Java code - looking for source code

Question

I have this Java code some other person wrote, specifically JSPs. I am trying to understand where everything is.

In my index.jsp (the main file which is loaded) it imports a certain namespace (I suppose tomcat does all the compiling, I don't know):

<%@ page import="org.sgrp.SearchResults"%>

This physical location doesn't exist in my CLASSPATH so I suppose it's referring to a namespace inside the .jar code structure (correct me if I'm wrong).

So how am I suppose to find the source code for this? Does Tomcat set a specific CLASSPATH location for each project?

EDIT

I'm trying to understand if Tomcat follows a certain structure so I can find where the source code for this stuff is.

Answer 1

From the perspective of a web application, class or resource loading looks in the following repositories, in this order:

* Bootstrap classes of your JVM
* System class loader classes 
* /WEB-INF/classes of your web application
* /WEB-INF/lib/*.jar of your web application
* $CATALINA_HOME/lib
* $CATALINA_HOME/lib/*.jar

from the Tomcat docs.

The most likely locations for classes specific to your application are the WEB-INF/lib/*.jar and WEB-INF/classes. However as others have mentioned, this will contain compiled class files and you wont be able to see the exact java source (even after decompiling)

Answer 2

jars are compressed javabyte code. In order to get the sources you'll have to decompile them. There are a few utilities out there, but working with decompiled code is a bit of a nightmare if you ask me, I wouldn't recommend it, especially not if you didn't already know this. :D

The source code will generally be stored elsewhere.

As far as your specific questions on Tomcat, I don't know, having never working with Tomcat before.