I'm trying to deploy a java web application to Tomcat using Visual Studio Code and I'm having some issues that I'd like to share.
After installing the extension Tomcat for Java, I've tried to deploy a Maven Java Web project. To do so, I've clicked over project's folder and selected "Run on Tomcat Server" option. The result is an error with this message: The folder is not a valid web app to run on Tomcat Server.
Then, I've realized that maybe I should create a war file before running it on Tomcat. Therefore, I've executed mvn clean package command and afterwards execute "Run on Tomcat Server" option over the war file. Doing this the project has been deployed correctly.
However, compared to Eclipse's way to work with Tomcat, it seems to me a bit tedious. Particularly if I'm working with static files, like css or js, because every time I modify a file I should execute mvn clean package and "Run on Tomcat Server". Whereas, in Eclipse, these files are deployed automatically on Tomcat without restarting.
I wonder if there is another way to work with VS Code and Tomcat for Java.
Thanks!
If you use Spring, there is an easy way.
The Spring Initializr extension comes with an embedded Tomcat installation, and hot reloading works out of the box.
Rely on the following guide to install it:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/java/java-spring-boot
Related
I started my journey into web applications about three years ago and I'm happy to say that I've finally deployed a working website. My concern is that to deploy the website I use the Eclipse IDE and a Tomcat webserver. So basically I right click the project in Eclipse and then choose "Run As > Run on Server" and then select the Tomcat server I downloaded - from that point on the console spits out some startup messages and my website is online and ready for use. What are are some of the drawbacks of deploying a project this way. I've read just briefly about WAR files and adding them to Tomcats Webapps folder but I could neither get that working nor did I understand completely the process...so is it acceptable to just deploy the project the way I have been doing thus far by running it in Eclipse?
Generally Development machine and deployment server is different.
On Deployment server one may not have eclipse always.
WAR file is just a webarchive which includes all the necessary files. WAR makes your project portable.
Export WAR from eclipse place it in tomcat webapps in any machine and restart tomcat.
You should have your webapp successfully running on that machine.
That's a fine way for deploying a server when you're learning, or always have the server (the only server!) running on your development machine.
If you need to push to a remote machine, it won't work, and you'll need to learn other methods then, but for now, what you're doing is fine.
I have got a war file generated using Maven and it works perfectly fine when i manually deploy it on the tomcat server.
However, the war file was generated using Maven on eclipse and when i try deploying this on the server using eclipse, it just doesn't act. The tomcat server starts perfectly fine. What I do is : Right click on the Tomcat Server 7.0, then Add/Remove Project and add it to the server.
The problem is when I deploy and publish it on the server and nothing happens after that.
On trying to access it, it says - The required resource is not found
Eclipse doesn't deploy the WAR. Instead, it knows how Tomcat works and deploys the exploded WAR.
The next step is to look into the webapps/ folder of Tomcat to make sure Eclipse really has deployed something.
If that looks ok, you need to look into the Tomcat log to see why it doesn't like the deployed web app.
Most of the time, there is old code which is somehow stuck in Tomcat, so Tomcat can't undeploy the old version. If that's the case, stop Tomcat, delete the app manually and try again.
There were certain jars required in specific versions for the application to work. I was usin the maven supported versions. I have got it to work adding them directly in Tomcat's lib folder for time being and the application now works. (Anyways i need to look to get them configured now on the maven)
Also, i guess installing the plugin for m2e - eclipse.org/m2e-wtp helped as well. Thanks #Aaron Digulla for the inputs.
I have downloaded a sample extjs+mysql+spring web project (link) with a java backend that I'd like to set up locally on my machine. I have installed Tomcat server, and MySQL DB but it's my first time ever with a java-based web application and I have troubles setting it up. Does it require any modifications ? I thought that .jsp files should be included there, but I can only see .java sources. Do I need to build it before it's ready for deployment ? Any help appreciated.
This is an Eclipse project so you'd need to run it from within Eclipse.
Download Eclipse
Open the project in it
Define a Tomcat container in your Servers tab
Drag and drop the project onto the newly defined Tomcat
Run it
if your are using eclipse IDE for development, create a project in eclipse,
run as "run on server" , and set the running server (eg TOMCAT 7).
and thats it,,
make sure, you correctly setup spring project in IDE with all needed jar files .
I'm trying to run a multi-module Maven web app in Eclipse (EE Helios SR 1). In NetBeans one have just to click the run button. But here it's probably a little more complicated.
I've added Tomcat 7.0.26 as a server for the war module of the project. When I try running the app, in the Servers part of the window I see Apache Tomcat v.7.0.26 at localhost [Started, Synchronized], but browser doesn't react. Does the system browser need to show the page when the app is running?
I tried to move to localhost:8080 and localhost:8080/welcome.html (the second one should be processed by the app) when the server was started, but I got 404 error both times. I also didn't see the new folder in the apache-tomcat-7.0.26/webapps/. Should Eclipse place the project there when running the application? I'd be really grateful if someone tells me what I'm missing here.
If not specified, tomcat integration with eclipse deploy by default war to a specific folder in .metadata, in my case somethings like: ~/workspace/<my_project_workspace_name>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.wst.server.core/tmp0/wtpwebapps/
Every war are then unzipped to a folder. If your maven pom.xml you'll find a
<build>
<finalName>myapp</finalName>
</build>
Then it'll deployed to tomcat as :
localhost:8080/myapp/welcome.html
I have had a lot of bad experience with running web servers in Eclipse. Most of the time, this was related to unreliable class/resource reloading.
My solution was to add Jetty to my app in a new module (see Embedding Jetty). This basically turns my web app into a Java application, avoiding most of the problems. It also allows me to specify a filter (written in Java) when the app should reload.
This solves all the problems with class reloading (classes and resources are never copied anywhere; they are loaded from Eclipse's bin folders), startup is much faster (we got the startup time from several minutes down to 15s) and reliable.
Maven Projects are different from the ones with Web Application Facets, You cannot directly run a Maven App as a web app because the folder structure is different. In order to run your application directly from eclipse, try to add Web Application nature to your maven project [A complex modification involving modification of .project and .classpath files along with addition of few other files]. I would recommend modifying your pom.xml file accordingly
I use ant script to create a war file of my application. Is there a way to debug my application in eclipse?
If you are using tomcat server. Install Mongrel plug-in to your eclipse. After building ant script, just add break points to code and click on tomcat start button provided by Mongrel plug-in. Your app will be automatically running in debug mode. And Mongrel(Tomcat) automatically deploys your war file.
I am currently using the same for my projects.
If you have all the source code in Eclipse and merely use the ant script for building, you should be able to do debugging by just putting the generated war in the deploy folder of your server (or doing whatever else your server requires to deploy a war), and then simply start up your server via Eclipse.
Eclipse wouldn't 'know' that anything has been deployed to the server it has just started, but the connection between WTP's deployer and JDT's debugger is pretty weak anyway. It will simply try to match classes in the JVM to Java files in your workspace. If you have the actual source there this will of course match and you can debug.