Programming Jakarta Struts, Second Edition

The Web Application Directory Structure

A web application typically consists of a structured hierarchy of directories. Although the Servlet specification does not require servlet containers to support a hierarchical structure, it recommends that they do so, and most, if not all, comply with this recommendation. The root directory of the hierarchy serves as the document root for the web application. As discussed earlier, requests made using a web application’s root context path are served out of the directory for that web application.

Within the web application directory hierarchy, a special directory named WEB-INF must be created. This directory is the repository for meta-information relating to the web application. It is a private directory; no resource within it is accessible to a client. However, the resources in the WEB-INF directory are visible to servlets and Java classes that reside within the web application.

Tip

Because the Servlet specification requires that the WEB-INF directory should not be visible to a web client, this is an ideal location for files and other resources that you do not want to expose outside the application. Web application resources such as XML configuration files and other private application resources should be placed within this directory. As you’ll see later in this chapter, the Struts configuration file is also normally located here.

The WEB-INF directory is where the deployment descriptor for the web application should be placed. The deployment ...