Can i run a servlet without a web.xml file for servlet mapping?

Question

Hello everyone.
The code i want to run compiles and everythink looks ok.
It produces the .class file.
I run Tomcat 4.1 and i build my Web site with Dreamweaver.
I have a form in a page and i want to send the data upon form completion to a database i already have build with MySql.
The database is up and running and the server is set-up ok.
I have changed the port in Tomcat to run on port 80.
The directory i have my site is
Tomcat41\webapps\ROOT\se
and the directory where i keep the servlet class is
Tomcat41\webapps\ROOT\se\WEB-INF\servlet
I have a web.xml file to map the servlet and placed it in
Tomcat41\webapps\ROOT\se\WEB-INF
In the Form action i write action:"/servlets/Classes/GroupRegistration"
and I RECEIVE AN 404 ERROR FROM APACHE.
Somethink is wrong .
The following is the code from the GroupRegistration.java file
and follws the web.xml file.
Please Help.
import java.sql.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
public class GroupRegistration extends HttpServlet
Connection con;
public void doPost (HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res)
                         throws ServletException, java.io.IOException
     handleForm(req, res);
public void init() throws ServletException {
     try{
     /* Loading the driver for the database */
     Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
     Connection Con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost/se?user=luser&password=");
     catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
     throw new UnavailableException("Couldn't load JdbcOdbcDriver");
     catch (SQLException e) {
     throw new UnavailableException("Couldn't get db connection");
     private void handleForm(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res)
     throws ServletException {
     //ServletOutputStream out = res.OutputStream();
     //res.setContentType("text/html");
     //Extract the form Data Here
     String group = req.getParameter("GroupNo");
     String Name1 = req.getParameter("Name1");
     String LoginID1 = req.getParameter("LoginID1");
     String Name2 = req.getParameter("Name2");
     String LoginID2 = req.getParameter("LoginID2");
     String Name3 = req.getParameter("Name3");
     String LoginID3 = req.getParameter("LoginID3");
     String Name4 = req.getParameter("Name4");
     String LoginID4 = req.getParameter("LoginID4");
     String URL = req.getParameter("URL");
     String Title2 = req.getParameter("Title2");
     String date = req.getParameter("date");
     String INSERT = "INSERT INTO registration (groupno, name1, loginid1, name2, loginid2, name3, loginid3, name4, loginid4, url, topic, date) VALUES (" + group + "," + Name1 + "," + LoginID2 + "," + Name2 + "," + LoginID2 + "," + Name3 + "," + LoginID3 + "," + Name4 + "," + LoginID4 + "," + URL + "," + Title2 + "," + date + ")";
     PreparedStatement pstmt = null;
     try{
     pstmt = con.prepareStatement(INSERT);
     pstmt.executeUpdate();
     catch (SQLException e) {
     throw new ServletException(e);
     finally {
     try {
     if (pstmt != null)pstmt.close();
     catch (SQLException ignored){
The web.xml file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com.xml/ns/j2ee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd" version="2.4">
<servlet>
<servlet-name>GroupRegistration</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>GroupRegistration</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-maping>
<servlet-name>GroupRegistration</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/myGroupRegistration</url-patern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
I apreciate your time.
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

and the directory where i keep the servlet class is
Tomcat41\webapps\ROOT\se\WEB-INF\servletOthers have pointed out that "servlet" should be "classes", but there is another mistake that hasn't been spotted. If you want your servlet to appear in the root context, you should use:
Tomcat41\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes
If you want your servlet to appear under the /se context, then you should use:
Tomcat41\webapps\se\WEB-INF\classes
and also, in the latter case, your form action should be /se/myGroupRegistration.