How can I deploy war in Tomcat 6

Question

I have used Jboss and deployment happens by dropping war to deploy folder. But when I set my war project to Tomcat server eclipse claims that it is deploying war, but I cannot see my war in webapps folder. And what url is to my war? In jboss I can add app url to jboss-web.xml, so when I set app path to jboss-web.xml I can find my app from http://localhost:8080/my_app_path_in_jboss_web.xml/.

Answer 1

Using ant simplifies the task. Here is an an ant build.xml file I use to deploy to tomcat 6. (note, I wasn't the origial author of this, but I forget where I got it from)

<project name="provisioning" basedir="." default="usage">
<property file="build.properties"/>

<property name="src.dir" value="src"/>
<property name="web.dir" value="war"/>
<property name="build.dir" value="${web.dir}/WEB-INF/classes"/>
<property name="name" value="provisioning"/>

<path id="master-classpath">
    <fileset dir="${web.dir}/WEB-INF/lib">
        <include name="*.jar"/>
    </fileset>
    <!-- We need the servlet API classes: -->
    <!--  * for Tomcat 5/6 use servlet-api.jar -->
    <!--  * for other app servers - check the docs -->
    <fileset dir="${appserver.lib}">
        <include name="servlet*.jar"/>
    </fileset>
    <pathelement path="${build.dir}"/>
</path>

<target name="usage">
    <echo message=""/>
    <echo message="${name} build file"/>
    <echo message="-----------------------------------"/>
    <echo message=""/>
    <echo message="Available targets are:"/>
    <echo message=""/>
    <echo message="build     --> Build the application"/>
    <echo message="deploy    --> Deploy application as directory"/>
    <echo message="deploywar --> Deploy application as a WAR file"/>
    <echo message="install   --> Install application in Tomcat"/>
    <echo message="reload    --> Reload application in Tomcat"/>
    <echo message="start     --> Start Tomcat application"/>
    <echo message="stop      --> Stop Tomcat application"/>
    <echo message="list      --> List Tomcat applications"/>
    <echo message=""/>
</target>

<target name="build" description="Compile main source tree java files">
    <mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
    <javac destdir="${build.dir}" source="1.6" target="1.6" debug="true"
           deprecation="false" optimize="false" failonerror="true">
        <src path="${src.dir}"/>
        <classpath refid="master-classpath"/>
    </javac>
</target>

<target name="deploy" depends="build" description="Deploy application">
    <copy todir="${deploy.path}/${name}" preservelastmodified="true">
        <fileset dir="${web.dir}">
            <include name="**/*.*"/>
        </fileset>
    </copy>
</target>

<target name="deploywar" depends="build" description="Deploy application as a WAR file">
    <war destfile="${name}.war"
         webxml="${web.dir}/WEB-INF/web.xml">
        <fileset dir="${web.dir}">
            <include name="**/*.*"/>
        </fileset>
    </war>
    <copy todir="${deploy.path}" preservelastmodified="true">
        <fileset dir=".">
            <include name="*.war"/>
        </fileset>
    </copy>
</target>

<path id="catalina-ant-classpath">
    <!-- We need the Catalina jars for Tomcat -->
    <!--  * for other app servers - check the docs -->
    <fileset dir="${appserver.lib}">
        <include name="catalina-ant.jar"/>
    </fileset>
</path>

<taskdef name="install" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.InstallTask">
    <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
</taskdef>
<taskdef name="reload" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask">
    <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
</taskdef>
<taskdef name="list" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ListTask">
    <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
</taskdef>
<taskdef name="start" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.StartTask">
    <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
</taskdef>
<taskdef name="stop" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.StopTask">
    <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
</taskdef>

<target name="install" description="Install application in Tomcat">
    <install url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
             username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
             password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
             path="/${name}"
             war="${name}"/>
</target>

<target name="reload" description="Reload application in Tomcat">
    <reload url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
             username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
             password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
             path="/${name}"/>
</target>

<target name="start" description="Start Tomcat application">
    <start url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
             username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
             password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
             path="/${name}"/>
</target>

<target name="stop" description="Stop Tomcat application">
    <stop url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
             username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
             password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
             path="/${name}"/>
</target>

<target name="list" description="List Tomcat applications">
    <list url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
             username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
             password="${tomcat.manager.password}"/>
</target>

Answer 2

I deploy WARs to the webapps dir all the time without issue, probably ~25 times a day. You shouldn't have any problems with that. If you want more control by all means deploy the directory yourself, but this will most likely require a restart.

Answer 3

If I understand correctly, you have configured eclipse to use Tomcat by adding a new Server. In that case eclipse deploys the war file in folder inside your workspace, NOT at $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps. I can't remember the path in eclipse's workspace folder from the top of my head - it should be something that contains tmp, server, ...

Answer 4

You have added Tomcat server in eclipse, eclipse runs the WAR file within your workspace. Eclipse does not use your %TOMCAT_HOME%. To be able to see your WAR in the webapps folder simply drop it in there. You will then be albe to run the war from localhost.