| // ======================================================================== |
| // Copyright (c) 1995-2017 Mort Bay Consulting Pty. Ltd. |
| // ======================================================================== |
| // All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials |
| // are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 |
| // and Apache License v2.0 which accompanies this distribution. |
| // |
| // The Eclipse Public License is available at |
| // http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html |
| // |
| // The Apache License v2.0 is available at |
| // http://www.opensource.org/licenses/apache2.0.php |
| // |
| // You may elect to redistribute this code under either of these licenses. |
| // ======================================================================== |
| |
| [[anatomy-of-a-webapp]] |
| === Anatomy of a Web Application |
| |
| The standard Jetty distribution is capable of deploying standard Servlet Spec Web Applications and Jetty internal ContextHandler deployment descriptors, or even a mix of the two. |
| |
| Web Applications are deployable collections of dynamic (servlets, filters, jsps, etc..) and static content, support libraries, and descriptive metadata that are bound to a specific context path on Jetty. |
| |
| Ultimately the format and layout are defined by the Servlet Spec, and the official Servlet Spec documentation should be consulted for a more detailed understanding of Web Application layout and structure; however, this will outline basics about how Jetty views these requirements. |
| |
| Web Applications can be bundled into a single Web Archive (WAR file) or as a directory tree. |
| |
| `/WEB-INF/`:: |
| Special Servlet API defined directory used to store anything related to the Web Application that are not part of the public access of the Web Application. |
| If there is content that is accessed by a Web Application internally, but that should also never be accessed directly by a web browser, this is the directory it would placed in. |
| |
| `/WEB-INF/web.xml`:: |
| *Required* deployment descriptor defining various behavior of the Web Application. |
| |
| `/WEB-INF/classes/`:: |
| Location for Web Application specific compiled java classes |
| `/WEB-INF/lib/`:: |
| Directory for JAR files (libraries) |
| |
| The Jetty internal `WebAppClassloader` will load classes from `/WEB-INF/classes/` first, then from jar files found in `/WEB-INF/lib/`. |
