1/06/2009

RequestDispatcher

The javax.servlet.RequestDispathcer interface can forward a request to another resource.

Getting a RequestDispatcher object
ServletRequest#getRequestDispatcher(String path)
Specify the relative path. 
If the relative path starts with "/", it's relative to the context root.
e.g. /Sample1
e.g. Sample1

ServletContext#getRequestDispatcher(String path)
Specify the relative path to the context root.
e.g. /Sample1

void forward(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response)
Forwards a request to the specified resource.

void include(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response)
Includes the specified resource in the response.

The forward method forwards a request or includes content directly on the server side, which is different to the HttpServletResponse#sendRedirect method.