# Web application overview

The Web development environment provides the tools you need to develop Web applications as defined in the Sun Microsystems Java™ Servlet 2.3 Specification and the Sun Microsystems JSP 1.2 Specification. Web applications can be simple (consisting of only static Web pages) or they can be more advanced and include JavaServer Pages (JSP) files and Java servlets. These resources, along with an XML deployment descriptor (and other Web resources, are contained within a Web project during development. When you are ready to publish the Web application to the Web, you deploy the Web project to the server in the form of a Web archive (WAR) file . The end user can then view the Web application as a Web site from a URL.

Related concepts
Web tools features
Related tasks
Creating a dynamic Web project
Creating and editing Web pages - overview
Creating Web Artifacts