[java] Servlet for serving static content

I deploy a webapp on two different containers (Tomcat and Jetty), but their default servlets for serving the static content have a different way of handling the URL structure I want to use (details).

I am therefore looking to include a small servlet in the webapp to serve its own static content (images, CSS, etc.). The servlet should have the following properties:

• No external dependencies
• Simple and reliable
• Support for If-Modified-Since header (i.e. custom getLastModified method)
• (Optional) support for gzip encoding, etags,...

Is such a servlet available somewhere? The closest I can find is example 4-10 from the servlet book.

Update: The URL structure I want to use - in case you are wondering - is simply:

    <servlet-mapping>
            <servlet-name>main</servlet-name>
            <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-mapping>
            <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
            <url-pattern>/static/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

So all requests should be passed to the main servlet, unless they are for the static path. The problem is that Tomcat's default servlet does not take the ServletPath into account (so it looks for the static files in the main folder), while Jetty does (so it looks in the static folder).

Judging from the example information above, I think this entire article is based on a bugged behavior in Tomcat 6.0.29 and earlier. See https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=50026. Upgrade to Tomcat 6.0.30 and the behavior between (Tomcat|Jetty) should merge.

I did this by extending the tomcat DefaultServlet (src) and overriding the getRelativePath() method.

package com.example;

import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet;

public class StaticServlet extends DefaultServlet
{
   protected String pathPrefix = "/static";

   public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException
   {
      super.init(config);

      if (config.getInitParameter("pathPrefix") != null)
      {
         pathPrefix = config.getInitParameter("pathPrefix");
      }
   }

   protected String getRelativePath(HttpServletRequest req)
   {
      return pathPrefix + super.getRelativePath(req);
   }
}

... And here are my servlet mappings

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>StaticServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.example.StaticServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>pathPrefix</param-name>
        <param-value>/static</param-value>
    </init-param>       
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>StaticServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/static/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>  

There is no need for completely custom implementation of the default servlet in this case, you can use this simple servlet to wrap request to the container's implementation:

package com.example;

import java.io.*;

import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

public class DefaultWrapperServlet extends HttpServlet
{   
    public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
        throws ServletException, IOException
    {
        RequestDispatcher rd = getServletContext().getNamedDispatcher("default");

        HttpServletRequest wrapped = new HttpServletRequestWrapper(req) {
            public String getServletPath() { return ""; }
        };

        rd.forward(wrapped, resp);
    }
}

To serve all requests from a Spring app as well as /favicon.ico and the JSP files from /WEB-INF/jsp/* that Spring's AbstractUrlBasedView will request you can just remap the jsp servlet and default servlet:

  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>springapp</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/WEB-INF/jsp/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/favicon.ico</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>springapp</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

We can't rely on the *.jsp url-pattern on the standard mapping for the jsp servlet because the path pattern '/*' is matched before any extension mapping is checked. Mapping the jsp servlet to a deeper folder means it's matched first. Matching '/favicon.ico' exactly happens before path pattern matching. Deeper path matches will work, or exact matches, but no extension matches can make it past the '/*' path match. Mapping '/' to default servlet doesn't appear to work. You'd think the exact '/' would beat the '/*' path pattern on springapp.

The above filter solution doesn't work for forwarded/included JSP requests from the application. To make it work I had to apply the filter to springapp directly, at which point the url-pattern matching was useless as all requests that go to the application also go to its filters. So I added pattern matching to the filter and then learned about the 'jsp' servlet and saw that it doesn't remove the path prefix like the default servlet does. That solved my problem, which was not exactly the same but common enough.

I came up with a slightly different solution. It's a bit hack-ish, but here is the mapping:

<servlet-mapping>   
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.jpg</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
 <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.png</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.css</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>myAppServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

This basically just maps all content files by extension to the default servlet, and everything else to "myAppServlet".

It works in both Jetty and Tomcat.

I had the same problem and I solved it by using the code of the 'default servlet' from the Tomcat codebase.

https://github.com/apache/tomcat/blob/master/java/org/apache/catalina/servlets/DefaultServlet.java

The DefaultServlet is the servlet that serves the static resources (jpg,html,css,gif etc) in Tomcat.

This servlet is very efficient and has some the properties you defined above.

I think that this source code, is a good way to start and remove the functionality or depedencies you don't need.

• References to the org.apache.naming.resources package can be removed or replaced with java.io.File code.
• References to the org.apache.catalina.util package are propably only utility methods/classes that can be duplicated in your source code.
• References to the org.apache.catalina.Globals class can be inlined or removed.

