ServletContext.getRequestDispatcher() vs ServletRequest.getRequestDispatcher()

Question

why

getRequestDispatcher(String path) of the ServletRequest interface cannot extend outside the current servlet context

<

Answer 1

If you use an absolute path such as ("/index.jsp"), there is no difference.

If you use relative path, you must use HttpServletRequest.getRequestDispatcher(). ServletContext.getRequestDispatcher() doesn't allow it.

For example, if you receive your request on http://example.com/myapp/subdir,

    RequestDispatcher dispatcher = 
        request.getRequestDispatcher("index.jsp");
    dispatcher.forward( request, response ); 

Will forward the request to the page http://example.com/myapp/subdir/index.jsp.

In any case, you can't forward request to a resource outside of the context.