Eclipse: including libraries with war file project

Question

I use the jstl library in my project, but as an external jar. After exporting my project to a .war file, these libraries are not included and I'm getting errors. How do I make sure the library is included in my war file?

Also, an unrelated question, if an ear file would have only one war module, is there a point to making it an .ear instead of .war

Solution

If you have put the jstl jars inside WebContent directory they will be packed in your WAR file. But if you are loading them from somewhere else make sure that you have them in your export list (Project Properties -> Java Build Path -> Order and Export).

If you have an EAR file you can make some extra settings in your application.xml file, or even some container specific ones.