Forward to a servlet by name package com.ack.web.servlet; import java.io.IOException; import javax.servlet.RequestDispatcher; import javax.servlet.ServletException; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse; public class ForwardToAServletByName extends HttpServlet { public void doGet( HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res ) throws ServletException, IOException { // do not commit anything to the response stream before a forward // set in a request attribute to communicate hello to the // servlet we forward to req.setAttribute( "hello", "world" ); // create a request dispatcher by name to forward to // this is more limiting that getRequestDispatcher because // you cannot specified a query string or extra path information // // however, you can dispatch to named web components within the // web.xml that do not have publicised URIs RequestDispatcher rd = getServletContext().getNamedDispatcher( "receiveforward" ); // and then forward rd.forward( req, res ); } }