I have an Eclipse Java web application that I am deploying to Tomcat 7 from within Eclipse 3.7. In my Eclipse server configuration at Servers > Tomcatv7-config > server.xml, I see the following line is added when I deploy my application:
<Context docBase="myapp" path="/myapp" reloadable="true" source="org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:myapp"/>
My question is this: is there any way for me to add a parameter to this <Context> element for a specific project?
What I need to do is add useHttpOnly=”false” in order for DWR to work properly in Tomcat 7. I understand the security risks with this, so please no lecture :)
You should be able to specify a context.xml in /META-INF/ within your WAR/Project which will trump the server.xml line:
In an individual file at /META-INF/context.xml inside the application
files. Optionally (based on the Host's copyXML attribute) this may be
copied to $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/ and renamed to
application's base file name plus a ".xml" extension.
Related
I'm using Tomcat 8.5.6 inside Eclipse 4.6.1. I have my web-app project/context foo, which has a JAX-RS (using RESTEasy 3.1.0.CR3) endpoint of bar, so I can fire up Tomcat inside Eclipse and access:
http://localhost:8080/foo/bar
I have a variable named foobar which I want to access inside my JAX-RS implementation using JNDI:
final String foobar = (String) new InitialContext().lookup("java:comp/env/foobar");
I plan on deploying the produced WAR in production using Tomcat autodeploy. I want to configure the foobar variable for Tomcat externally to the WAR. How can I do that so that I can test it in Eclipse?
After a lot of reading, I found what I thought to be the $CATALINA_HOME of Eclipse: …\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\. So I created a context file for foo at …\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\conf\Catalina\localhost\foo.xml to correspond to my project/context, and put the following inside it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context>
<Environment name="foobar" type="java.lang.String" value="123"/>
</Context>
Yes, I know that Eclipse erases this directory whenever I rebuild. But after building, I saved to file at least want to see if it works. It doesn't. I get an error:
javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Name [foobar] is not bound in this Context. Unable to find [foobar].
I want to at least get it working so I can know how to do this in production, and worry later about the context file deletion thing in Eclipse. So what did I do wrong? Why can't Tomcat in Eclipse find this JNDI variable?
Note: I am not using a web.xml file and have no desire to do so; besides, this variable should be defined outside the WAR in the production deployment.
Update: The good news is that (on Windows 10 Professional Anniversary Edition 64-bit) using the same Tomcat but in standalone mode, I put the same foobar.xml file inside the standalone Tomcat's conf\Catalina\localhost\foo.xml, and my JAX-RS application picked it up just fine. So how can I define a JNDI variable in Tomcat inside Eclipse for testing?
It appears that in order to get Eclipse+Tomcat to recognize the per-module context files, you have to go into the server configuration (double-click on the server) and turn on the Publish module contexts to separate XML files. This way Tomcat will use the specific context XML file you created. Otherwise it apparently puts them in conf/server.xml and ignores the context-specific file you created.
There is still the problem that Eclipse regenerates this file each time you do a rebuild, destroying whatever JNDI variables you placed there. I'm trying to get the workaround in https://stackoverflow.com/a/22380248/421049 to work, but not yet succeeding. Anyone have any better ideas?
At least I'm able to reproduce a production environment now --- albeit temporarily, until the next rebuild.
Your link to Markus' answer on https://stackoverflow.com/a/22380248/1794485 allowed me to get this working, or at least as described in his workaround. But the remaining problem to solve was ordering.
As he said, you can workaround this by having a local copy of the META-INF/context.xml somewhere else, and adding this folder to the Deployment Assembly in the project properties of the Eclipse project.
This didn't pick up for me initially though. It looks like that while the Deployment Assembly in the properties shows as sorted by name, in fact it has an order like any other path. When I then removed the src/main/webapp entry (so the one containing the normal META-INF/context.xml) and added it back in, this effectively moved it down the pecking order. The next Tomcat deploy and startup in Eclipse finally put my preferred copy of META-INF/context.xml in .metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\wtpwebapps\myapp\META-INF
If in doubt about the true sequence of that Deployment Assembly path, have a look under your Eclipse project on the file system - at .settings\org.eclipse.wst.common.component.
How can I set the crossContext directive in the context of an web application so any WTP publish / deploy will set this correct to the generated Applications context.xml (conf/Catalina/localhost/appname.xml)
I tried to set it in the Servers context.xml as "default" but also generated a stub context.xml in the WEB-INF/context.xml of the web application, but nothing seems to help here ;/
The WEB-INF/context.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context crossContext="true">
</Context>
Notes:
related to How to get a tomcat project path from different project in same tomcat by using java
http://olafsblog.sysbsb.de/tomcat-5-und-crosscontext-konfiguration/
http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/51881/
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/context.html
http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/50640/
It's simple but not perfect:
After adding the module to tomcat via wtp, open the WTP Tomcat server.xml (typically located in your workspace > Servers > Tomcat vX.X Server at localhost) and add attribute crossContext="true" to the <Context> tag of the corresponding web-module.
check "Publish module contexts to seperate XML files" in Tomcat WTP Frontend
Positive side-effects:
This will survive any "clean Tomcats working directory" or "clean project" actions
(still) Negative:
This will be overridden / removed if you change any WTP Tomcat options that affects server.xml like adding new modules, changing ports... After this action, you have to add it again.
