A web application can be deployed either as a WAR file that has been packaged according to the standard layout and containing a web.xml deployment descriptor, or from a directory containing the application's source components arranged in the standard layout.

  • When deploying a web application from a directory, specify the location of the web.xml deployment descriptor if it is not in the standard location.
  • Specify the directory used by the server for temporary files.
At runtime, the web application has access to the server classes.