Chapter 4. Using and Deploying Web Applications

Topics in This Chapter

• Registering Web applications with the server

• Organizing Web applications

• Deploying applications in WAR files

• Recording Web application dependencies on shared libraries

• Dealing with relative URLs

• Sharing data among Web applications

Web applications (or “Web apps”) let you bundle a set of servlets, JSP pages, tag libraries, HTML documents, images, style sheets, and other Web content into a single collection that can be used on any server compatible with servlet version 2.2 or later (JSP 1.1 or later). When designed carefully, Web apps can be moved from server to server or placed at different locations on the same server, all without making any changes to any of the servlets, JSP pages, or HTML files in the application.

This capability lets you move complex applications around with a minimum of effort, streamlining application reuse. In addition, since each Web app has its own directory structure, sessions, ServletContext, and class loader, using a Web app simplifies even the initial development because it reduces the amount of coordination needed among various parts of your overall system.