2.1. Introduction

Java’s standard java.net.URL class and standard handlers for various URL prefixes, unfortunately, are not quite adequate enough for all access to low-level resources. For example, there is no standardized URL implementation that may be used to access a resource that needs to be obtained from the classpath or relative to a ServletContext. While it is possible to register new handlers for specialized URL prefixes (similar to existing handlers for prefixes such as http:), this is generally quite complicated, and the URL interface still lacks some desirable functionality, such as a method to check for the existence of the resource being pointed to.