executing a java servlet

[javer]

I am learning servlets. I am able to compile servlets, examples, servlets written by other people, etc. However when I try to execute I get the same error on all of them. THis is the error:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/gradsmap/WEB-INF/classes/NcepMapGenerator/java

 

[sedj]

Are you trying to execute the servlet from the command line in the main() method ? This is not advisable as servlets are designed to be called by the servlet container (ie tomcat).

I would read the docs at :

http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-5.0-doc/

 

[javer]

Thanks very much Sedj for the tip. I was doing exactly what you said-executing from the command line. I will go through the documentation and see if I understand what I should do. I may come back to you later for more help. I hope you can bear with me.
Thanks
Javer