Servlet Filter: how to resolve path

[Max Tomlinson]

Hi-
I'm writing a couple of filters that our apps will use.
I want each app to provide for its own config.fil under /web-inf/.
My filters will be deployed as a jar on WAS.
In my doFilter method I want to resolve the path to the comfig file
e.g. (in doFilter)
String cfgFilepath =
httpReq.getServerName()
+httpReq.getServerPort()
+httpReq.getContextPath()
+"/WEB-INF/redirect-config.xml";
Parser p = new Parser(); //a SAX parser
p.processFile(cfgFilepath);
p.listData();

I'm not getting close to my file.
Anyone know a way to do this?
many thanks,
max

[Steve Leach]

Could you use FilterConfig.getServletContext().getRealPath(fileName) ?

[Steve Leach]

More specifically...

public class MyFilter implements Filter {
  private FilterConfig cfg;
  public void init(FilterConfig config) {
    cfg = config;
  }
  public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response,
                     FilterChain chain) {
    String cfgFile = 
      cfg.getServletContext().getRealPath("/WEB-INF/redirect-config.xml")
    // do something with the file
  }
}

where configFile is a String field of the class.

[James Carman]

Why do you care what the "real" path is? Why not use ServletContext.getResource() which returns a URL object representing a resource relative to the document root (which never changes for your webapp). That should get the job done.

[Max Tomlinson]

That'll do nicely, sir.
Thanks for this very helpful tip.
Max Tomlinson