Java & JSP - put .class in a preferred directory?

Question

I just started to write java and jsp program and I don't understand - why do I have to keep my all .class in WEB-INF directory?

Can I put them in the directory that I prefer but I still want to have the access to all Java default classes such as java.util.*? For instance,

app/
  class/
    Foo/
      Hello.class
      Hello.java
index.jsp

Is that possible?

index.jsp,

<html>
<head>
<title>Custom Class</title>
</head>
<body>

    <%@ page import="java.io.*,java.util.*" %>
    <%@ page import="javax.servlet.*,java.text.*" %>
    <%@ page import="Foo.Hello" %>

    <%
      Date date = new Date();
      out.print( "<p>" +date.toString()+"</p>");

      SimpleDateFormat ft = new SimpleDateFormat ("EEEE");
      out.print( "<p>" + ft.format(date) + "</p>");
    %>

    <%
    Hello hello = new Hello();

    hello.setMessage("Hello There!");
    out.print(hello.getMessage() + "<br/>");
    out.print(hello.sayHello());
    %>

</body>
</html>

EDIT:

app/
      WEB-INF/
       classes/
        Foo/
          Hello.class
          Hello.java
    index.jsp

Amila · Answer 1 · 2015-08-11T07:16:29.190

1

No, If it's a webapp, all your classes must be in WEB-INF/classes directory and all libraries must be in WEB-INF/lib directory. This is the standardized structure of a webapp supported by container vendors.

There might be web containers supporting various non-standardized structures but if you don't stick to the standard you will lose the portability of your webapp.

Tomcat has some good documentation on deploying webapps.

edited Aug 11 '15 at 07:16

answered Aug 11 '15 at 07:11

Amila

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then how can I put all my .class in the live server? – Run Aug 11 '15 at 07:12
Just place them inside WEB-INF/classes directory and if you use any third party libraries, place them inside WEB-INF/lib. You can use java default packages like java.util without adding any dependencies. – Amila Aug 11 '15 at 07:14
does a live server let you access WEB-INF/? – Run Aug 11 '15 at 07:17
WEB-INF directory is inside your webapp (one WEB-INF per webapp). You can either deploy the complete directory structure or you can construct a single WAR file. I've edited the answer with a link to documentation on this. – Amila Aug 11 '15 at 07:20
Do you mean that as long as I have a WEB-INF in my app then it should be ok? See my edit. – Run Aug 11 '15 at 07:24
I know what actually I should do now - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8823290/how-to-run-different-apps-on-single-tomcat-instance-behind-different-ports. – Run Aug 11 '15 at 07:45

Java & JSP - put .class in a preferred directory?

1 Answers1