How to serve static files in my web application on Tomcat

19
votes

I have this servlet based web application project in eclipse and want to append some html tags like <script src="Chart.js">.

The folder structure is:

  • C:/apache-tomcat-7.0.53/
  • my workspace is in D:/../../workplace/CpdApplication/src/cpd/MyServlet.java
  • cpd contains: MyServlet.java, Chart.js and other files.
  • CpdApplication/WebContent/META-INF/web.xml

I have some path problems, and I can't resolve them, I searched over and over again and still not working, I get a 404 (Not Found) for http://localhost:8080/CpdApplication/Chart.js.

The problem is when I want to append <script src='Chart.js'></script>, Tomcat cannot resolve the Chart.js static file.

5
javatomcatservlets
Java is not JavaScript. Please use the right tags for your questions. - Luiggi Mendoza
@ Luiggi Mendoza I added JavaScript tag to my post, but I don t know why it s not posted ... - que1326
Your problem is about Java, not, JavaScript. In fact, your problem is about where you have placed your resources files (JS, CSS, images, etc). Please remove the unrelevant code (Servlet doesn't play any role here, neither web.xml) and post the relevant HTML code that is generated and how your files are distributed in your application. - Luiggi Mendoza
Edited: the only problem is the path...404 file not found, or I can t load it because of the tomcat server - que1326
@LuiggiMendoza: Actually the deployment descriptor web.xml is relevant since the OP is trying to load a static resource. - VH-NZZ

5 Answers

19
votes

I have some path problems, and I can't resolve them, I searched over and over again and still not working, I get a 404 (Not Found) for .../CpdApplication/Chart.js

Indeed, when writing <script src="/Chart.js"/> you are telling the browser to make its own, separate HTTP request to get the JavaScript file. For this to work:

  • The servlet container needs to be able to serve static files
  • To this end, you need to have a servlet-mapping inside your web.xml to serve static files (ie. the default servlet).

This should do:

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

Then place your Chart.js in the following folder: WebContent/js/ and it should work.

EDIT: Of course, you'll need to update the <script> tag in your HTML. Also, make sure that you redeploy your web app to update web.xml on your servlet container (Tomcat I presume).

5
votes

This is works for me. Thanks 沖原ハーベスト

welcome.jsp

  <head>
    <script src="resources/js/jsx/browser.min.js"></script>
    <script src="resources/js/react/react.min.js"></script>
    <script src="resources/js/react/react-dom.min.js"></script>
    <script src="resources/js/main.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="resources/css/style.css">
  </head>

File hierarchy tree

enter image description here

Web.xml

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/resources/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
2
votes

It seems to me like Chart.js is stored in the same folder with your servlet source.

Usually you should have a structure like this one (I have simplified it):

/css/your-css.css
/js/your-script.js
/src/your-package/YourServlet.java

Whenever you run your application, your compiler creates a set of files that will be copied to your web container. The copied files do not include your src folder, but instead a copy of your built (compiled) classes. All other files (with some exceptions that we should not care about right now) must be outside your src folder in order to get copied.

Try moving your JS inside a js directory outside your src directory. Then, link it like this:

<script src='/Your-Context-Path/js/Chart.js'>

There must be a function to get your context path automatically, I think it is

ServletContext.getContextPath()

You can read about it here.

That should make the trick.

2
votes

As @Andy replied, you need to set all your resource (JS, CSS, images, etc.) in a folder in your application, then access to them using <context_path>/folder/to/your/resource/<resource_name>.<ext>. Here's a sample of how to do it:

  • Create a folder inside the root folder (usually named web or WebContent) of your web application with name res.
  • Inside res, create a folder called js to put all the JavaScript files there. You may create a css folder to handle all your CSS stylesheets, img for images, and on.
  • In your view, this mean, your JSP, you should access to your resources via context path.

This is how your application folders should look:

- WebContent
  - res
    - js
      Chart.js

In your JSP:

<script src="${request.contextPath}/res/js/Chart.js"></script>

Since you're creating the view content from your Servlet (a shoot on the foot, by the way), use request#getContextPath() to attach it:

"script src=\"" + request#getContextPath() + "/res/js/Chart.js\"></script>";
0
votes

Rightly said by @VH-NZZ but in case you are using Spring 4x or above, you need to add static resources into ResourceHandlerRegistry. You can do this into your "AppConfig"(your application configuration file), like this : 

@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
@EnableScheduling
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.packagename")
public class AppConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {

@Override
public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
    registry.addResourceHandler("/build/**").addResourceLocations("/build/");
    registry.addResourceHandler("/dist/**").addResourceLocations("/dist/");
    registry.addResourceHandler("/plugins/**").addResourceLocations("/plugins/");
    registry.addResourceHandler("/assets/**").addResourceLocations("/assets/");
    registry.addResourceHandler("/images/**").addResourceLocations("/images/");
}

Again as rightly said above, you should not keep your java files and static content together at the same location. These should always be available at a separate location. You can put your static content directly under your webapp folder.