Adding to a web apps class path

[llennhoff]

Hi

We're trying to set up a webapp so that new components may be
dynamically added. Ideally, we would have a /extensions subdirectory
and then each component would have a directory under that with its own
jsps, its own /lib for .jars that only it needs and so forth.

The problem is that the ClassLoader for the web app only search WEB-
INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes. Tomcat lets you override that class
loader. Websphere allows you to specify additional directories to be
searched. But is there any way to extend the class path that isn't
app server specific, so that any J2EE app server could know where to
look?

Thanks in advance for any help

Larry