Developing J2EE applications - IntelliJ IDEA in Action - page 379

IDEA 's web modules provide a facility for editing deployment descriptors that you
may find more intuitive than editing the XML directly—a property editor.
From the J2EE project tab, you can edit the web module node itself—not the
web.xml file. Double-click the node directly under Web Mo du l es to open the web
module editor shown in figure 11.4. This interface lets you edit the most common
properties of a web application's deployment descriptor.

11.1.5 Working with servlets and filters

A servlet is a Java-based web component that generates dynamic content by
accepting a request and producing an appropriate response. To oversimplify,
when a client makes a request to a servlet container, that request is inspected by
the servlet container, and the request is routed to the appropriate servlet. The

Figure 11.4 By editing the web module from the J2EE Project tool window tab, you're given an
interface that lets you edit the web application's deployment descriptor without editing the XML
directly.