Originally posted by harry flower:
Then is there a java command to access the subdirectories in WEB-INF?
I tried to use this command: 'getServletContext().getRealPath("/")',
is it pointing to the correct location?
I am running my web application in Eclipse.
Your Java code can access files under WEB-INF.
That directory is only hidden from direct access to the web.
If your app is pulling this from an FTP server, then
you should put it in the tmpdir provided by your container.
From the
servlet spec:
SRV.3.7.1 Temporary Working Directories
A temporary storage directory is required for each servlet context. Servlet containers must provide a private temporary directory for each servlet context, and make it available via the javax.servlet.context.tempdir context attribute. The objects associated with the attribute must be of type java.io.File. The requirement recognizes a common convenience provided in many servlet engine implementations. The container is not required to maintain the contents of the temporary directory when the servlet container restarts, but is required to ensure that the contents of the temporary directory of one servlet context is not visible to the servlet contexts of other Web applications running on the servlet container.
Then you can either rename it to contain the user's ID (as Ulf mentioned) or place it in a subdirectory with the user's id in the name to insure that it is separate from other user's copies.
When it's time to deliver it, use a servlet that streams files from the web server to the browser.
We have an example application that streams file in our
codebarn.
http://www.javaranch.com/codebarn/codebarn-servlets-simplestream.jsp One thing that you'll need to modify is how the file is read.
In our example, we're streaming files that were shipped with the app and are located under WEB-INF using ServletContext.getResourceAsStream.
In your case you'll want to use a fileReader which will allow you to work with an instance of java.io.File.
Lastly, tempdir doesn't necessarily (as it's name implies) mean that the container will clean up the contents. You will want to make sure you delete this file at some point so the size of your tempdir don't grow out of hand.
The big advantage to this is that it is a truly portable solution.
Java web applications (unlike PHP or ASP apps) aren't necessarily always deployed as directory structures on a file system. They are often deployed as war files (which are sometimes packed further in ear files). When they are deployed this way, you can't write files to WEB-INF or any other part of the web app's directory structure because one doesn't exist. Doing it this way will insure that your app will always have a real directory to which it can write this file.
[ September 13, 2007: Message edited by: Ben Souther ]
