how to useBean for all directories?

[Ben Sch]

I have Tomcat 3.1 set up on a Windows2000 machine. Let's say I have two jsp pages...
file A: "/test.jsp"
file B: "/my_folder/test.jsp"
...both "test.jsp", files A and B, are identical.
Both files contain:
"<jsp:useBean id="me" class="myclass" scope="page" />"
the folder "/WEB-INF/classes" contains myclass.class
When I try my web browser on file A then everything works fine (thru the web server on localhost, of course). However, I go into file B, then I get this error:
<the file's directory> "Class my_folder.myclass not found."
so, my question is...how can I get "myclass" to properly work in all directories of the web site?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
-Ben
[ November 23, 2002: Message edited by: Ben Sch ]

[Bear Bibeault]

Try placing your class in a package other than the default package (which is a good suggestion in any case).
hth,
bear

[Bear Bibeault]

In e-mail the original author asked:

How so? I am new to Tomcat administration, so I'm not familiar with a "default package."
Would you suggest that I modify some .xml file to make the class visible to all pages?

It's not a Tomcat thing at all, but a Java thing. When you don't use a package declaration in your class it is placed in a "default package". To use
an explicit package, place a package declaration at the beginning of your class.
For example:

package com.mydomain.this.that;

It's a very good idea to place all your classes in a well-orgranized package structure rather than letting them all pile up in the default package.
This may solve your problem in that package-less classes seem to confuse some web containers.
hth,
bear

[Ben Sch]

Thank you for the response, but the problem remains.
I have put all my classes into a package. I then tried putting the package into the "/WEB-INF/classes" folder, tried a "/WEB-INF/lib", and even tried "<tomcat dir>/lib/common". None of these made the package visible to the JSPEngine. Since my JSP pages are loading correctly, and the initial javabean class is properly loaded into a page, I suspect that I have tomcat mostly configured. Although, I am still unable to have classes included in pages that are not in the root directy. Do you suppose I need to modify some .xml file or maybe add an environment variable (classpath, etc.) of some sort?
[ November 24, 2002: Message edited by: Ben Sch ]
[ November 24, 2002: Message edited by: Ben Sch ]

[Devesh H Rao]

hi ben
i think u can add the classpath in one of the configuration files for tomcat i cannot remember the name of the file offhand but if u go thru the conf files u may come across a entry for the classpath for the server.
The solution for u'r problem is what Bear had suggested as i too had faced a similar problem in the past.
i will try to get my hands on a tomcat server rightaway and get back with the exact file in which the entry needs to be done if u r unable to find it.

[Bear Bibeault]

There is no need to muck with the Tomcat classpath -- in fact doing so is liable to cause more problems than it would solve.
Why not describe how you are setting up your classpath unders WEB-INF classes? If your bean is resident in the correct classpath hierarchy under WEB-INF/classes there is no reason on earth that your JSPs should be unable to see them. No Tomcat configuration mucking about should be required.
bear

[Ben Sch]

Please let me know if this information helps figure out the problem.
It strikes me that Tomcat knows that there is a web application that I want to run,
and that there are some java classes/packages that I wish to use. It just
seems that the page that tries to load the

Here is how I'm trying to load it:
---------------------------------
<jsp:useBean id="mytable" class="MyTableClass" scope="page" />

Here is a list of my environment variables that relate to Tomcat:
----------------
CATALINA_HOME
C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.3.1
CLASSPATH
C:\j2sdk1.4.0_02\lib\comm.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.3.1\bin;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.3.1\lib\common;
C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.3.1\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\
JAVA_HOME
C:\j2sdk1.4.0_02
PATH
C:\j2sdk1.4.0_02\bin;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.3.1\bin;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.3.1\webapps;
to describe again the funny behavior:
------------------
the page itself could be called xyz.jsp
when I try loading the class at /xyz.jsp everything works fine
when I try loading the class at /mydir/xyz.jsp I then get the funny error that
says "Class mydir.MyTableClass not found."
Thanks for any help.
-Ben
[ November 25, 2002: Message edited by: Ben Sch ]
[ November 25, 2002: Message edited by: Ben Sch ]

[RAJESH RASTOGI]

hi,
Specify bean class by giving package hiearchy like-
<jsp:usebean id="objBean" class="package.BeanClass" scope="anyOneOfFour" />

[Bear Bibeault]

Rajesh is correct: you must specify the fully-qualified path name of the class. Otherwise, how does Java know where to look for it?
Scenario:
The bean class named MyBean is defined in package com.bensch.beans.
In your java file you will need:

package com.bensch.beans;

Your java file will be named MyBean.java and will reside in a folder relative to the root of you project as such (assume Windows):

c:\projectroot\com\bensch\beans\MyBean.java

When you compile you will do so from c:\projectroot.
In your web app, the class file should end up in

WEB-INF/classes/com/bensch/beans/MyBean.class  

And finally, your useBean directive will contain

class="com.bensch.beans.MyBean"

Notice how the package hierarchy is carried throughout the process.
hth,
bear
[ November 26, 2002: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]