diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 981f55bb..2696c301 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 target
 tomcat.8080
+.classpath
+.project
+.settings/
diff --git a/src/main/java/launch/Main.java b/src/main/java/launch/Main.java
index 13cb291e..3c5f5db9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/launch/Main.java
+++ b/src/main/java/launch/Main.java
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 package launch;
 import java.io.File;
+
+import org.apache.catalina.Context;
 import org.apache.catalina.startup.Tomcat;
 
+import servlet.HelloServlet;
+
 public class Main {
 
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
@@ -18,7 +22,10 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 
         tomcat.setPort(Integer.valueOf(webPort));
 
-        tomcat.addWebapp("/", new File(webappDirLocation).getAbsolutePath());
+        Context ctx = tomcat.addWebapp("/", new File(webappDirLocation).getAbsolutePath());
+        //the context object can be used to configure your server with settings that would normally go in your context.xml
+        //ctx.setUseHttpOnly(true);
+        
         System.out.println("configuring app with basedir: " + new File("./" + webappDirLocation).getAbsolutePath());
 
         tomcat.start();
diff --git a/src/main/java/servlet/HelloServlet.java b/src/main/java/servlet/HelloServlet.java
index 34d5521c..c67382c6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/servlet/HelloServlet.java
+++ b/src/main/java/servlet/HelloServlet.java
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 
+import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
 import javax.servlet.ServletException;
 import javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream;
 import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;
@@ -9,17 +10,26 @@
 import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
 import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 
-@WebServlet(
-        name = "MyServlet", 
-        urlPatterns = {"/hello"}
-    )
 public class HelloServlet extends HttpServlet {
 
+	
     @Override
+	public void init() throws ServletException {
+		System.out.println("initializing HelloServlet");
+		super.init();
+	}
+    
+    @Override
+    public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException {
+    	System.out.println("initializing HelloServlet");
+    	super.init();
+    }
+
+	@Override
     protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
             throws ServletException, IOException {
         ServletOutputStream out = resp.getOutputStream();
-        out.write("hello heroku".getBytes());
+        out.write("hello heroku!!!".getBytes());
         out.flush();
         out.close();
     }
diff --git a/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml b/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..57f9abfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
+    xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
+    version="2.5">
+
+  <servlet>
+    <servlet-name>hello</servlet-name>
+    <servlet-class>servlet.HelloServlet</servlet-class>
+  </servlet>
+
+  <servlet-mapping>
+    <servlet-name>hello</servlet-name>
+    <url-pattern>/hello</url-pattern>
+  </servlet-mapping>
+
+</web-app>