The thing is, the specification you are working to defines the context path as a
deployment decision. It is simply coincedence that the context path in all of
your deployments is the same (root). Even in your situation, you should prefix
ANY hard coded URLs with getContextPath, because that protects you. It is not a
thing that ever fails, it will always work, and it will always protect you from
different deployment issues. What happens it your www.site1.com decides to
deploy the application as www.site1.com/app1...? The context path is set in the
deployment descriptor, not in the code. You really should make your code
independent of the deployment descriptor even if it just happens to be that your
current deployment descriptors match your code.
John H.
"Robert Koberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@orionserver.com on 06/22/2001 10:21:15 AM
Please respond to Orion-Interest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Orion-Interest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cc:
Subject: Re: Aaarrrghhh!! CSS and Servlet again
Hi John,
I see why you are doing that but I don't agree it is a good way to go, at
least for me. It looks like you are a corporate developer who builds for an
intranet that would benefit from the context paths. But, for me (internet
development - each site unique), it works out better for the whole team when
the dev (and qa) server is setup with virtual hosts (? I am not a sys admin,
so...):
Dev server
dev-site1.workingdomain.com
dev-site2.workingdomain.com
QA server
qa-site1.workingdomain.com
qa-site2.workingdomain.com
Live server(s)
www.site1.com
www.site2.com
This way everyone is working (and qa'ing) out of the same environment as it
will be when live.
As for my personal development, I do work on local machines at home (not the
dev box) whenever possible. We keep everything in sync with CVS. I also
have the 5 static IPs and keep a machine/static IP for each project. It is
easier for me (and everyone else on the team) to work without the context
path. I do see the context path as a problem in these containers especially
when working on large projects/groups with a variety of skills and needs. I
feel it is better to keep the same environment through the site promotion
process.
of course there are other ways to do it... Thanks for the discussion, Rob
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Orion-Interest" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: Aaarrrghhh!! CSS and Servlet again
>
>
> In a typical web application server, there can be applications deployed to
> several contexts within the container. Each context is differentiated
using a
> URL prefix, e.g.:
>
> http://myhost/webstore
> http://myhost/benefits-admin
>
> Webstore and benefits-admin represent different Servlet contexts which are
> different applications served out of the same container. In most cases,
these
> applications won't share resources, so the css files for the webstore
> application will be somewhere below the document root for webstore, and
the css
> files for benefits-admin will be under it's document root, e.g.:
>
> /deploy/webapps/webstore/styles/main.css
> /deploy/webapps/benefits-admin/styles/main.css
>
> When you refer to the main.css file for the webstore app, it's URI is
> http://myhost/webstore/styles/main.css, or shortened to
> /webstore/styles/main.css. For benefits-admin, it's
> /benefits-admin/styles/main.css.
>
> The prefix part (/webstore, or /benefits-admin) is the "context path" and
it is
> defined in your application deployment descriptor. This can be changed
during
> deployment, so you don't want it hard coded in your HTML, JSP, or
Servlets.
>
> It is possible to use relative paths to get to the URI, for example a
servlet
> whose URL is /webstore/servlet/MyServlet can refer to the css file as
> ../styles/main.css, however that means that if you map a different URL to
your
> servlet, the relative URL won't work anymore. Also, take an example of a
JSP
> found at /webstore/cart.jsp. The relative URL of styles/main.css would
work,
> but what happens if the cart.jsp is redirected to from a servlet using a
> RequestDispatcher? The browser thinks the URL is
> /webstore/servlet/DirectorServlet, so the relative URL breaks!
>
> Explicity referring to the context path and appending the absolute path to
the
> resource within the deployed web application ensures that the reference
will
> always work, so long as the resource is in the location specified by the
> absolute path.
>
> Obviously this is all irrelevant if you only have one context in your
> application server and it is deployed to the web site root.
>
> John H.
>
>
>
>
> "Robert Koberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@orionserver.com on 06/21/2001 01:28:51 PM
>
> Please respond to Orion-Interest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> To: Orion-Interest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> cc:
>
> Subject: Re: Aaarrrghhh!! CSS and Servlet again
>
>
> > To be safe, you really ought to use request.getContextPath() to prefix
the
> > absolute URL of your css file relative to your document root.
