Serving static files with embedded Jetty

Question

I'm trying to build a simple demo app with embedded Jetty that serves static files from a "html" directory that's a subdirectory of the current working directory. The idea is that the directory with the demo jar and content can be moved to a new location and still work.

I've tried variations of the following, but I keep getting 404s.

ServletContextHandler context = 
                       new ServletContextHandler(ServletContextHandler.SESSIONS);
context.setContextPath("/");

context.getInitParams().put(
                       "org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.Default.resourceBase", "html");
context.addServlet(new ServletHolder(new DefaultServlet()), "/html");

Server jetty = new Server(8080);
jetty.setHandler(context);

jetty.start();

Update: Here's a solution as documented in the Jetty tutorial. As mentioned in the correct answer, it uses a ResourceHandler instead of a ServletContextHandler:

    Server server = new Server();
    SelectChannelConnector connector = new SelectChannelConnector();
    connector.setPort(8080);
    server.addConnector(connector);

    ResourceHandler resource_handler = new ResourceHandler();
    resource_handler.setDirectoriesListed(true);
    resource_handler.setWelcomeFiles(new String[]{ "index.html" });

    resource_handler.setResourceBase(".");

    HandlerList handlers = new HandlerList();
    handlers.setHandlers(new Handler[] { resource_handler, new DefaultHandler() });
    server.setHandler(handlers);

    server.start();
    server.join();

Answer 1

Use a ResourceHandler instead of ServletContextHandler.

Answer 2

There is an important difference between serving static content using a ResourceHandler and using a DefaultServlet (with a ServletContextHandler).

When a ResourceHandler (or a HandlerList holding multiple ResourceHandler instances) is set as a context handler, it directly processes requests and ignores any registered javax.servlet.Filter instances.

If you need filters, the only way to go about it is using a ServletContextHandler, adding filters to it, then adding a DefaultServlet and finally, setting the base Resource.

The base Resource represents a resourceBase path a ResourceHandler would be initialised with. If serving static resources from multiple directories, use a ResourceCollection (which is still a Resource) and initialise it with an array of resourceBase strings:

ResourceCollection resourceCollection = new ResourceCollection();
resourceCollection.setResources(getArrayOfResourceBaseDirs());

Answer 3

In my small web server I have two files, a index.html and a info.js locate under /src/webapp and I want them to be served from the embedded jetty web server.

This is how I solve the problem with static content.

Server server = new Server(8080);

ServletContextHandler ctx = new ServletContextHandler();
ctx.setContextPath("/");

DefaultServlet defaultServlet = new DefaultServlet();
ServletHolder holderPwd = new ServletHolder("default", defaultServlet);
holderPwd.setInitParameter("resourceBase", "./src/webapp/");

ctx.addServlet(holderPwd, "/*");
ctx.addServlet(InfoServiceSocketServlet.class, "/info");

server.setHandler(ctx);

Worked like a charm!