web.xml How to forward to html file after using /*

Question

I am using a servlet which has this mapping (to a vaadin servlet actually)

<servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>my Application</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

I want to make an exception for some html files that I have. It is ok if these are in a subfolder.

How do I do that? Is there a Tomcat-servlet to point to (in the part) which handles file reads?

Rob

Answer 1

Is there a Tomcat-servlet to point to (in the part) which handles file reads?

It's the DefaultServlet. As you can see in its documentation, its servlet name is default.

So, this should do, provided that those static files are in /static folder:

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/static/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Beware however, older Tomcat versions have a security bug whereby all contents of /WEB-INF and /META-INF are publicly accessible when (ab)using the default servlet this way.

See also:

• How to access static resources when mapping a global front controller servlet on /*