Java and XSLT

WAR Files and Deployment

In the servlet model, Web Application Archive (WAR) files are the unit of deployment. WAR files enable portability across a wide range of servlet containers regardless of the vendor. The good news is that WAR files are very easy to create and require only that you carefully follow the guidelines for file and directory names. If you are careful to avoid spelling errors and misplaced files, you should not have any problem with WAR files.

WAR Files

Figure 6-2 shows the standard structure of a WAR file. Since a WAR file is really just a JAR file with a .war extension, you can utilize the jar command to create your WAR files.

Figure 6-2. WAR file structure

To create a WAR file, simply arrange your files into the directory structure shown in Figure 6-2 and issue the following command from the directory that contains index.html:^[22]

jar -cvfM ../appname.war

This command assumes that the WAR file will be placed in the parent of your current working directory; the forward slash (/ ) works on Windows as well as Unix clients. Once the WAR file has been created, you can view its contents by changing to its directory and issuing the following command:

jar -tvf appname.war .

This shows the table of contents for the WAR file, which must match the structure shown in Figure 6-2.

The topmost directory in the WAR file is publicly accessible to web browsers and should contain ...