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Pass system variables to the application deployed to tomcat

I do have a tomcat server where three apps are running.
For one of them i need to pass the system variables (-D) like spring active profiles and some other project specific variables.
I've read the documentation and one of the solutions was to create a context.xml (as far as i understood it has to have the same name as the war file) at $CATALINA_BASE/localhost/ folder
I've tried to do it like that
<Context>
<Parameter name="spring.profiles.active" value="profile"
override="false"/>
<Parameter name="variable" value="value"
override="false"/>
</Context>
But after the tomcat is restarted seems that the app is not starting and nothing actually happens.
Since there are 3 apps on tomcat server i'm unable to use setenv.sh and the parameters have to be passed specifically for this project.
Do you have any idea on what am i doing wrong and how to pass the system variables to a specific application on tomcat server?
Thanks for your suggestions

My mistake was that i've named the file context.xml and not the applicationName.xml
The file itself looks like:
<Context>
<Environment name="spring.profiles.active" value="profile" type="java.lang.String" override="false" />

META-INF/context.xml causing problems in my Java Webapp

I'm deploying a simple Java 7 (I used Maven for project set-up, dependencies, etc) web app to Tomcat 8 and I have a META-INF/context.xml that I need to specify my database resource:
project/src/main/resources/META-INF/context.xml
<xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context>
<Resource name="jdbc/TestDB" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
maxTotal="100" maxIdle="30" maxWaitMillis="10000"
username="root" password="root" driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
url="jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1:3306/javatest"/>
</Context>
When I remove this META-INF/context.xml file from the project, I am able to access my jsps but, of course, they return errors since my datasource is missing. However, when I include META-INF/context.xml back to the project, all resources that I try to access give me a 404. Why does it behave this way?
For reference, I am trying how to use a JNDI data source by following this guide. I did all the steps necessary in that project

Are there any exceptions when the server is starting?
If the jdbc driver is not bundled in WEB-INF/lib and not in CATALINA_BASE/lib then it can't find the class. That would most likely result in a startup failure.
Check catalina.out (if you are on unix) or CATALINA_BASE/logs/localhost/catalina.date.log
Edit
Just noticed you have src/main/resources/META-INF
Try src/main/webapp/META-INF/context.xml ...

Do not remove the META-INF/context.xml because it is the default configuration for the project! Also do not enter production-password into the default META-INF/context.xml!
Use copyXML="true" instead! On first deployment to tomcat the META-INF/context.xml is copied permanently into tomcat/conf/Catalina!
Set to true if you want a context XML descriptor embedded inside the application
(located at /META-INF/context.xml) to be copied to xmlBase when the application is
deployed. On subsequent starts, the copied context XML descriptor will be used in
preference to any context XML descriptor embedded inside the application even if the
descriptor embedded inside the application is more recent. The flag's value defaults to
false. Note if deployXML is false, this attribute will have no effect.
After first deployment update tomcat/conf/Catalina/webappname.xml to productive database informations.
Any redeployment will keep using the tomcat/conf/Catalina/webappname.xml.

How to set context path in context.xml

I have to deploy my app.war file in tomcat 7. The .war file name is followed by its version no.
Here I need to set up a context path, so that the actual url will contain only the app name(without version no).
My requirement is that, there should be no edit in server.xml.
My context.xml is as follows.
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<Context path="/app" docBase="app-1.0" debug="0" reloadable="true">
<!-- Defines links to JNDI Data Sources -->
<!-- Thus the server determines database connection. -->
<ResourceLink
name="..."
global="..."
auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"/>
.....
.....
</Context>
The context.xml is placed inside the war at /META-INF folder.
Can anyone tell me where am i wrong.

