Administration Tool: Site Setup

Document Root Directory
The name of the default directory on your machine where your HTML documents are placed. When you first install Java Web Server, the default document directory is server_root/public_html.

You can change this directory to be any directory you choose, for example, a docs directory inside your own home directory.

Suppose you are the user galileo on the machine venus, you could set your Document Root Directory to /home/galileo/docs. Then, to access this directory, you would simply type the URL:

	http://venus:8080

CGI Script Directory
This defines the directory where CGI scripts are found on your system.

If the directory path is entered with a leading slash(/) it is considered to be an absolute directory (that is, off of the root of the server machine). If the directory path is entered without a leading slash, it is considered to be a relative directory (that is, off of the root of the webserver installation).

For example, the default CGI directory is the relative directory cgi-bin. With no leading slash, the full path is constructed as server_root/cgi-bin, where server_root is the location of the installed Java Web Server.

(The CgiServlet allows you to run your CGI scripts unchanged. Its bindir argument, which defines where to locate your CGI scripts, is also set by default to the cgi-bin directory.)

Welcome Files
The names of the default HTML files that Java Web Server will load when a user enters the URL for your machine.

You may specify one or more default files. When someone connects to a directory on your machine without providing a filename, Java Web Server will search the directory looking for a matching filename to the default files you have listed. It searches for files in the order you have indicated.

For example, if you list myfile.html, index.html, and index.htm, whenever someone connects to a directory without specifying a filename, the Java Web Server will search for myfile.html and display it if found. If the directory does not have a myfile.html file, the Java Web Server will search for index.html. If neither file is in the directory, it will search for index.htm.

To illustrate, if your machine name is venus, and you define the space.html as your default file (and set the document root directory to /home/galileo), then type the URL:

	http://venus:8080

you will display the file /home/galileo/space.html if the file exists in the directory.

If there is no file defined in the Welcome Files field, when a user connects without specifying a file name (to a directory for which Directory Access is on), all files in the directory will be listed by Java Web Server.

File Name
The names of other files you can specify as Welcome Files.
 

The Java Web Server provides support for HTTP 1.1 content negotiation. This is done using the Accept-* headers provided by the browser. The web server provides a policy for naming documents to support multiple language and character sets.

To implement this policy, the server provides the notion of a default language for the website as well as other supported languages. For example, if your website's default language is US-English (en-us) and the website also suppports French (fr) and Japanese (jp), you would enter en-us in the Default Language field and fr, jp in the Supported Languages field.

In this example, if the browser now requests index.html and sends a languages preference of en-us (the site's default language) in the Accept-Language header, the server will try to retrieve the file unchanged (index.html). If, however, the browser requests a supported language (such as jp for Japanese), the server will append the Japanese extension to the filename and try to retrieve index.html.jp.

Default Language
Defines the default language for the site's documents.
 

Supported Languages
Displays a list of the languages supported by Java Web Server.
 

Language Name
Enables you to add additional languages to the list of supported languages.
 

Default Character Set
Defines the default character set for Java Web Server.
 

Supported Character Sets
Displays a list of the character sets supported by Java Web Server.
 

Character Set
Allows you to add additional character sets to the list of supported character sets.
 

Security Checks
This setting has to do with basic security checking. It has two choices:

Enabled - Instructs the server to check access controls and permissions before allowing connections to your server document root and index.html file.

Disabled - Tells your server to ignore access controls and permissions when making connections to your server document root and index.html file.
Note: If security checking is disabled under HTTP1.1, you will not be able to PUT or DELETE. For more information on access controls and permissions, see Access Control Lists.
 

Directory Access
This setting determines what gets displayed in your default document root directory.

List Files - If you do not have a file in your document root directory specifically named index.html (or whatever you have entered in the index.html field) that can be displayed when an HTTP connection is made to your Java Web Server, a list of the files in the directory will be displayed instead.

Do Not List Files - If you do not have an index.html file (or substitute file) to be displayed when an HTTP connection is made, the directory files will not be displayed, and the user attempting to make the connection will not be granted access to your Java Web Server.
 

Servlet Chains
This setting determines whether servlets may be chained (that is, granting one servlet the permission to call and execute another servlet. For more information see Filters and Servlet Chaining). This setting has two choices:

Enabled - This allows servlets to chain to other servlets.

Disabled - This disables servlet chaining so that only the first servlet in a chain can be executed.
 

SSL Client Authentication (Secure Web Service only)
This setting displays determines whether a client must present a certificate in order to access web server resources under the control of the CertificateRealm. (The client's certificate must be imported into the server for this setting to work.) When the client tries to access the protected resources, the server requests the client's certificate. The server compares its own copy of the client's certificate to that being offered by the requesting client. If they match, access to the protected resources is granted, otherwise access is denied.

Enabled - This forces the server to request a certificate from a client in order to authenticate the client prior to allowing access to protected resources.

Disabled - This results in client authentication not being requested.
 

Remove all archived files
This setting has to do with removing the archive directory that contains files deleted or replaced by the HTTP1.1 DELETE and PUT operations, respectively. The archive directory is created the first time such an operation is performed. When you click Delete, a confirmation dialogue will appear containing two buttons:

Yes - Continues with the deletion

No - Cancels the deletion request

The archives directory is located at server_root/archives. If the server is used often for DELETE and PUT operations, the number of files stored in the archives directory can take up a lot of disk space. That is why the ability to purge the directory is provided.

The only caution in removing the archives directory is to note that this operation deletes them permanently. If you back up your server's file system on a regular basis, deleting the archive directory should not be a concern because your backups will provide a way for you to retrieve the deleted archives files should the need arise.