Multilevel app structure

Anyone ever tried to deploy (manually in this case, for simplicity) into the following type of structure:

/tomcat/webapps/APPBASE/APPSUBDIR/WEB-INF/...

as opposed to the documented approved structure of:

/tomcat/webapps/APPBASE/WEB-INF/...

i.e. I'm inserting the APPSUBDIR additional directory, and wish to invoke an associated servlet via:

http://localhost:8080/APPBASE/APPSUBDIR/servletname

The issue seems to revolve around specifications in the context.xml and web.xml (and maybe other) files. I've attempted numerous combinations for path, docBase, servlet-mapping, etc. but without success. I haven't encountered any examples of what I'm attempting above, so perhaps it's illegitimate.

Grateful for any responses. Thanks.

The Servlet Specification makes no provisions for nested web applications. What are you actually trying to accomplish?

It's certainly possible to set up a servlet mapping which maps "/APPSUBDIR/servlet" to a servlet in your web application, I do that regularly. (The web application which I'm working on is basically a home for a collection of smaller applications, which sounds a lot like your situation.)

Thanks guys. So Paul, does your structure look like "/APPBASE/APPSUBDIR/servlet"?

I'm not sure what you mean by "structure". My URL for a servlet in my application generally looks like http://hostname/MyApp/SomeSubApp/servletname.

There's a big difference between where a servlet is mapped to, and where the servlet class resides. You are not at all being clear regarding what you are trying to do. So I ask again, what are you actually trying to accomplish?

Bear, my servlet is currently qualified only by application (base) name, i.e. /APPBASE/servlet. I simply want to further qualify it by vendor name, i.e. /VENDORNAME/APPBASE/servlet. Your URL format, Paul, reflects what I'm attempting. I presume that your associated directory structure (which is what I mean by "structure") is of the form (correct me if not):

/tomcat/webapps//MyApp/SomeSubApp/WEB-INF/...

What are your associated xml (context.xml, web.xml, etc.) entries for that application? Thanks.

You don't need any folders to do that. And you certainly don't need nested/multi-level web apps. Simply specify the mapping that you want in the deployment descriptor.

Jay Grant wrote:Your URL format, Paul, reflects what I'm attempting. I presume that your associated directory structure (which is what I mean by "structure") is of the form (correct me if not):

/tomcat/webapps//MyApp/SomeSubApp/WEB-INF/...

No, it isn't. If I were using Tomcat (I'm not, but it's Java EE so the rules are the same) then my application's directory would be

/tomcat/webapps/MyApp

And under that I have the WEB-INF directory for MyApp, which as you know is where /classes and /lib are placed to hold servlets and associated resources like jars. This is the normal way to set up a web application.

Sometimes my sub-apps need to refer to things like Javascript and CSS files which are specific to the sub-app. In this case I have a /SubApp directory under the /MyApp directory where those things are stored. The URL for those things then looks like http://server/MyApp/SubApp/actions.js and so on.

Each of the sub-apps has a collection of JSPs where are stored in a directory called /SubApp under the /WEB-INF directory. This means that after a servlet does its work it will forward to a JSP at "/WEB-INF/SubApp/Whatever.jsp". And I believe we already discussed how to set up servlet mappings to give the illusion that directories exist on the server for each sub-app.

OK; thanks guys.