See StaticFile in JSOS: http://www.servletsuite.com/servlets/staticfile.htm

Abstract template for a static resource servlet

Partly based on this blog from 2007, here's a modernized and highly reusable abstract template for a servlet which properly deals with caching, ETag, If-None-Match and If-Modified-Since (but no Gzip and Range support; just to keep it simple; Gzip could be done with a filter or via container configuration).

public abstract class StaticResourceServlet extends HttpServlet {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private static final long ONE_SECOND_IN_MILLIS = TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(1);
    private static final String ETAG_HEADER = "W/\"%s-%s\"";
    private static final String CONTENT_DISPOSITION_HEADER = "inline;filename=\"%1$s\"; filename*=UTF-8''%1$s";

    public static final long DEFAULT_EXPIRE_TIME_IN_MILLIS = TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(30);
    public static final int DEFAULT_STREAM_BUFFER_SIZE = 102400;

    @Override
    protected void doHead(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException ,IOException {
        doRequest(request, response, true);
    }

    @Override
    protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
        doRequest(request, response, false);
    }

    private void doRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, boolean head) throws IOException {
        response.reset();
        StaticResource resource;

        try {
            resource = getStaticResource(request);
        }
        catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_BAD_REQUEST);
            return;
        }

        if (resource == null) {
            response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_NOT_FOUND);
            return;
        }

        String fileName = URLEncoder.encode(resource.getFileName(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
        boolean notModified = setCacheHeaders(request, response, fileName, resource.getLastModified());

        if (notModified) {
            response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_NOT_MODIFIED);
            return;
        }

        setContentHeaders(response, fileName, resource.getContentLength());

        if (head) {
            return;
        }

        writeContent(response, resource);
    }

    /**
     * Returns the static resource associated with the given HTTP servlet request. This returns <code>null</code> when
     * the resource does actually not exist. The servlet will then return a HTTP 404 error.
     * @param request The involved HTTP servlet request.
     * @return The static resource associated with the given HTTP servlet request.
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException When the request is mangled in such way that it's not recognizable as a valid
     * static resource request. The servlet will then return a HTTP 400 error.
     */
    protected abstract StaticResource getStaticResource(HttpServletRequest request) throws IllegalArgumentException;

    private boolean setCacheHeaders(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, String fileName, long lastModified) {
        String eTag = String.format(ETAG_HEADER, fileName, lastModified);
        response.setHeader("ETag", eTag);
        response.setDateHeader("Last-Modified", lastModified);
        response.setDateHeader("Expires", System.currentTimeMillis() + DEFAULT_EXPIRE_TIME_IN_MILLIS);
        return notModified(request, eTag, lastModified);
    }

    private boolean notModified(HttpServletRequest request, String eTag, long lastModified) {
        String ifNoneMatch = request.getHeader("If-None-Match");

        if (ifNoneMatch != null) {
            String[] matches = ifNoneMatch.split("\\s*,\\s*");
            Arrays.sort(matches);
            return (Arrays.binarySearch(matches, eTag) > -1 || Arrays.binarySearch(matches, "*") > -1);
        }
        else {
            long ifModifiedSince = request.getDateHeader("If-Modified-Since");
            return (ifModifiedSince + ONE_SECOND_IN_MILLIS > lastModified); // That second is because the header is in seconds, not millis.
        }
    }

    private void setContentHeaders(HttpServletResponse response, String fileName, long contentLength) {
        response.setHeader("Content-Type", getServletContext().getMimeType(fileName));
        response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", String.format(CONTENT_DISPOSITION_HEADER, fileName));

        if (contentLength != -1) {
            response.setHeader("Content-Length", String.valueOf(contentLength));
        }
    }

    private void writeContent(HttpServletResponse response, StaticResource resource) throws IOException {
        try (
            ReadableByteChannel inputChannel = Channels.newChannel(resource.getInputStream());
            WritableByteChannel outputChannel = Channels.newChannel(response.getOutputStream());
        ) {
            ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(DEFAULT_STREAM_BUFFER_SIZE);
            long size = 0;

            while (inputChannel.read(buffer) != -1) {
                buffer.flip();
                size += outputChannel.write(buffer);
                buffer.clear();
            }

            if (resource.getContentLength() == -1 && !response.isCommitted()) {
                response.setHeader("Content-Length", String.valueOf(size));
            }
        }
    }

}

Use it together with the below interface representing a static resource.

