Qn on welcome-file-lsit tag

[Chandra Sagi]

Hi Ranchers,

Could there be more than one occurance of <welcome-file-list> tag in a DD. Please confirm.

Thanks in Advance
Chandu

[Cm Ananth]

Yes. Its possible to mention more than one welcome file name inside the <welcome-file-list> tag.. The welcome file will be called depends upon the location request..

Correct me if something is wrong..

[Shanmu Arumugam]

Hi, though <welcome-file-list> is optional tag, more than one occurance is not possible. one per webapp. <welcome-file> can be more than one. correct me if i'm wrong.

[Narendra Dhande]

Hi,

The <welcome-file-list> element define the ordered list of files to look for the directory. There can be more than one element of this type. If more than one entries present in the web.xml, the container mergers them in oreder they define in the web.xml.

Hope it help

Thanks

[Frederic Esnault]

From the servlet spec 2.4 (SRV 13.3), from the XML-Schema of the DD, some elements are in a xsd:choice element with this definition :

<xsd:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">

Which means elements declared in this choice block can be used (minOccurs) to any times (no limit, as unbounded value of maxOccurs tells us).

In these elements you find :

welcome-file-list

servlet

servlet-mapping

mime-mapping

error-page

jsp-config

etc...

This proves that welcome-file-list element may appear 0 to multiple times in a DD.

About the welcome-file sub-elements, they are defined in the welcome-file-listType complex type this way :

<xsd:element name="welcome-file" type="xsd:string" maxOccurs="unbounded">

This means they can appear 1 (no minOccurs attributes, default for xsd:element is 1) to many (maxOccurs set to unbounded).

So in a welcome-file-list, you must have at least one welcome-file, but beside this rule, you may have as many as you wish.

Specs always help
[ March 22, 2006: Message edited by: Frederic Esnault ]

[Christophe Verré]

hum... As if there was not enough people answering here,
I'll add my little spice.

In the spec, looking at the nice diagrams in "SRV.13.4 Deployment Descriptor Diagram" is much easier to understand. To check for mandatory tags, subtags, etc..., it is very handy.

[Frederic Esnault]

Yes you're right, it's simple, but this is a schematic translation of the XML Schema. And the XSD (XML-Schema) defines very clearly the occurences allowed, and should be the last reference when in doubt.

But knowing the schema translates the XSD, then you're right. I just didn't want to say "look at the star in from of the welcome-file-list block in the schema, it means 0 o many". So I explained deeply.

I'm sorry, i'll never do it again

[Narendra Dhande]

Hi fred,

I'm sorry, i'll never do it again

Sorry for what ? You are doing really good job. Not everybody can do this. Please carry on.

Thanks

[Chandra Sagi]

Thanks friends. In the book it said it cannot have more than one. In one mock exam it was the other answer. Thanks for clearing my doubt.

Cheers
Chandu

[Gunaselan Varathan]

Hi Guys,
I understand that <welcome-file-list> can appear multiple times, but i have a question, if we declare <welcome-file-list> what is the order of processing,

ex:
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file> index.html</welcome-file>
<welcome-file> index.do</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file> index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

in this scenario, can we predict the behaviour.

[Christophe Verré]

Originally posted by Narendra Dhande:

Sorry for what ? You are doing really good job. Not everybody can do this. Please carry on.
Thanks

Haha. You don't even know what your own signature means (or seems to mean):
"Man is always sorry for what is not"

[Narendra Dhande]

Hi Satou,

My mother tongue is not english and my english is not so good. I am using this signature from lot of year, no one had any comments on it. I really appreciate if you can tell me what is wrong with this signature.

Thanks

[Christophe Verré]

Hi Narendra,
I was just kidding English is not my mother tongue either.

I thought it meant something like "Man is always sorry for what he should not be sorry for".
Meaning that you should not tell Fred not to be sorry, because man is always sorry for what he should not be sorry for. Hummmmm... I'm lost

Anyway, you were right about him doing a really good job.

[Gunaselan Varathan]

Hi Guys,
In this scenario
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file> index.html</welcome-file>
<welcome-file> index.do</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file> index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

it is treated as

<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file> index.html</welcome-file>
<welcome-file> index.do</welcome-file>
<welcome-file> index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

I tested this in tomcat 5.