shared libraries - visibility issues - shared/lib, common/lib, etc

Hello.

I have a handful of webapps which use a JAR that I created.  This JAR
depends on a handful of other JARs, etc etc.  Essentially I want my webapps
to be able to use this JAR - without putting the JAR into the individual
webapps.

I originally put my JAR and other related JARs into the shared/lib/
directory - but my webapps could still not see my JAR.  I moved my JAR into
common/lib/, and this improved things slightly - but it couldn't see some of
its dependencies, so I moved them too.  Still getting some visibility errors
though.

Finally, I moved my JAR (but not its dependencies) into the lib/ directory
of an individual webapp, and everything works perfectly.


I've done some research and I read that the shared/lib/ directory is visible
to the webapps, but not the container.  Additionally, the common/lib/
directory is visible to webapps AND the container.


I have several questions.  First, is the preceding paragraph (visibility of
those directories) correct, within the context of Jahia?  

Second, my error seems very clearly to be a visibility issue.  My current
guess is that there is something in my shared/lib/ directory that needs to
be in my common/lib directory.  Does this sound correct?  (Obviously this is
something I can test - and I am testing, but moving jars is a slow process,
involving a restart, etc).

Finally, generally speaking, what is the common practice for the placement
of these dependencies?

Thanks for your time.
Chris