interface StaticResource {

    /**
     * Returns the file name of the resource. This must be unique across all static resources. If any, the file
     * extension will be used to determine the content type being set. If the container doesn't recognize the
     * extension, then you can always register it as <code>&lt;mime-type&gt;</code> in <code>web.xml</code>.
     * @return The file name of the resource.
     */
    public String getFileName();

    /**
     * Returns the last modified timestamp of the resource in milliseconds.
     * @return The last modified timestamp of the resource in milliseconds.
     */
    public long getLastModified();

    /**
     * Returns the content length of the resource. This returns <code>-1</code> if the content length is unknown.
     * In that case, the container will automatically switch to chunked encoding if the response is already
     * committed after streaming. The file download progress may be unknown.
     * @return The content length of the resource.
     */
    public long getContentLength();

    /**
     * Returns the input stream with the content of the resource. This method will be called only once by the
     * servlet, and only when the resource actually needs to be streamed, so lazy loading is not necessary.
     * @return The input stream with the content of the resource.
     * @throws IOException When something fails at I/O level.
     */
    public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException;

}

All you need is just extending from the given abstract servlet and implementing the getStaticResource() method according the javadoc.

Concrete example serving from file system:

Here's a concrete example which serves it via an URL like /files/foo.ext from the local disk file system:

@WebServlet("/files/*")
public class FileSystemResourceServlet extends StaticResourceServlet {

    private File folder;

    @Override
    public void init() throws ServletException {
        folder = new File("/path/to/the/folder");
    }

    @Override
    protected StaticResource getStaticResource(HttpServletRequest request) throws IllegalArgumentException {
        String pathInfo = request.getPathInfo();

        if (pathInfo == null || pathInfo.isEmpty() || "/".equals(pathInfo)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        }

        String name = URLDecoder.decode(pathInfo.substring(1), StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
        final File file = new File(folder, Paths.get(name).getFileName().toString());

        return !file.exists() ? null : new StaticResource() {
            @Override
            public long getLastModified() {
                return file.lastModified();
            }
            @Override
            public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException {
                return new FileInputStream(file);
            }
            @Override
            public String getFileName() {
                return file.getName();
            }
            @Override
            public long getContentLength() {
                return file.length();
            }
        };
    }

}

Concrete example serving from database:

Here's a concrete example which serves it via an URL like /files/foo.ext from the database via an EJB service call which returns your entity having a byte[] content property:

@WebServlet("/files/*")
public class YourEntityResourceServlet extends StaticResourceServlet {

    @EJB
    private YourEntityService yourEntityService;

    @Override
    protected StaticResource getStaticResource(HttpServletRequest request) throws IllegalArgumentException {
        String pathInfo = request.getPathInfo();

        if (pathInfo == null || pathInfo.isEmpty() || "/".equals(pathInfo)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        }

        String name = URLDecoder.decode(pathInfo.substring(1), StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
        final YourEntity yourEntity = yourEntityService.getByName(name);

        return (yourEntity == null) ? null : new StaticResource() {
            @Override
            public long getLastModified() {
                return yourEntity.getLastModified();
            }
            @Override
            public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException {
                return new ByteArrayInputStream(yourEntityService.getContentById(yourEntity.getId()));
            }
            @Override
            public String getFileName() {
                return yourEntity.getName();
            }
            @Override
            public long getContentLength() {
                return yourEntity.getContentLength();
            }
        };
    }

}

try this

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.css</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.ico</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.png</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.jpg</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.htc</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.gif</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>    

Edit: This is only valid for the servlet 2.5 spec and up.

Checked for Tomcat 8.x: static resources work OK if root servlet map to "". For servlet 3.x it could be done by @WebServlet("")

I've had good results with FileServlet, as it supports pretty much all of HTTP (etags, chunking, etc.).

Use org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler. You don't need additional components like StaticServlet.

At the jetty home,

$ cd contexts

$ cp javadoc.xml static.xml

$ vi static.xml

...

<Configure class="org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler">
<Set name="contextPath">/static</Set>
<Set name="resourceBase"><SystemProperty name="jetty.home" default="."/>/static/</Set>
<Set name="handler">
  <New class="org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ResourceHandler">
    <Set name="cacheControl">max-age=3600,public</Set>
  </New>
 </Set>
</Configure>

Set the value of contextPath with your URL prefix, and set the value of resourceBase as the file path of the static content.

It worked for me.

I found great tutorial on the web about some workaround. It is simple and efficient, I used it in several projects with REST urls styles approach:

http://www.kuligowski.pl/java/rest-style-urls-and-url-mapping-for-static-content-apache-tomcat,5