Order of elements in web.xml

[Thiru Thangavelu]

Hello Ranchers,
It has been sometime that I am returning to Javaranch after I passed my SCJP2 with 93%. Completed my preparations and while I was doing some mock exams, I came to know some of the questions and I am going to participate this forum again. Hope I will get the some good response here, as I got it for my SCJP preparation.
Here goes the question.

<context-param>
<param-name>Parameter Value</param-name>
<param-value>Parameter Name</param-value>
<context-param>

Why it is not working when I change the order like this?

<context-param>
<param-value>Parameter Name</param-value>
<param-name>Parameter Value</param-name>
<context-param>

Is it true for all the web.xml elements?

[Vedhas Pitkar]

Yes the order of elements is important in web.xml as the file is parsed first when the context is initialized.If u see the tomcat logs it will show u a XML parse Exception or something-of-the-sort.
The elements are case-sensitive also.

[Peter den Haan]

The order, by the way, is dictated by the DTD. So any application server that uses a validating XML parser for the web.xml file will fail to deploy applications that do not have their XML elements in the right order.
I suggest you study the DTD and learn it by rote.
- Peter