There is still NO frontend option as like for reloadable or ContextPath ;/
It's somehow related to Eclipse. For example:
<Host>
<Context docBase="foo" path="/foo" reloadable="true"
source="org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:foo" />
</Host>
Eclipse WTP adds the source attribute to the project-related <Context> element to identify the location of the source code associated with the context (thus, the actual project in the workspace which has been deployed to this server from inside Eclipse).
If you wondered about this due to a warning during Tomcat's startup, since Tomcat 6.0.16 any "unrecognized" XML tags and attributes in the context.xml or server.xml will produce a warning about it during the startup, although there's actually no means of a DTD.
Just ignore it. Tomcat shall work fine and Eclipse is happy with it. It won't occur in real production environment with a worthfully WAR file.
I have an EAR file I am trying to deploy alongside various WAR deployments on JBoss 4.2.3
The individual standalone WAR deployments are all working fine and are just a copy of the same application that is contained inside the EAR but the EAR deployment and it's included WAR(s) does not work correctly.
I am receiving a blank white page in the browser when I visit the virtual host that the jboss-web.xml is configured to associate with this EAR. The other virtual hosts associated with the standalone WAR deployments all work fine and are configured the same way.
I get no errors on startup and JBoss reports that the site was started. I have a jboss-web.xml file in the WAR's WEB-INF that ties it into a definition from server.xml. This works on every other type of configuration except the EAR. I keep getting just a white page, as if JBoss can't connect the WAR in the EAR to the host or maybe the WAR isn't starting right or I have some config wrong here.
When I fire up JBoss it creates the flex and railo directories in webwar1.war/WEB-INF as well as a railo-server directory as railo.ear/lib/railo-server but still just serves me a blank white page.
Here is where I stand...
I have a set of shared Railo JAR files are located in /JBoss/server/default/deploy/jboss-web.deployer/railojars/lib (I have told jboss-service.xml to include this as a classpath)
My site1.WAR and site2.WAR files are in the deploy folder and each contain an index.cfm and a WEB-INF with web.xml and jboss-web.xml mapped to a virtual host. They each use this shared Railo JAR instance and run perfectly. The sites I've configured in server.xml with a docPath and appPath to an outside folder use this shared JAR installation and run perfectly. Everything is good with this.
If I place a railo1.war, railo2.war, etc in the /JBoss/server/default/deploy folder (the full WAR with Railo lib folder) those sites use the Railo instance contained within the WAR. This is also great.
So, my only problem left is this:
under /JBoss/server/default/deploy I have created railo.ear
Inside railo.ear is:
META-INF which contains application.xml with:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE application PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD J2EE Application 1.2//EN" "http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/application_1_2.dtd">
<application id="RailoInstance1">
<display-name>Railo3</display-name>
<description>Railo3</description>
<module id="Module1">
<web>
<web-uri>webwar1.war</web-uri>
<context-root>/webwar1</context-root>
</web>
</module>
</application>
It also contains webwar1.war which contains: index.cfm and WEB-INF
WEB-INF has has web.xml, lib and jboss-web.xml
jboss-web.xml looks like this:
<jboss-web>
<context-root>/</context-root>
<virtual-host>foo3.com</virtual-host>
</jboss-web>
From server.xml:
<Host name="foo3.com">
<Alias>www.foo3.com</Alias>
</Host>
foo3.com is using jk_mod to send to JBoss via a virtual host from Apache. The other two sites (foo1.com, foo2.com) which are mapped to WAR deployments are configured the exact same way and work fine.
The WEB-INF includes the lib folder so I would expect this webwar1.WAR instance to use the Railo JAR files contained in that lib folder. The problem is that when I start JBoss, all of my other sites configured their various ways work, but the site in webwar1.war is not coming up. I simply see a white page in the browser.
So, either the jboss-web.xml in WEB-INF in the webwar1.war file is not being connected to the defined in server.xml or something else is going wrong here. My other standalone WAR installations and the shared JARs sites all see their respective descriptors as marked in their jboss-web.xml and have the same content as this deployment.
So, I'm just trying to figure out what I need to do to get this last EAR configuration to work.
The way I am trying now seems like each WAR would try to use the JAR files it contains, but I want to have one set of shared JAR files for the whole EAR and then each WAR file in the ear use those JARS.
