Embedded Tomcat not serving static content

Question

I'm using the following (based on this) to create an embedded Tomcat server:

File catalinaHome = new File(".");
File webAppDir = new File("web");

Embedded server = new Embedded();
server.setCatalinaHome(catalinaHome.getAbsolutePath());

Context rootContext = server.createContext("", webAppDir.getAbsolutePath());
rootContext.setParentClassLoader(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());

Host localHost = server.createHost("localhost", webAppDir.getAbsolutePath());
localHost.addChild(rootContext);

Engine engine = server.createEngine();
engine.setName("localEngine");
engine.addChild(localHost);
engine.setDefaultHost(localHost.getName());
server.addEngine(engine);

Connector http = server.createConnector((InetAddress) null, 8080, false);
server.addConnector(http);

server.setAwait(true);
server.start();

The web directory has static content (index.html, etc.) as well as a WEB-INF directory with servlet descriptors like web.xml. This is starting without exception and the servlets defined in web.xml work, but static content like index.html aren't working.

I'm confused: what am I missing to get the static content handled?

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 14 '11 at 20:48

You need to define the default servlet. It's the one responsible for serving static content. This can be done by either explicitly declaring it in your webapp's /WEB-INF/web.xml the same way as Tomcat's own regular /conf/web.xml is doing, or in the following declarative manner for embedded Tomcat:

// Define DefaultServlet.
Wrapper defaultServlet = rootContext.createWrapper();
defaultServlet.setName("default");
defaultServlet.setServletClass("org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet");
defaultServlet.addInitParameter("debug", "0");
defaultServlet.addInitParameter("listings", "false");
defaultServlet.setLoadOnStartup(1);
rootContext.addChild(defaultServlet);
rootContext.addServletMapping("/", "default");

You'd probably also like to do the same for the JSP servlet so that you can also use JSPs:

// Define JspServlet.
Wrapper jspServlet = rootContext.createWrapper();
jspServlet.setName("jsp");
jspServlet.setServletClass("org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet");
jspServlet.addInitParameter("fork", "false");
jspServlet.addInitParameter("xpoweredBy", "false");
jspServlet.setLoadOnStartup(2);
rootContext.addChild(jspServlet);
rootContext.addServletMapping("*.jsp", "jsp");

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Instead of configuring the wrappers like BalusC showed, you can also use this one-liner which does (almost) exactly the same:

Tomcat.initWebappDefaults(rootContext);

Add this line somewhere before you start your server. Tested with JDK1.7 and Tomcat 7.0.50.

Note: It additionally adds welcome files and some MIME Type mappings. The method looks like following:

public static void initWebappDefaults(Context ctx) {
        // Default servlet 
        Wrapper servlet = addServlet(
                ctx, "default", "org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet");
        servlet.setLoadOnStartup(1);
        servlet.setOverridable(true);

        // JSP servlet (by class name - to avoid loading all deps)
        servlet = addServlet(
                ctx, "jsp", "org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet");
        servlet.addInitParameter("fork", "false");
        servlet.setLoadOnStartup(3);
        servlet.setOverridable(true);

        // Servlet mappings
        ctx.addServletMapping("/", "default");
        ctx.addServletMapping("*.jsp", "jsp");
        ctx.addServletMapping("*.jspx", "jsp");

        // Sessions
        ctx.setSessionTimeout(30);

        // MIME mappings
        for (int i = 0; i < DEFAULT_MIME_MAPPINGS.length;) {
            ctx.addMimeMapping(DEFAULT_MIME_MAPPINGS[i++],
                    DEFAULT_MIME_MAPPINGS[i++]);
        }

        // Welcome files
        ctx.addWelcomeFile("index.html");
        ctx.addWelcomeFile("index.htm");
        ctx.addWelcomeFile("index.jsp");
    }

Embedded Tomcat not serving static content

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