>
> why (just curious)?
>
> what is different if just use:
>
> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/blah.css" title="blah">
>
> The above is more generic (you don't need to run JSP for every file)
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Orion-Interest" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 7:29 AM
> Subject: RE: Aaarrrghhh!! CSS and Servlet again
>
>
> >
> >
> > To be safe, you really ought to use request.getContextPath() to prefix
the
> > absolute URL of your css file relative to your document root. When you
> deploy
> > to a context like:
> >
> > http://myhost:myport/mycontext
> >
> > All of your paths are prefixed by /mycontext. But if you change your
> deployment
> > descriptor, you might change "mycontext" to something else. You don't
> want that
> > hard-coded into your servlets. Also, the suggestion by elephantwalker
is
> true -
> > you can use relative paths (/mycontext/servlet/../blah.css will get you
to
> > /mycontext/blah.css) but if you decide to put your servlet in a package,
> or map
> > a different URL pattern to it (e.g. /mycontext/MyServlet) this won't
work.
> > Using request.getContextPath() plus an absolute path is guaranteed to
work
> so
> > long as the resource stays where you put it relative to the document
root.
> It
> > also comes in very handy when you put the reference in a JSP - sometimes
> the JSP
> > will be called directly (so the browser URL is /mycontext/myjsp.jsp) but
> > sometimes you get there using a RequestDispatcher, so the browser thinks
> the URL
> > is /mycontext/servlet/MyServlet. In this case, relative URLs don't
work.
> >
> > So, put the css file in your document root and use:
> >
> > <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<%=
request.getContextPath()
> > %>/blah.css" title="blah">
> >
> > if your JSPs and
> >
> > out.println("<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\" " +
> > request.getContextPath() + "/blah.css\" title=\"blah\">");
> >
> > in your servlets.
> >
> > John H.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "elephantwalker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@orionserver.com on 06/20/2001
> > 05:55:45 PM
> >
> > Please respond to Orion-Interest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >
> > To: Orion-Interest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > cc:
> >
> > Subject: RE: Aaarrrghhh!! CSS and Servlet again
> >
> >
> >
> > The url pattern for your servlet is the issue. Somehow it is "/", which
> means
> > just about everthing. I would use something different like, /employees
or
> > /employees.html. Your path to the css should be just "../blah.css", and
> include
> > the blah.css in your war file at the root.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > the elephantwalker
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ----
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Brynolf
Andersson
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 3:28 PM
> To: Orion-Interest
> Subject: Aaarrrghhh!! CSS and Servlet again
>
>
> Hi all again,
> I have been trying all lot of different ways to pick uppthe CSS file but
> without any success. So I'll try to see if anyone has some more thing to
> add to
> my problem.
>
> The question is still there, where should I put my CSS file and how should
> I
> pick it up from the servlet.
>
> Som information:
> server.xml:
> <application name="Lab01" path="C:\oracle\JDeveloper
> 3.2.3\myprojects\lab_01"
> />
>
> default-web-site.xml:
> <!-- LAB 01 -->
> <web-app application="Lab01" name="web" root="/lab01" />
>
> web.xml:
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application
> 2.2//EN" "http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-app_2_2.dtd";>
>
> <web-app>
> <display-name>Lab 01</display-name>
> <description>desc</description>
> <servlet>
> <servlet-name>EmployeeServlet</servlet-name>
> <servlet-class>training.EmployeeServlet</servlet-class>
> </servlet>
> <servlet-mapping>
> <servlet-name>training.EmployeeServlet</servlet-name>
> <url-pattern>/</url-pattern> -->
> </servlet-mapping>
> </web-app>
>
> application.xml:
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <!DOCTYPE application PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD J2EE
> Application
> 1.2//EN" "http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/application_1_2.dtd";>
>
> <display-name>Lab01</display-name>
> <module>
> <web>
> <web-uri>web</web-uri>
> <context-root>/</context-root>
> </web>
> </module>
> </application>
>
> Directory structure of the WEB-APP:
> _lab_01
> |_META-INF
> | |_application.xml
> |_web
> |____|WEB-INF
> |____________|web.xml
> |____________________|classes
> |____________________________|pkg
> |________________________________|myServlet
>
>
> Help
>
>
>
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
