Do we need to embed Tomcat at all? Can't we just use the HTTP Server in the JVM?

that would have to wait for the JDK 21 bump which would be NB 30, assuming the JDK internal http server covers all use cases. But in theory I don't see why not.

that would have to wait for the JDK 21 bump which would be NB 30

sorry I looked at the wrong JEP which only added CLI support. The com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer was already there before. So there would be no need to wait for NB 30.

Do we need to embed Tomcat at all? Can't we just use the HTTP Server in the JVM?

We need to have a look once Tomcat 9 goes end of life (as the old servlet API (javax.servlet). As far as I remember, the server does two thinks:

1. It exposes resources from inside the VM (see https://github.com/apache/netbeans/blob/master/ide/httpserver/src/org/netbeans/modules/httpserver/WrapperServlet.java)
2. It allows to call servlets deployed inside the IDE from the outside. (I think the XSLT support does that). (see

   netbeans/ide/httpserver/src/org/netbeans/modules/httpserver/HttpServerModule.java

   Lines 256 to 272 in 805323a

   	sw.setServlet(new HttpServlet() {
   	@Override
   	protected void service(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
   	String className = classFromPath((HttpServletRequest) request);
   	LOG.log(Level.FINE, "Servlet class name: {0}", className);
   	if (className != null) {
   	try {
   	Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(className, true, ctx.getParentClassLoader());
   	Tomcat.addServlet(ctx, className, (Servlet) clazz.getConstructor().newInstance());
   	ctx.addServletMappingDecoded("/servlet/" + className + "/*", className);
   	request.getRequestDispatcher(request.getRequestURI()).forward(request, response);
   	} catch (ReflectiveOperationException | SecurityException | IllegalArgumentException ex) {
   	LOG.log(Level.WARNING, null, ex);
   	}
   	}
   	}
   	});

   )

Both things should go away. The HTTP Server of the VM can be part of the solution, but the problem set is bigger.

Edit: Added references to the dispatchers

thanks for the review / comments!