title: Javascript cannot be found to be loaded from the JSP/controller path
body: <p>When I try to load a js file externally I keep getting a 404 error in the firebug NET console. The JSP can't seem to be detecting the js file and I have tried many combinations with no luck, also searched the net without any real progress, can anyone point out what I am doing wrong here?</p>
  
  <p>Web XML</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
  &lt;web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5"&gt;
    &lt;display-name&gt;GreenwhichProject&lt;/display-name&gt;
    &lt;servlet&gt;
          &lt;servlet-name&gt;dispatcher&lt;/servlet-name&gt;
          &lt;servlet-class&gt;org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet&lt;/servlet-class&gt;
          &lt;load-on-startup&gt;1&lt;/load-on-startup&gt;
      &lt;/servlet&gt;
      &lt;servlet-mapping&gt;
          &lt;servlet-name&gt;dispatcher&lt;/servlet-name&gt;
          &lt;url-pattern&gt;*.htm&lt;/url-pattern&gt;
      &lt;/servlet-mapping&gt;
      &lt;welcome-file-list&gt;
          &lt;welcome-file&gt;redirect.jsp&lt;/welcome-file&gt;
      &lt;/welcome-file-list&gt;
  &lt;/web-app&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Workspace Path Directory Structure Picture</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://img26.imageshack.us/i/workspacepath.jpg/" rel="nofollow">http://img26.imageshack.us/i/workspacepath.jpg/</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>PROJECT
   |
   WebContent
      |
      js
        |_jquery-1.5.js
  
     WEB-INF
        |_dispatcher-servlet.xml
        |_web.xml
         jsp
           |_OrderTaxi.jsp
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Additionally this is how a normal controller function looks like</p>
  
  <pre><code>@RequestMapping(value="/taxiOrder/loadOrderTaxiServicePage.htm", method = RequestMethod.GET)
  public String showOrderTaxiServicePage(ModelMap model){
      return "orderTaxi";
  }   
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So when I have to access a page it will usually be the /"controllerName"/"functionHtmName"</p>
  
  <p>dispatcher-servlet.xml has a view resolver if it will be useful for figuring out the problem</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;bean id="viewResolver"
      class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver"
      p:prefix="/WEB-INF/jsp/" p:suffix=".jsp" /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Additionally this is how I am looking for the JS in my JSP file</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery-1.5.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
  </code></pre>