Tomcat7 how to serve static files with Expires HTTP header

Question

I have a group of static files (mainly the static files, including css and images, that make up the ExtJS JavaScript framework). This group of static files rarely changes and therefore I decided NOT to include them within the items in the web application's war file. (I.e. I didn't follow the approach recommended by this answer.)

Right now I serve all these static files under /extjs by having the following Context container defined in server.xml:

<Context docBase="/path/to/extjs-4.1.1" path="/extjs" />

That "works" so far; still if anyone is able to suggest a better approach please do.

However I can't find a way to add expires HTTP headers to files served by this context.

Any idea how to configure Tomcat7 in this respect?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 20 '12 at 23:40

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It doesn't appear that Tomcat's default servlet (org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet) has a way to do this.

The easiest thing to do would be to create a servlet filter that simply adds the HTTP headers you need to every request. Since the <context> defines a webapp, you can add a WEB-INF/web.xml file to /extjs and load your filter there. Since /extjs is a separate context, your 'real' application won't be affected.

answered Sep 20 '12 at 23:40

AngerClown

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So what you recommend is that I put a `WEB-INF/web.xml` in the static files' root directory? Right now the static files are "ignorant" of any server-side stuff and I would like to keep them as such. – Joseph Victor Zammit Sep 21 '12 at 09:10
Yes, that's the only solution I can think of. – AngerClown Sep 21 '12 at 11:22

Tomcat7 how to serve static files with Expires HTTP header

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