Head First book & Tomcat setup

Question

I am currently reading Head First Servlets & JSP. In the first chapter it gives you a sample servlet to run(Ch1Servlet.java). It tells you to setup a directory OUTSIDE of /tomcat.
/Project1
/Project1/src
/Project1/classes
/Project1/etc
On my computer it is setup as C:/Java/Project1
Then it tells you to compile it from the command line like this:
javac -classpath /your path/tomcat/common/lib/servlet-api.jar -d classes src/Ch1Servlet.java
Here is what I used
javac -classpath /Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Tomcat 5.5/common/lib/servlet-api.jar -d classes src/Ch1Servlet.java
This causes an error
javac usage invalid: Files/Apache
I am guessing this is because there are spaces in the classpath name. I copied the servlet-api.jar to the C:/Java folder and it compiled successfully. Without having to copy files to other folders how can I get around this error?
Once you get it compiled it tells you to add the class files to the WEB-INF/classes directory and add the web.xml to the WEB-INF/etc directory. The book didn't explain where this directory is. I only imagined it being on its own in the Tomcat5.5 directory but it wasn't there. I looked under webapps and there is not a WEB-INF directory. What is the book trying to tell me?
It also tells me once Tomcat is started to type in http://localhost:8080/ch1/Serv1. Under the web.xml file the mapping url is set to /Serv1 but the other description in servlet mapping is Chapter 1 Servlet. I don't see where the ch1 directory is. Can anyone help me with this?
My system OS: Windows XP
It also didn't explain why you would setup a directory outside of tomcat and then have to deploy your compiled classes back into tomcat. I am fairly new to Java and brand new to JSP. This part of the book seems to assume I know all this. Can anyone put me in the right direction?

Answer 1

I am currently reading Head First Servlets & JSP. In
the first chapter it gives you a sample servlet to
run(Ch1Servlet.java). It tells you to setup a
directory OUTSIDE of /tomcat.
/Project1
/Project1/src
/Project1/classes
/Project1/etc
On my computer it is setup as C:/Java/Project1
Then it tells you to compile it from the command line
like this:
javac -classpath /your
path/tomcat/common/lib/servlet-api.jar -d classes
src/Ch1Servlet.java
Here is what I used
javac -classpath /Program Files/Apache Software
Foundation/Tomcat 5.5/common/lib/servlet-api.jar -d
classes src/Ch1Servlet.java
This causes an error
javac usage invalid: Files/Apache
I am guessing this is because there are spaces in the
classpath name. I copied the servlet-api.jar to the
C:/Java folder and it compiled successfully. Without
having to copy files to other folders how can I get
around this error?
Add double quotes around your class path (e.g. javac -classpath "c: /Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Tomcat 5.5/common/lib/servlet-api.jar ")
Foundation/Tomcat 5.5/common/lib/servlet-api.jar -d
classes src/Ch1Servlet.java
Once you get it compiled it tells you to add the
class files to the WEB-INF/classes directory and add
the web.xml to the WEB-INF/etc directory. The book
didn't explain where this directory is. I only
imagined it being on its own in the Tomcat5.5
directory but it wasn't there. I looked under webapps
and there is not a WEB-INF directory. What is the
book trying to tell me?
You want to create a directory called ch1 under tomcat's webapps directory.
Under the ch1 directory create a WEB-INF directory. And under WEB-INF create a
classes directory.
It also tells me once Tomcat is started to type in
http://localhost:8080/ch1/Serv1. Under the web.xml
file the mapping url is set to /Serv1 but the other
description in servlet mapping is Chapter 1 Servlet.
I don't see where the ch1 directory is. Can anyone
help me with this?
The url-pattern in the web.xml is what is used to access your servlet.
Chapter1 Servlet is just a way to map from the servlet-class to the url-pattern.
If you read further in the book all this will be explained.
My system OS: Windows XP
It also didn't explain why you would setup a
directory outside of tomcat and then have to deploy
your compiled classes back into tomcat. I am fairly
new to Java and brand new to JSP. This part of the
book seems to assume I know all this. Can anyone put
me in the right direction?You want your source to be outside of tomcat. Once you have compiled everything,
you then deploy to your container. Hope this helps