Is there a way to run a method/class only on tomcat startup?

Question

I have a need to remove temp files on tomcat startup, the pass to a folder which contains temp files is in applicationContext.xml

Is there a way to run a method/class only on tomcat startup?

Answer 1

UPDATE: I had a temporary malfunction - you should use a ContextListener, not a SessionListener.

Answer 2

You could write a ServletContextListener which calls your method from the contextInitialized() method. You attach the listener to your webapp in web.xml, e.g.

<listener>
   <listener-class>my.Listener</listener-class>
</listener>

and

package my;

public class Listener implements javax.servlet.ServletContextListener {

   public void contextInitialized(ServletContext context) {
      MyOtherClass.callMe();
   }
}

Strictly speaking, this is only run once on webapp startup, rather than tomcat startup, but that may amount to the same thing.

Answer 3

I'm sure there must be a better way to do it as part of the container's lifecycle (edit: Hank has the answer - I was wondering why he was suggesting a SessonListener before I answered), but you could create a Servlet which has no other purpose than to perform one-time actions when the server is started:

<servlet>
  <description>Does stuff on container startup</description>
  <display-name>StartupServlet</display-name>
  <servlet-name>StartupServlet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>com.foo.bar.servlets.StartupServlet</servlet-class>
  <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>