Meta-inf and web-inf

Question

Im using Tomcat 5.5 server...
Ik Ive got a page that manages some user databaze. But whats bad is that the databaze is in tomcatHome/webapps/userData/users.xml
and everybody can access this file only by entering host/userData and then choose the users.xml.. I would like to place it in meta or web-inf so that only the web can access the file. How can i access web or meta inf in java or jsp?

Answer 1

hmm that was very useful but id didnt work on my computer
ive got 2 files:
processLogon.jsp:
boolean verif = new UserHandler().verifyUser( user.getUser(), user.getPassword(), "/WEB-INF/users.xml", getClass());//the important part
and a UserHandler.java:
public boolean verifyUser( String user, String password, String url, Class clas)
boolean verif = false;
Document document = null;
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
try
InputStream inputXML = clas.getResourceAsStream("users.xml");
//Build document:
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
document = builder.parse(inputXML);
} catch etc.......
the users.xml is placed in tomcat_home/webapps/myapp/web-inf/classes
so what am i doing wrong!?!?