posted 20 years ago
I thought a reference from a popular JSP book might help. The following discusses the structure that is found in the webapps folder.
From JSP 2nd Edition, 2001 Wrox Press, pg 29:
"Fortunately, the Servlet speciifcation dictates a configuration standard that all Servlet containers must support. This standard includes the following structure:
Path: /
Explanation: The root directory of the web application. All static resources and JSP's are placed here. These public resources are typically directly available to web clients. (However, I've seen lots of examples where JSP's are in the path: /jsp/example.jsp)
Path: /WEB-INF/web.xml
Explanation: This is known as the deployment descriptor, which contains various configuration options for the web application. all files contained in /WEB-INF/ and its subdirectories are not directly accessible by web clients.
Path: /WEB-INF/classes
Explanation: All class files, such as Servlets or JavaBeans, are placed in this directory
Path: /WEB-INF/lib/
Explanation: JAR files can be placed here, and they will be automatically included in the web application's CLASSPATH.
A sample web application might consist of the following files
/index.html
/contactus.html
/status.jsp
/images/us.jpg
/WEB-INF/web.xml
/WEB-INF/lib/framework.jar
/WEB-INF/classes/com/ourcompany/MainServlet.class
/WEB_INF/classes/com/ourcompany/util/Util.class"
Adios
Scott
Path:Path:Path:Path:Path:
[ April 27, 2003: Message edited by: Scott Hutchings ]