I want to be able to have webwar1.war, webwar2.war, etc under this one EAR configuration so I have moved the lib folder out of webwar1.war/WEB-INF/lib and into railo.ear/lib
I would love to set it up this way, but I can't even get one WAR with its own JAR files to load up right when inside the EAR. I have tried this new configuration and get the same blank white page in the browser.
Any ideas?
JBoss gives me no errors. Another odd thing is that I don't get an error from Apache like I do when I try to visit a site that is improperly configured and did not start up. And if I visit a site that is not set up as a host in JBoss and I am redirected via jk_mod to JBoss, I see the JBoss default page. I am not seeing this default page when I visit the virtual host associated with this webwar1.war in the railo.ear, so JBoss must know that it's supposed to do something with the domain / virtual host or else it would show me that default JBoss page. Instead I see a blank white one.
I should also mention that this works on JBoss 5.1. The railo.ear configured the exact same way latches onto the virtual host and works properly.
Help? Thanks!!!!
Sounds like a complicated job; the folks on the railo-users mailing list might be able to help : http://groups.google.com/group/railo
Railo also has a professional services team who are ace : http://www.getrailo.com/index.cfm/contact-us/
I would like to collect some best-practices on deployment of a web-application to a running Tomcat. Not long ago I had to describe the deployment process of our web-application and the process appeared rather confusing.
Say, we have an application in a WAR file (foo.war) correctly configured and not requiring additional configuration. In this case, the deployment process is rather easy:
Copy the foo.war file to the $CATALINA_HOME/webapps directory. If the application starts correctly, the application will automatically deploy to $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/foo directory.
To undeploy the application:
Remove the foo.war file from the $CATALINA_HOME/webapps. If the application unloads correctly, it will be unloaded and the $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/foo will be removed.
Now I want to override some context parameters in my running application. Having read the docs, all I need to do:
Create a context.xml file called foo.xml
Copy the file to the $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/ directory.
Unfortunately, that did not work: the application would not restart. Empirically, we found out that the only working solution is when the war file is deployed to a location outside the $CATALINA_HOME/webapps.
Besides, the default values of the configurable context parameters in the WAR file should be specified in the web.xml, since context.xml in the WAR file is not read when there is a context.xml outside.
Here is an easy example of the foo.xml:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<Context docBase="/path-to-deployment-directory/foo.war">
<Parameter name="myparam" value="newvalue" override="false"/>
</Context>
Be sure to specify override=false for the parameter if you want the 'newvalue' to override the value specified in the WAR's web.xml. This was not obvious for us.
Thus, to deploy an aplication to a running Tomcat:
Create a context.xml file called foo.xml
Copy the file to the $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/ directory.
Copy the foo.war to the location specified in the docBase of the foo.xml; the application will deploy automatically.
To apply new context parameters:
Add the parameter values to the foo.xml and save the file; the application will re-deploy automatically.
To undeploy the application:
Remove the foo.xml from the $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/ directory
Note that removing the foo.war will also work, but will remove the foo.xml as well.
By now, I have the following questions:
Is it a best-practice at all to deploy a web-application without stopping the tomcat? I heard an opinion that deployment to a running tomcat is never needed since people run each application in a separate tomcat.
Is it a good idea to copy WAR files to $CATALINA_HOME/webapps or they should better be kept in a separate location?
How can I configure an application deployed to $CATALINA_HOME/webapps
Why there is no INFO line in the catalina.out for deployment of an application and there is one for undeployment? Is it configurable?
On question (1), Tomcat works great for deploying servlets into a running server. There may be concerns w.r.t. security or possibly D.O.S. or provisioning reasons why you would have separate server instances.
You have the flexibility to do either way, but it is often more convenient to deploy to an already running server. This is a BUILT-IN feature in the servlet architecture. :)
For (2), again it is at your discretion where you you want to put WARs. It sounds like you already have it configured a non-standard (non-default I should say) way. Check your server.xml file for the settings in your server instance(s). Check for attributes like unpackWARs and autoDeploy.
For (3) and (4), plus your (1,2) questions, it might be a good idea to consult the Tomcat docs for your version of Tomcat on its deployment model. You should be able to use the same docs to figure out how your server has been configured.
See Tomcat Web Application Deployment in the Tomcat manual, adjusting for your version of Tomcat.
One solution would be to use the manager application. If you decide that is safe to use it, then you can easily deploy, start, stop and undeploy applications:
http://localhost:8080/manager/deploy?path=[context_path]
http://localhost:8080/manager/start?path=[context_path]
http://localhost:8080/manager/stop?path=[context_path]
http://localhost:8080/manager/undeploy?path=[context_path]
There are ant tasks that can help you with these.
I am guessing, but do not know for sure, that stopping and starting an application will make it reread the context.xml.
Regarding your second question, I believe it is better for maintenance reasons to keep the war files in the webapps directory.