All the elements are in the docs :
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/config/context.html#Naming
For your use case, you could do try :
change your version number format (from app-1.0.0.war to app##1.0.0.war
for instance)
place your war in another folder and create a app.xml
in $catalina.base/conf/Catalina/ which contains : <Context path="/app" docBase="/path/to/app-1.0" debug="0" reloadable="true">
avoid having your war with version number

Had a similar problem and it took me a long time to find the solution. It's on the tomcat site but it's difficult to find. This is what I did.
Your war file will be deployed to a folder under %CATALINA_BASE%. I put mine in a folder called deploy. (%CATALINA_BASE%/deploy)
You'll create an XML file with the path to your war file above and place it in %CATALINA_BASE%/conf/Catalina/localhost. The name of the xml file will become your context root. If the name of your war file is app1.2.war and you want your context root to be /app you're create app.xml:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<Context docBase="C:\tomcat7\Servers\server-app\deploy\app1.2" reloadable="false"/>
(My deployment is on Windows, you'll obviously have to adjust for a different OS.)
Also, let's for whatever reason say you want your context root to be /foo/Bar/app, change the name of your xml to foo#Bar#app.xml.

Eclipse Tomcat - Context environment variable

I use eclipse + tomcat + maven.
When I deploy my project to Tomcat, the following entry gets added to the server.xml of the tomcat configuration:
<Context docBase="C:\ws_eclipse\ws\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp1\wtpwebapps\MyApp" path="/myApp" reloadable="true" source="org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:MyApp"/>
What I actually want is to add an environment variable so that the context looks like this:
<Context docBase="C:\ws_eclipse\ws\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp1\wtpwebapps\MyApp" path="/myApp" reloadable="true" source="org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:MyApp">
<Environment name="config.file" type="java.lang.String" value="C:/test/config.xml" />
</Context>
I tried adding it as an environment variable in eclipse run configuration, but when I deployed the application on tomcat, the context does not include the environment variable.

You could add a context.xml file in the META-INF directory of your webapp. The content of this file may look like:
<Context>
<Parameter name="config.file" value="C:/test/config.xml"/>
</Context>
This has the same effect as defining a <context-param/> in your web.xml. Use ServletContext.getInitParameter("config.file") to retrieve it's value as a String.
You may use Environment as well, but it's probably overkill (You just need a String anyway, I think).
See http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/context.html

Setting it in application launch configuration is the best way, you might want to verify what you did at here - Creating a Java application launch configuration
HTH

How to provide a context configuration for a web application in Tomcat?

I have a web application that relies on some resources and parameters to be configured after it is installed, like a JDBC connection.
What I have come up with is providing a META-INF/context.xml which is copied into [engine-name]/[server-name]/[app-name].xml by Tomcat when I deploy the application. This way all I am providing is a war file that can be copied into the appBase folder (webapps).
Tomcat's documentation says if there is such a file it won't be overwritten which is really great, since the changes made after deployment won't be lost.
But there is a subtle issue here:
Since we deploy the application by copying into webapps directory, Tomcat will first uninstall the existing application as well as the configuration file. This way the configuration file will be lost / overwritten which is not desirable.
Tomcat won't modify this behaviour as far as I know.
The question is:
Is there a way to work around this issue by installing the application in a way that Tomcat won't remove the existing configuration file.
Or, is there a better way of packaging the application?
Please note that we don't want to set autoDeploy to false and we cannot use human intervention for the installation (which rules out using Tomcat Manager web application).
If I get the configuration file out of .war file and copy it separately as [engine-name]/[server-name]/[app-name].xml, Tomcat will still associate it with my application and remove it once I copy a new .war file.
Another assumption is: We don't know in advance the values to the configuration. We will only provide a sample configuration (a placeholder, if you wish) while actual configuration will be performed at some time later (not necessarily in the installation time).
Thanks

The solution is simple: don't put configuration in your context.xml.
Here is a solution that we use (which works well for a number of diverse external customers):
We have a single war which will be used in multiple environments, webapp.war. We have three environments, development, integration and production. Integration and production are at the customer site. We don't know passwords and file paths for the client integration and production sites.
We use a combination of two things: JNDI lookup for database stuff and external properties files.
In the context.xml that is delivered in the war, we have a ResourceLink
<ResourceLink name="jdbc/webapp"
global="uk.co.farwell.webapp.datasource.MySqlDataSource" />
This gives a reference to a globally defined data source, which is defined in the server.xml for Tomcat.
<Resource auth="Container"
driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
name="uk.co.farwell.webapp.datasource.MySqlDataSource"
password="xxx" url="xxx" username="fff" />
So the database details can be changed by editing the server.xml without changing the webapp.war. Crucially, this only needs to be done once for each server, not at redeploy.
In our spring configuration, to define the dataSource we have:
<jee:jndi-lookup id="dataSource" jndi-name="jdbc/webapp" />
For other properties, we have a global application.properties file which is delivered along with the webapp.war, but is not part of the war. This is referenced by a -D on the command line to start Tomcat. -Duk.co.farwell.webapp.applicationDir="/usr/xxx/fff". We pick up the definition and read the properties file. The database stuff could be done this way as well, but we'd lose the pooling done by Tomcat.
Another thing: we don't have to rebuild if servers are moved, or if machines are changed for some reason. This is a matter for the customer and their infrastructure people.

