Servlet cannot access bean

Question

Hi all,
I am having some problems accessing JavaBeans from my servlets, but I can access them from my JSP page(i used the import command, <%@ page import="servlets.myBeans.login.User" %>, and it works).
I have placed my User bean in the following package
\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\servlets\myBeans\login
Here's the java code for User Bean
package servlets.myBeans.login;
* A simple Java Bean for users.
public class User implements java.io.Serializable{
private String username = null;
private String password = null;
public User() {}
public User (String u, String p) {
     username = u;
     password = p;
public String getUsername() {
     return username;
public void setUsername(String username) {
     this.username = username;
public String getPassword() {
     return password;
public void setPassword(String password) {
     this.password = password;
public String toString() {
     return username + ":" + password;
This compiles and creates a class file.
My servlet LoginControlServlet is in the following path
\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\servlets
when I try to compile this servlet i get the following errors
C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.1.12-LE\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.24-LE-jdk14\webapps\ROOT\
WEB-INF\classes\servlets\LoginControlServlet.java:18:
cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class User
location: class servlets.LoginControlServlet
User up = (User)session.getAttribute("up");
^
C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.1.12-LE\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.24-LE-jdk1\webapps\ROOT
\WEB-INF\classes\servlets\LoginControlServlet.java:18:
cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class User
location: class servlets.LoginControlServlet
User up = (User)session.getAttribute("up");
^
C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.1.12-LE\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.24-LE-jdk1\webapps\ROOT
\WEB-INF\classes\servlets\LoginControlServlet.java:27:
cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class User
location: class servlets.LoginControlServlet
up = new User(user,pass);
^
3 errors
I have already included the \webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes in my class path
infact, I have even included \webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\servlets and
\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes\servlets\myBeans\login in my classpath.
Any ideas, as to why I am having the above errors.
thanks,
manish

Answer 1

I think it's pretty much got to be a compile time classpath problem. Either your bean is compiling to a funny place, or you classpath is wrong when you compile the servlet. Probably the latter if your jsp picks it up OK.
The entry in the classpath should be
<tomcat directory>/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes
Check the syntax carefully.
putting package directories on your classpath can only confuse things.
Make sure that ...../webapps/servlets/myBeans/login/User.class exists.