The invention provides a system and method for providing virtual directories for servlets, particularly for use by many different Web applications that share common files and resources, and that are intended for providing those resources to large numbers of users. Virtual directories provide a mechanism for automatically changing the root folder from the default Web application (webapp) root document folder (docroot) to a virtual directory or folder, in response to certain http/URL requests. The purpose of the feature is to allow the developer to configure different document roots for certain requests. By doing this they can direct certain kind of requests (particularly those for common resources) to a common document root. Virtual directories ensure that common resources do not have to be copied for all web applications separately, and the burden on the server itself is minimized.