I am trying to understand filter chaining.As defined in this question
All filters are chained (in the order of their definition in web.xml). The chain.d
Each filter implements the javax.servlet.Filter
interface, which includes a doFilter()
method that takes as input a request
and response
pair along with a filter chain
, which is an instance of a class (provided by the servlet container) that implements the javax.servlet.FilterChain
interface. The filter chain reflects the order of the filters. The servlet container
, based on the configuration order in the web.xml
file, constructs the chain of filters
for any servlet
or other resource that has filters
mapped to it. For each filter in the chain, the filter chain object passed to it represents the remaining filters to be called, in order, followed by the target servlet.
If there are two filters
, for example, the key steps of this mechanism would be as follows:
1.The target servlet
is requested. The container
detects that there are two filters
and creates the filter chain
.
2.The first filter
in the chain is invoked by its doFilter()
method.
3.The first filter
completes any preprocessing, then calls the doFilter()
method of the filter chain
. This results in the second filter
being invoked by its doFilter()
method.
4.The second filter
completes any preprocessing, then calls the doFilter()
method of the filter chain
. This results in the target servlet
being invoked by its service()
method.
5.When the target servlet
is finished, the chain doFilter()
call in the second filter
returns, and the second filter
can do any postprocessing.
6.When the second filter
is finished, the chain doFilter()
call in the first filter
returns, and the first filter
can do any postprocessing.
7.When the first filter
is finished, execution is complete.
Filters can be interposed between servlets and the servlet container to wrap and preprocess requests or to wrap and postprocess responses. None of the filters are aware of their order. Ordering is handled entirely through the filter chain, according to the order in which filters are configured in web.xml