Should be posted for sure in a FAQ. Thanks all for the links. I think that should cover it.
-----Original Message----- From: André Warnier [mailto:a...@ice-sa.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 3:04 PM To: Tomcat Users List Subject: Re: How to map web app with different root paths? Apart from the answers already provided by Chuck and Christopher, I wonder if a FAQ about "proxying", "URL abstraction", "forwarding", "redirecting" etc.. and their differences would not be useful ? This kind of question seems to come so often that it would save time in the end if there was just a link to point to. Quick and dirty : - a "redirect" is when the server sends a HTTP response to the browser saying "sorry, the URL you requested is wrong, but the right one is *here* (with the correct URL). The browser then (without even informing the user) immediately makes a new request to this new URL. Hint : the browser's URL bar, in that case, will show the new URL. Advantage : the browser will also discard the old URL from its cache and history, and cache the new one instead. The user may even notice, and request the correct URL right away the next time. Inconvenient : there is more traffic, because there is one request/response exchange for nothing (original request -> 302 response from server -> new request from browser -> server response to "correct" request) - a "forward" (and also the concept of "URL abstraction") is when the server silently rewrites the URL requested by the user, so that it will be processed by a different webapp (or return a different static document) than the one that would appear to be implied by the original request URL. Hint : none, because the browser will think that the response comes for his original request URL. Advantage : there is no extra network traffic, and it is faster (at least for the client), because it all remains internal to the server. Inconvenient : the browser (and user) remain "stupid", in the sense that they will continue to use the original URL, thinking it is correct. (This may actually not be an inconvenient, if this is what the server admin wants) - a "proxy" is when the server receives a request for a URL which appears "local", but then silently behind the scene calls another server to provide the response. The original server then reads the response from the background server and returns it to the client as if it had made it up himself. Advantages/Inconvenients : a bit vast to discuss here, but this is the basic mechanism for something like load-balancing : a front-end server (with a single access point for the clients) receives all requests, and intelligently distributes them to a number of background servers, in function of the load, the type of request, or whatever. The client keeps thinking that the responses come from the front-end server, so it keeps talking to the front-end. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org
