I am doing some basic templating in my JSP-based webapp. For example, I want to have a standard header and footer (basic HTML) that I pull into each of my JSPs.
My content JSP is at /WEB-INF/jsp/home.jsp, and I have template JSPs at /WEB-INF/jsp/template/, such as /WEB-INF/jsp/template/Body-Footer.jsp.
So now, within home.jsp, I want to pull in my template files. First, I try the jsp:include action:
<jsp:include page="template/Body-Footer.jsp"></jsp:include>
It generates the error javax.servlet.ServletException: File "/template/Body-Footer.jsp" not found
Strange to me, considering that Eclipse says that the path is valid.
Okay, so then I switch to the include directive:
<%@ include file="template/Body-Footer.jsp" %>
This works just fine, pulls in my footer HTML.
But why does the jsp:include not work? After some experimentation, I find that putting in the absolute path does get it to work:
<jsp:include page="/WEB-INF/jsp/template/Body-Footer.jsp"></jsp:include>
Now it works fine, no errors.
So here's my question: why? Why do I (apparently) need to use an absolute path with the jsp:include action, but not with the include directive?
/WEB-INF/jsp/template/Body-Footer.jsp is not an absolute path. Its also a relative path. The problem is that template/Body-Footer.jsp is an incomplete relative path, whereas the other is complete. That is, the paths are relative to your app path. Since /WEB-INF/ is under your app path, you have to include it. Absolute path means like C:/program files/tomcat/webapps/yourapp/WEB-INF/jsp/template/Body-Footer.jsp