Is the DispatcherServlet instantiated via an application context?

Yes, the DispatcherServlet is instantiated via an application context. In a Spring-based application, the DispatcherServlet is a central servlet that manages the request processing workflow of a Spring web application. It acts as the front controller for Spring's web application framework and is responsible for orchestrating the flow of information between web server and application.

When the DispatcherServlet is initialized, it requires a context configuration where it will define how to manage the different components of a Spring application. This context is known as the WebApplicationContext, which is an extension of the plain ApplicationContext and is web-aware, meaning it has additional capabilities to handle web application specifics, such as having access to the ServletContext[1].

The DispatcherServlet can be configured in several ways, including XML configuration in the web.xml file or programmatically using Java configuration classes. For instance, the DispatcherServlet can be declared and initialized in the web.xml file with a context parameter pointing to the XML configuration file that contains bean definitions and associations[1]. Altern...