What is WEB-INF used for in a Java EE web application?

Question

I\'m working on a Java EE web application with the following source code structure:

src/main/java                 &l         


        

Answer 1

You should put in WEB-INF any pages, or pieces of pages, that you do not want to be public. Usually, JSP or facelets are found outside WEB-INF, but in this case they are easily accesssible for any user. In case you have some authorization restrictions, WEB-INF can be used for that.

WEB-INF/lib can contain 3rd party libraries which you do not want to pack at system level (JARs can be available for all the applications running on your server), but only for this particular applciation.

Generally speaking, many configurations files also go into WEB-INF.

As for WEB-INF/classes - it exists in any web-app, because that is the folder where all the compiled sources are placed (not JARS, but compiled .java files that you wrote yourself).