Package javax.servlet

Interface ServletContainerInitializer

public interface ServletContainerInitializer
Interface which allows a library/runtime to be notified of a web application's startup phase and perform any required programmatic registration of servlets, filters, and listeners in response to it.

Implementations of this interface may be annotated with HandlesTypes, in order to receive (at their onStartup(java.util.Set<java.lang.Class<?>>, javax.servlet.ServletContext) method) the Set of application classes that implement, extend, or have been annotated with the class types specified by the annotation.

If an implementation of this interface does not use HandlesTypes annotation, or none of the application classes match the ones specified by the annotation, the container must pass a null Set of classes to onStartup(java.util.Set<java.lang.Class<?>>, javax.servlet.ServletContext).

When examining the classes of an application to see if they match any of the criteria specified by the HandlesTypes annontation of a ServletContainerInitializer, the container may run into classloading problems if any of the application's optional JAR files are missing. Because the container is not in a position to decide whether these types of classloading failures will prevent the application from working correctly, it must ignore them, while at the same time providing a configuration option that would log them.

Implementations of this interface must be declared by a JAR file resource located inside the META-INF/services directory and named for the fully qualified class name of this interface, and will be discovered using the runtime's service provider lookup mechanism or a container specific mechanism that is semantically equivalent to it. In either case, ServletContainerInitializer services from web fragment JAR files excluded from an absolute ordering must be ignored, and the order in which these services are discovered must follow the application's classloading delegation model.

Since:
Servlet 3.0
See Also:

  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    void
    onStartup(Set<Class<?>> c, ServletContext ctx)
    Notifies this ServletContainerInitializer of the startup of the application represented by the given ServletContext.

  • Method Details

    • onStartup

      void onStartup(Set<Class<?>> c, ServletContext ctx) throws ServletException
      Notifies this ServletContainerInitializer of the startup of the application represented by the given ServletContext.

      If this ServletContainerInitializer is bundled in a JAR file inside the WEB-INF/lib directory of an application, its onStartup method will be invoked only once during the startup of the bundling application. If this ServletContainerInitializer is bundled inside a JAR file outside of any WEB-INF/lib directory, but still discoverable as described above, its onStartup method will be invoked every time an application is started.

      Parameters:
      c - the Set of application classes that extend, implement, or have been annotated with the class types specified by the HandlesTypes annotation, or null if there are no matches, or this ServletContainerInitializer has not been annotated with HandlesTypes
      ctx - the ServletContext of the web application that is being started and in which the classes contained in c were found
      Throws:
      ServletException - if an error has occurred