Raghunandhan Ramanujam

But i AM seeing the source. Can anyone help with the steps to be taken to ensure this does not happen???
Even a "The page cannot be displayed" message would be a graceful way to handle this.

I have my application running with Apache and Tomcat. During startup, my application starts Apache first and then Tomcat.
During the process of my application start, when I connect to the opening page using my browser, I see the opening page source in my browser.
I connect from the browser as "http://localhost:8100". I have my server.xml's Context directed to the opening page.
Now, some of the questions I have are: why do I see the source? Is it because apache has started and tomcat has not? When apache forwards a jsp page to tomcat when tomcat is down, what does apache get back??? Will anyone respond to this question?

I have my application with apache and tomcat in the regular configuration with a JSP login page.
When the application is in the process of starting, if I access the opening page from my browser, the login page SOURCE is shown in the browser.
What do I need to do in order to show a message that the server is being started (or to show a "cannot find page" message)
I currently access it as http://localhost:<port-no>/
I dont specify the page name since I have that configured in my apache's httpd.conf as DirectoryIndex jsp/Login.jsp

Thats exactly what I did and still I get the source.
I access it as http://localhost:<port-no>/
I dont specify the page name since I have that configured in my server.xml

I have my application with apache and tomcat in the regular configuration with a JSP opening page.
When the application is in the process of starting, if I access the opening page from my browser, the opening page source is shown.
What do I need to do in order to show a message that the server is being started (or to show a "cannot find page" message)

emacs should do fine

ArrayList sL = // get all the states in this.
String selState = "Colarado";
<select name="states">
<%
for(int i=0;i<sL.size();i++)
{
if (selState.equals(sL.get(ac)))
{ %>
<option value="<%=(String)sL.get(i)%>"SELECTED><%=(String)sL.get(i)%>
<% }
else
{ %>
<option value="<%=sL.get(i)%>"><%=sL.get(ac)%>
<% } %>
</option>
<%} %>
</select>

Using the button's value seems to be a cleaner option

There really are few reasons NOT to use Tomcat

As you rightly mention, you are mixing JSP and Java quite awfully.
Instead try this,
get the javascript to submit the form and when the form submits, get the variable and then call the java method from jsp
Hope this helps
Raghu