CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javajsptomcatservlets
Betamoo
Betamoo

Reputation: 15860

Servlet/Tomcat relative file path

Where to put files in a Tomcat Servlet application, such that they are relatively visible to the page??

More detail: I am developing a servlet page while using an external library. That library depends massively on external loaded XML files (relative file paths). So I need to put these XML files in the running directory of the servlet.

Is there a way in Tomcat server, where files can be accessible relatively?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 13138

Answers (3)

Roger F. Gay
Roger F. Gay

Reputation: 1961

This is an old question. I'm working on Tomcat 9. I've been quite successful with taking the Tomcat installation directory as the base. (CATALINA_HOME) The relative path to a file in ROOT for example is then, "webapps/ROOT/someDir/fileName"

The place to complain about repeated answers is to deal with repeated questions.

Upvotes: -1

W. Goeman
W. Goeman

Reputation: 1714

If this library you are talking about is going to search for the file on the classpath (like Hibernate or Log4J would do), you will have to put your XML file in WEB-INF. However, I suggest you do not do this manually. You can put the file in a source directory of you application, which will make sure the file gets deployed on the right spot.

Upvotes: 1

Zach
Zach

Reputation: 897

When a web application is deployed to Tomcat, the root of the web application ends up being $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/YOUR_WEB_APP/

As such, if using a servlet to access an XML file located on a path within the root of your web application, you can just use the following:

request.getServletContext().getResourceAsStream("PATH/TO/YOUR/XML_FILE.xml")

This will load the XML file as an InputStream. Of course, if you want access to the file itself, you can always use the getResource(String resource) method to obtain a URL, from which a File object can be obtained like so (alternative methods included):

File f;
try {
  f = new File(url.toURI());
} catch(URISyntaxException e) {
  f = new File(url.getPath());
}

EDIT: To make them relatively visible to a web browser, simply keep them out of the ./WEB-INF and ./META-INF directories.

Upvotes: 3

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