I managed to resolve this issue somehow.
1- Install an exploded WAR directory somewhere outside Tomcat's appBase, let's assume it is in /usr/local/MyApp. [You can use a WAR file for this step instead of WAR directory, if your application runs from an unexploded war.]
2- Copy the context configuration file into [tomcat.conf]/[engine]/[hostname] directory, let's call it MyApp.xml. This file will point to the location of the application:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Context configuration file for my web application -->
<Context docBase="/usr/local/MyApp" privileged="true" antiResourceLocking="false" antiJARLocking="false">
<Resource name="jdbc/myapp-ds" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource"
maxActive="100" maxIdle="30" maxWait="10000" username="XXX" password="XXX"
driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mydb" />
</Context>
3- You are now free to go and modify the configuration file.
4- Update the application by copying new version of your application in /usr/local/MyApp
Notes:
a) This solution applies to an unexpanded .war file as well, but since we use Spring's Log4JConfigListener it wouldn't run from an unexploded .war file. Tomcat doesn't explode .war files put outside appBase (webapps) folder.
b) This approach doesn't prevent you from having context.xml in /usr/local/MyApp/META-INF/context.xml since it will not be used by Tomcat in this configuration. You can use it in your dev environment, where you dump your .war file into the appBase (webapps) folder.
This is what I've got so far, still looking out for better solutions.

This is how we can manage to externalize webapp context from .WAR File
Place your .WAR file somewhere outside tomcat
Create a $APP_NAME.xml file into $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/[Engine]/[Host]/ directory.
Now file "$APP_NAME.xml" we just created need to have context definition and parameters + Any EnvironmentVariable you want specific to that context.
For e.g. I have an webapp called VirtualWebApp.
I will create file like VirtualWebApp.xml with below context definition :
<Context docBase="/home/appBase/VirtualWebApp" path="/VirtualWebApp" reloadable="true">
<Environment name="webservice.host" type="java.lang.String" value="1.2.3.4" />
<Environment name="webservice.port" type="java.lang.String" value="4040" />
</Context>
To access these environment variables you have to write below code(Just lookup) :
InitialContext initialContext = new javax.naming.InitialContext();
host = (String)initialContext.lookup("java:comp/env/webservice.host");
port = (String)initialContext.lookup("java:comp/env/webservice.port");

By referring to Apache Tomcat 5.5 Documentation:
In the $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml file: the Context element
information will be loaded by all webapps
You could easily try this approach, it might work, but I'm not sure if this is a good solution especially if you are running multiple webapps on Tomcat.

I don't know how to modify Tomcat's behaviour but I could think of 2 different solutions:
different (parameterized) build scripts for each environment, so that you define a parameter called env to your build scripts and depending on the value it places the environment specific context.xml in your WAR during build.
Create an install script for each environment that first redeploys the WAR file (places it in webapps directory) and then makes modifications to the Tomcat installation depending on environment, e.g. different hostname for JDBC DataSource in context.xml.
I make heavy use of the latter approach as it works in enterprise environments. Separation of duties policies often prohibit the dev team from knowing e.g. production database passwords. Option #2 solves this problem because only IT operations have access to the environment specific install scripts after they have been created.

#n0rm1e: not sure if tomcat provides any sort of solution for you problem. But one possible solution can be:-
create an ant script with following steps:
i) Check existence of .xml file in [engine-name]/[server-name] directory. If it exists, take a back up of this/rename it.
ii) copy your war file to tomcat webapps. Restart tomcat server.
iii) copy backup-ed configuration file back to [engine-name]/[server-name] directory