How do you deploy servlets?

Answer 1

Any Web Application has a hierarchical structure (of folders) that is used for packaging the web applications.

The application needs a reference point within the hierarchical structure. Here, let's call it TOMCAT_HOME. This represents the root of your server (Tomcat) installation, not your Web application root.

When we talk of a Web application's context, we are referring to that Web application's root directory or path within a particular server. A special directory exists within the application hierarchy named WEB-INF. This directory contains all things related to the application that aren't in the document root of the application. It is this WEB-INF directory that is the Web application's root directory, also referred to as the context. The most important file here is web.xml, the name of the WebApp deployment descriptor.

Let us take a look at the various contents (files & folders) that will be present inside this WEB-INF directory:

1. /WEB-INF/web.xml - This is the Deployment Descriptor file

2. /WEB-INF/classes/ - This is the directory where all your java class files will be placed

3. /WEB-INF/lib/ - This is the folder where all your JAR files go.

The classes folder is where you will place the .class file of your Servlet to deploy it on a server