I'm writing a JSP/Servlet web-app for transforming mnemonics into URLs,
similar to what http://tinyurl.com does.  In other words, if the
mnemonic "xyz" points to http://google.com, then entering
http://example.com/xyz (where example.com is my website) would
automatically redirect to Google.

I figured I could use a catch-all url map in order to analyze the
indicated mnemonic.  But how do I access the static elements of the
web-app?  For instance, say I have a gif on the site, icon.gif.  How
could I reference it?  I could use an image servlet, mapped so:

<servlet>
 <servlet-name>imageLoader</servlet-name>
 <servlet-class>com.example.ImageLoaderServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
 <servlet-name>imageLoader</servlet-name>
 <url-pattern>*.gif</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

but if the image is in the base directory, loading it via
HttpServletRequest.getRequestDispatcher(String) results in an endless
loop.

For text files I've been using a mapping like:

<servlet>
 <servlet-name>stylesCss</servlet-name>
 <jsp-file>/styles.jsp</jsp-file>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
 <servlet-name>stylesCss</servlet-name>
 <url-pattern>styles.css</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

which works just fine, but is a total hack.  What's the preferred way
of doing something like this?

Thanks,

Walter Gildersleeve
Freiburg, Germany