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Asked: 2026-05-29T22:03:42+00:00

I’m pretty new to the Spring framework and web applications, though I’m experienced with

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I’m pretty new to the Spring framework and web applications, though I’m experienced with Java. When I run my site on a local tomcat server the URL is: http://localhost:8080/myApp/

Now a request mapping delegates me to my home page with:

@RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String someMethod(Model model) { ... 
   return "index"; }

Now within a file index.xhtml I link to another page with <a href="apps/">link</a>
but when I want to link back to the index page I have to use <a href="../index/">link</a>. I searched for a solution and found:

<spring:url value='/apps' var="apps_url" />
<a href="${apps_url}">link</a>

But spring:url always resolves to http://localhost:8080/myApp/ – the page that I’m currently on. In addition, when I just use a link like this: <a href="/otherSite">link</a>, it always resolves to http://localhost:8080/otherSite and not http://localhost:8080/myApp/otherSite like I expected. How can I get my link to work? Is http://localhost:8080/myApp implicitly defined as my context or can/should it be changed to http://localhost:8080/?

Also, is there any connection between the URL on local tomcat server and the URL the web application will have when it’s published?

Here are some of my application files:

servlet-context.xml: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.1.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

    <!-- DispatcherServlet Context: defines this servlet's request-processing infrastructure -->

    <!-- Enables the Spring MVC @Controller programming model -->
    <annotation-driven />

    <context:component-scan base-package="myApp" />

    <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"/>

    <!-- Handles HTTP GET requests for /resources/** and /css/** by efficiently 
    serving up static resources in the ${webappRoot}/resources directory -->
    <resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />
    <resources mapping="/css/**" location="/css/" />

    <beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <beans:property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
        <beans:property name="suffix" value=".xhtml" />
    </beans:bean>

</beans:beans>

excerpt from web.xml:

<!-- The definition of the Root Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters -->
<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/root-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<!-- Creates the Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters -->
<listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

<!-- Processes application requests -->

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It is good practice to put all your links as follows

    <a href="${pageContext.servletContext.contextPath}/othersite"> Other site </a>

    ${pageContext.servletContext.contextPath} always gives your application root, when you are developing use http://localhost:8080/myApp, then your application root is /myapp, but when you want to place your application in production generally your application root will be /, using ${pageContext.servletContext.contextPath} before links you ensure it will work in both cases

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