NoClassDefFoundError when accessing global classes

I've just installed Tomcat 5.5 into "c:\tomcat5.5" folder and been toying around with it the whole day. Tried migrating some of webapps that I did before (and ran quite well in Resin) over to Tomcat, but stumbled upon some errors. I suspect Tomcat might have failed to locate my class files.

This prompts me to start from a clean slate to test it with a new webapp.

I've created a webapp named "mytest", with the following files:

C:\tomcat5.5\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\testpack\testobject.class
C:\tomcat5.5\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\testpack\testobject.java
c:\mytest\main.jsp (and its content below)

The above throws a NoClassDefFoundError exception. When I moved "testpack\testobject.class" into "c:\mytest\WEB-INF\classes" folder, only then everything is solved.

I have many packages that need to be shared among my webapps, so what is the problem that caused my Tomcat unable to detect them when I put them all inside "C:\tomcat5.5\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes" ?

Below are the fragments from my CLASSPATH. Anything that I missed out in the configuration?

.;C:\tomcat5.5\common\lib\servlet-api.jar;c:\tomcat5.5\common\lib\jsp-api.jar;

[ September 11, 2008: Message edited by: Alan Yap ]

[ September 11, 2008: Message edited by: Alan Yap ]
[ September 11, 2008: Message edited by: Alan Yap ]

Your Tomcat installation probably has a file named class-loader-howto.html under tomcat-docs.

That file should clarify everything.

Bill

Thanks Bill!

That howto file you suggested me to read enlightened me alot. My problem is all solved now. I've dunked my class files into "c:\tomcat55\common\classes" and it worked.

Before I started this thread, I was advised by the link below to put all my shared classes into "c:\<tomcat folder>\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes" folder to conform to the "standard". Doesn't apply to my case though.

http://www.coreservlets.com/Apache-Tomcat-Tutorial/tomcat-5.5.html#Test1