How do I access file in WEB-INF in JSP?

Question

I am using Tomcat. I would like to put the config file in WEB-INF instead of the default root class path which is WEB-INF/classes. Currently I put the config.xml in WEB-INF and use the following relative addressing to locate it:

InputStream input = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("..//config.xml");

Is this the correct way to do?

Or should I use the getServletContext().getRealPath("config.xml") first? But I don't know how to obtain the getServletContext() in a .java. (I tried to new HttpServlet for obtaining getServletContext(), but since it is an abstract class, can't be instanced... how can I get the getServletContext()?)

Sorry that this post contains two questions.. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

See http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=12798

Answer 2

You can use getServletConfig() method return an instance of ServletConfig.

ServletContext sc=getServletConfig().getServletContext();

EDIT:

public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException{
  ServletContext sc=getServletContext();
  ...
}

Answer 3

The method getRealPath() is not guaranteed to work, e.g. if your webapp is not expanded from a war file there is no 'real path' on the filesystem to a file inside the war file.

Since you say you are using a ServletContextListener, you can get the ServletContext out of the ServletContextEvent:

sce.getServletContext().getResourceAsStream("/WEB-INF/config.xml");