getContextPath()

[Duran Harris]

Can anyone explain what getContextPath() does??
And what interfaces/classes it is defined in?

[Omar Al Kababji]

I think that a little search in the specifications of the servlets would answer your questions, don't be afraid of google its not a monster.

[Punit Singh]

Duran Harris wrote:Can anyone explain what getContextPath() does??
And what interfaces/classes it is defined in?

getContextPath() returns the context of the request, if your web application is running on http://localhost:8080/DuranWebapps/Email.do than calling this getContextPath will return /DuranWebapps as you have request Email.do so whatever servlet mapped by you in DD for Email.do will have ContextPath /DuranWebapps that you deploy under your tomcat/webapps directory.

You can get it using request.getContextPath().
getContextPath() is declared in HttpServletRequest.java interface and
defined in HttpServletRequestWrapper.java

[Jonathan Elkharrat]

it gives you the name of the application.
usually the name of the .WAR

for example: (assume the servlet is mapped for /ch1/*)
http://localhost:8088/SCWCD/ch1/info?param=value
Context Path
Servlet Path
Path Info
Query String

[Duran Harris]

Thanks Punit..
So the context is relevant only to the request...

In HFSJ chapter 5 Q14 It says that getContextPath() is defined in ServletContext as well....


@ Jonathon

it gives you the name of the application.
usually the name of the .WAR
for example: (assume the servlet is mapped for /ch1/*)
http://localhost:8088/SCWCD/ch1/info?param=value
Context Path
Servlet Path
Path Info
Query String

i dont know if you didn't finish typing but I didn't quite get your point....Or maybe my browser is missing some plugins
Did you mean to say that getContextPath() would return '/info'..?

[Punit Singh]

Jonathan is saying getContextPath() will return /SCWCD.

You can call getContextPath() another way

getServletContext().getContextPath()

This will also return the same thing as request.getContextPath();

[Duran Harris]

Okay got it!

[Rob Spoor]

Jonathan put some nice colors which apparently you can't see. So here's the breakdown:
http://localhost:8088/SCWCD/ch1/info?param=value
Context Path - /SCWCD
Servlet Path - /ch1
Path Info - /info
Query String - param=value

[Duran Harris]

OK so then the Context path is the root of the currently executing web app?

[Punit Singh]

Duran Harris wrote:OK so then the Context path is the root of the currently executing web app?

yes

[Duran Harris]

So even if I used request dispatchers the <url-patterns> still map my requests??
And to summarise :

Path-Info=Basically just the resource's physical name??
Context-path=Application root
Query-String=GET parameters
Servlet-Path=context-path+every single directory up to and including the directory containing the resource to which the request is forwarded.

The what is the request-uri attribute??