Create Simple Web Server

[Joseph Michael]

I want to create my own simple embedded server - so that my web application would be portable.

Spring Boot or tomcat needs lot of libraries.

However wanted a simple embedded webserver which just can be used for my need. I don't even need tomcat...My web application would be standalone, but have search and few request to be served from the user.

Please advise on how we can create a own embedded server in few steps

[Ron McLeod]

How simple are your requirements?

NanoHTTPD is very lightweight.  I posted an example of a minimal RESTful server here.

[Tim Moores]

... tomcat needs lot of libraries.

Are you concerned about memory usage? PC hard drives have plenty of it these days (and Tomcat is not that big), so I wouldn't make that a primary concern.

I don't even need tomcat

What does this mean? Is it a Java web app, or not? You mention search, so there is an active server-side part to it? That would mean that an HTTP-only server (w/o servlet support) would be insufficient.

Please advise on how we can create a own embedded server in few steps

Embedding Tomcat is pretty easy, and you'll find lots of tutorials for it, like https://www.codejava.net/servers/tomcat/how-to-embed-tomcat-server-into-java-web-applications

[Tim Holloway]

Neither Spring Boot nor Tomcat require "lots of libraries" if by that you mean system libraries (DLLs). It's the Java Virtual Machine that may need additional installations.

On the other hand, if you mean Java libraries, that depends on the webapp, not on Tomcat. Tomcat itself is ready-to-run when you unzip it. The essential libraries are already part of Tomcat. And given that, you can create simple servlet/jsp webapps with no extra libraries at all. It's just that since Java is an "expensive" language to develop for, many webapps are very complicated, and to keep them from being too much work, people use support libraries to simplify the job of creating and maintaining those webapps.