How to use a sub-folder as web.xml welcome directory

Question

I want to configure my web.xml for Google App Engine, but my configuration doesn't work. I want to change the default index.html with WebApp/index.html.

Here is the web.xml:

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>App</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>bg.app.AppServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>App</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/WebApp/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>WebApp/index.html</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

I don't know what your _configuration doesn't work_ mean, but the `` declaration needs to come before the `` elements. — Sotirios Delimanolis, May 07 '13 at 17:26

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

The "welcome file" represents the physical file which needs to be served when a folder is requested by URL. E.g. / or /WebApp/ or WebApp/foo/. It does not represent the "homepage file" or so as many starters seem to think. It does not make sense to let the welcome file point to a subfolder. It would fail when another subfolder is been requested.

Just stick to index.html as welcome file, put the desired homepage file in /WebApp/ folder and create another index.html file in root folder / with the following content:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Dummy homepage</title>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=WebApp" />
  </head>
</html>

This will redirect to /WebApp/ (searchbots will treat it as 301) which in turn should serve the desired homepage file.

How to use a sub-folder as web.xml welcome directory

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