I am developing a Java application with Eclipse and under Apache Tomcat.
when I load an image it puts it in this directory : C:\wamp\www.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\wtpwebapps\myproject\.
If I want to display the image I should refresh the directory (images) in Eclipse.
Does that happen only when I use Eclipse? And if I deploy the project, will the image be loaded always in this folder or in any folder?
When you create a Tomcat project with Eclipse, you have a special folder where you can copy your web resources to, e.g. images, CSS files, and the like.
When you deploy your web application, Eclipse will package it correctly to make sure the images and CSS get copied over.
Make sure you use relative paths, not absolute paths. Also I would recommend you write a maven script or ant script to handle packaging and deployment instead of using Eclipse. It is cleaner and you understand better how things work.
Related
I am working with GWT and I have some issues with the images. I need images outside my WAR file and, In order to make them visible in the application, I must put them inside the "target" folder ( I am using maven as well). The problem is that the target folder by definition is deleted every time recompile the project. This issue happens only in hosted mode, because when I deploy the application on Tomcat I can just change the server.xml adding the following statement
and it should read correctly images outside my WAR file(not tried yet due to another problem I have)
Can anybody give me some suggestions?
What is the directory structure of your maven project? Why is there a requirement for you to put the images in the target folder? Typically in a Maven project the items you put in the src/main/resources/static such as images end up in the built artifact.
I have searched a lot and tried several ways to do this, but am stumped. I am writing a desktop app (though I suppose it could also run in a browser) that allows an Android programmer to edit all of their dimens.xml files at once. I have created my own images to use in ImageViews as buttons. I am using different methods to access these images:
Some are referenced in the FXML file, like <Image url="#Icons/ic_launcher.png" />. The path is "src/Icons/". The path of the FXML file is "src/application/xxx,fxml".
Some are referenced in the css file, like "-fx-image:url("QuestionMark.png");". The css file and png file are in the same directory "src/MessageBox/"
Some are changed dynamically at runtime:
ImageView mButtonIcon = new ImageView("/insert_item_above.png");
The path of the image: src/
The path of the class: src/ContextMenuButton/
The above only works in Netbeans 7.4. None work when I run the app in Eclipse.
If I go to the dist/ directory and run it from any of the 3 methods, I see my images.
If I move the dist/ folder somewhere else, the only way I can get it to work is if I copy the src/ folder to the same directory and delete everything but the png and css files. So, I end up with:
+ F:/AndroidDimens
+ dist
xxx.jar
+ src
insert_item_above.png
+ Icons
ic_launcher.png
+ MessageBox
QuestionMark.png
So, the jar file has modified all of the paths to be relative to the src/ folder. My goal is to make the paths relative to where the jar file is. I tried to place the images where I would not need project related paths. But it must have made the paths something like "../src/MessageBox/QuestionMark.png" in the jar (relative to the project's dist/ folder).
Is there any way to fix this? Ideally, I would like all images to be in one directory. Then I could zip that directory, and someone else could just unzip it and run the app.
Thanks!
EDIT
Thanks to #jewelsea (in chat), I found that the problem was due to having an older version of JDK 7u13 installed with the latest one needed for JavaFX 2.2. Deleting the old version, and updating global variables that referenced it, solved the problem. No changes were needed to the default project settings.
Packaging Advice
Package all of your application's runtime class files and resources (fxml, css, png, etc) in the application jar file using the JavaFX packaging tools.
Using the JavaFX packaging tools is what NetBeans 7.4 does automatically during it's build process for JavaFX application projects.
Eclipse and other build environments will not use the JavaFX packaging tools automatically. I believe, if you use Eclipse with the recommended e(fx)clipse extension toolset for JavaFX development, then that toolset will, through its UI, provide you with the ability to use the JavaFX packaging tools to package your application.
There are 3rd party packaging alternatives for JavaFX such as the JavaFX Maven Plugin or the JavaFX Gradle Plugin which will also package your application correctly.
Whatever packaging tool you choose, test the packaging process by unzipping the files from your resultant jar and checking that all of the resource files (fxml, css, png, properties etc) are where you expect them to be in the jar's internal directory structure. This unzipping process is just a developer sanity check, you don't need to ask your end users do perform such an extraction.
Your end users can run your application as either an installed native application (JavaFX term self-contained application) or as a click to execute jar file (JavaFX term standalone program) and all of your application's resources will automatically be available from the packaged application, with no additional work required by the user.
Resource Access Advice
I advise not referring to a src path in your code (as you won't have a src path inside your distribution jar), css or fxml files, but instead refer to those paths relative to the root of the distribution jar or your JavaFX application class. For example, to load a scene style sheet in a JavaFX Application subclass, use a form as recommended by the JavaFX deployment guide - 3.3.4 Loading Resources:
scene.getStylesheets().
add(this.getClass().getResource("my.css").toExternalForm());
Using Tomcat, I build a new WAR via Maven. Then I copy the output WAR to $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps. Then, ROOT.war becomes exploded and ROOT appears.
If I modify ROOT/style/core.css, will those changes be picked up by my web app at run-time when I re-run $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/catalina.sh start?
Note, this is a GWT application.
If you change files in the exploded WAR directory inside your webapps folder, the changes will immediately be visible. You don't even have to restart Tomcat for this to work.
I think there is a dev mode for GWT that will load the CSS as a static file distinct from the rest of the app. This wold enable normal editing of the file on disk to be seen in your gui.
https://developers.google.com/web-toolkit/doc/latest/DevGuideCompilingAndDebugging#DevGuideDevMode
I am using Glassfish 3.1.2 with Dojo 1.7 and would like to shorten the build process, it's taking quite a while for maven to copy the dojo js files each build. I could use the CDN version dojo but I would like to be able to debug when offline. Is there a way to tell Glassfish to use the pre-zipped dojo source file? Just to be clear, I don't want Glassfish to zip the files for me.
Can you place the desired resources in an independent WAR file, and deploy separately? You'll have a context path to the resources (diff URL) that is dependent on the new WAR file, but you'll be able to deploy it once.
If that's not satisfactory, you could alternatively write a small servlet (packaged in your normal app) to expose resources that you locate (*.getClass().getResourceStream()) from a jar file you've placed in glassfishv3/glassfish/domains/domain1/lib. This is trivial to do via a restful-ws, also some libraries (primefaces) facilitate exposing resources.
Experts
When we redeploy any application from an IDE such as MYEclipse , it just redeploys the .class files. I want to customize the eclipse developer, so the deployer can also deploy the custom files (other than class files).
Should i write any custom ANT script for Myeclipse or any custom settings the My Eclipse provides us ?
IDEs along the classes and libraries usually deploy everything they find in the web / www-root folder (in the folder that contains the WEB-INF and META-INF).
So you can configure your deployed applications structure using the IDE by structuring the content of that folder.
If it still doesn't fit your needs, then ANT would be the best option.
In my opinion ANT is always the best option, but using the development environment's functionality is proven faster then writing an ant build file.
Say, if you're developing a web service, a web application consuming that service, and a library that both the service and the webapp uses, then with a single (and not even long or difficult) ant file you can build them, create the aar, war and jar files and deploy them all in their correct places, eg. under axis, inside the global lib folder, and in the webapps folder.
All these in one step.