Is web.xml necessary?

Question

Is it necessary to have a web.xml file?
The Tomcat examples work fine but on trying some very simple examples from a book I just keep getting a 404 error. As far as I can see I have put the necessary files (with the exception of web.xml) in the correct directories. Thus, I have in WebApps:
dir Test1
dir servlets with the HTML file
dir Web-inf > dir classes with the HTTPGetServlet.classThe URL is: http://localhost:8080/Test1/HTTPGetServlet
JSDK 1.4
Tomcat 3.2.3
Cheers.
Alan

Answer 1

Well, you must have web.xml on your application otherwise where are you going register your servlets.
That's why everytime you create a servlet you must register it in your web.xml like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE web-app
PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.2//EN"
"http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-app_2_2.dtd">
<web-app>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>YourServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern></url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
Where <servlet-name> is like a nickname of your class YourServlet.
One point, if your servlet is inside a package you will have to put it in the tag in the same way:
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>yourpackage.YourServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
I sincerly hope to help you.
Douglas from Italy.