This section provides a list of API specifications which are implemented by Apache Tomcat.

The specifications are developed and maintained by the Java Community Process (JCP). The members of the JCP are coming from software industry, other organizations like the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), educational institutions but include also individual (personal) members.

Each specifications starts its life as a so-called Java Specification Request JSR. The JSRs are also known by the unique number they receive once the specification process starts. On the web site of the JCP you can find an overview page for each spec, and a separate download page. The download page lists various stages of each spec reflecting the development process of JCP specs. Examples are "Early Draft Review", "Public Final Draft" and "Final Release". You would like to make sure that you always access the latest documents.

Different Tomcat versions implement different versions of the specifications (see main site, wiki).

Java Servlet Specifications

Servlet 3.1 specification is JSR 340.

Servlet 3.0 specification is JSR 315.

Servlet 2.5 is a maintenance release of Servlet 2.4. Both are JSR 154.

Spec versions:	Servlet 2.4	Servlet 2.5
Main page:	JSR154	JSR154
Stable:	Final Release	Maintenance Release	Maintenance Release 2
Date:	24 Nov, 2003	11 May, 2006	11 Sep, 2007
Download Page:	Overview Direct Download	Overview Direct Download - Javadoc, classes	Overview Direct Download - PDF
Online Javadoc:	Java EE 1.4	Java EE 5

Spec versions:	Servlet 3.0
Main page:	JSR315
Stable:	Final Release	Maintenance Release (Version 3.0 Rev a)
Date:	10 Dec, 2009	6 Feb, 2011
Download Page:	Overview Direct Download	Overview Change Log Direct Download - PDF
Online Javadoc:	Java EE 6

Spec versions:	Servlet 3.1
Main page:	JSR340
Java.net project:	servlet-spec
Stable:	Final Release
Date:	28 May, 2013
Download Page:	Overview Direct Download
Online Javadoc:	Java EE 7

JavaServer Pages and Expression Language Specifications

JSP 2.2 is a maintenance release of JSP 2.1. Both are part of JSR 245.

JSP 2.0 is JSR 152.

Expression Language was covered by JSP 2.0 and JSP 2.1 specifications, but became a separate document starting with JSP 2.2.

JSP 2.3 is expected to be a minor update to JSP 2.2 under JSR 245. Expression Language 3.0 is JSR 341.

Spec versions:	JSP 2.0
Main page:	JSR152
Stable:	Final Release
Date:	24 November, 2003
Download Page:	Overview Direct Download
Online Javadoc:	Java EE 1.4

Spec versions:	JSP 2.1	JSP 2.2, EL 2.2
Main page:	JSR245	JSR245
Stable:	Final Release	Maintenance Release
Date:	11 May, 2006	10 Dec, 2009
Download Page:	Overview Direct Download	Overview Direct Download - JSP 2.2 Direct Download - EL 2.2
Online Javadoc:	Java EE 5	Java EE 6

Spec versions:	JSP 2.3	EL 3.0
Main page:	JSR245 ?	JSR341
Java.net project:	jsp-spec-public ?	el-spec
Stable:	Work in progress
Date:
Download Page:
Online Javadoc:

Java API for WebSocket

Java API for WebSocket is JSR 356. This is a work in progress, an implementation is to be included in Tomcat 8.

Spec versions:	Java API for WebSocket 1.0
Main page:	JSR356
Java.net project:	websocket-spec
Stable:	Work in progress
Date:
Download Page:
Online Javadoc:

Protocol Specifications

The following are specifications for the web protocols supported by Tomcat.

HTTP

HTTP 0.9	The Original HTTP as defined in 1991 at W3.org
HTTP/1.0	RFC 1945
HTTP/1.1	RFC 2616

Related Specifications

RFC 2617

"HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication"
Covers BASIC and DIGEST authentication methods

AJP

The AJP protocol specification lives on the Apache Tomcat Connector web site.

AJP/1.3

AJP Protocol Reference - AJPv13

SPDY

TBD

draft-mbelshe-httpbis-spdy-00 (Draft 3), Expires: August 4, 2012

List of protocol specifications, at dev.chromium.org

WebSocket

WebSocket protocol is specified by RFC 6455.

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