Include CSS in JSP page of Dynamic Web Application

Question

My JSP pages in my dynamic web application (in Eclipse) are not being styled by my CSS code. I have included a stylesheet in index.jsp as follows:

index.jsp

<html>
    <head>
        <title>To Do List - Home</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="${pageContext.request.contextPath}/css/stylesheet.css">
    </head>
    <body>
        <a href="tasks">Tasks</a>
    </body>
</html>

And my project structure is as follows:

I thought that href="${pageContext.request.contextPath}/css/stylesheet.css would look for stylesheet.css in ToDoList/WebContent/css/. If I try navigating directly to the stylesheet in the browser via http://localhost:8080/ToDoList/css/stylesheet.css it returns a 404 error.

I am aware this question has been asked before but from looking at the other questions I still can't figure out what is wrong with my project structure.

Update:

So I added <mvc:resources mapping="/css/**" location="/css/" /> to my servlet config, but now when I navigate to any page other than index.jsp I get a 404 error.

todolist-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" 
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc 
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd">

    <!-- Scan for JavaConfig, annotated with @Configuration -->
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.petehallw.todolist.main" />

    <context:annotation-config/>

    <mvc:resources mapping="/css/**" location="/css/" />

    <!-- Configure Spring view resolver -->
    <bean id="viewResolver"
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
        <property name="viewClass"
        value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView" />
        <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
        <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
    </bean>

</beans>

The error I get is:

WARNING: No mapping found for HTTP request with URI [/ToDoList/tasks] in DispatcherServlet with name 'todolist'

This is upon clicking a link to "tasks" in index.jsp which was previously returning the tasks.jsp page.

It looks like you need a static handler in todolist-servlet. Check out that answer . It might help. — Gurkan Yesilyurt
– Gurkan Yesilyurt, Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 15:02
Can you just drag and drop it from the tree into your project, and have it auto fill it for you? — spas2k
– spas2k, Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 15:14
@spas2k If I drag it in the value is "WebContent/css/stylesheet.css" and it doesn't work either. — petehallw
– petehallw, Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 15:30
@GurkanYesilyurt Thanks for the info, I tried your suggestion but I am now getting 404 error from my other pages. I have updated the question with the details. — petehallw
– petehallw, Commented Jul 20, 2017 at 8:54
Use c:url every url in the app. <a href="<c:url value="/tasks"/>">Tasks</a>. If you have @requestmapping("/tasks") method, will be invoked. Or <a href="${pageContext.request.contextPath}/tasks">Tasks</a> like you use at css files. — Gurkan Yesilyurt
– Gurkan Yesilyurt, Commented Jul 20, 2017 at 9:04

Gurkan Yesilyurt · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-20 10:32:13Z

1

For every URL in the app, you can make use of c:url tag in JSTL lib.

<a href="<c:url value="/tasks"/>">Tasks</a>.

So, if you have controller method mapping @requestmapping("/tasks"), it will be invoked.

Or try as <a href="${pageContext.request.contextPath}/tasks">Tasks</a> like you use at css files.

Important: You should add <mvc:annotation-driven /> in xml configuration for the support of annotation-driven MVC controllers like @RequestMapping, @Controller.

answered Jul 20, 2017 at 10:32

Gurkan Yesilyurt

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2 Comments

petehallw Over a year ago

Just to note, I do need to use the <c:url/> tag when including static content in my JSP page but for the link to "/tasks" it seems I don't need it. I did move my index.jsp file into WEB-INF-->jsp with the rest of the JSP files and create a root controller with RequestMapping("/") though so maybe that is why I don't need to specify the context path.

Gurkan Yesilyurt Over a year ago

@petehallw yeah, you're right. Relative URLs will work, too.

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