technology

Deploy to Tomcat with maven

Previously, I used maven to generate and package a jersey webapp. Today, I’ll extend our project to deploy the war file to Tomcat. This basically amounts to configuring Tomcat to accept connections from maven and configuring maven to use a specific Tomcat instance.

For our sample project, I’ll use a Tomcat instance on Nitrous.io. If you’re also using Nitrous, then you’ll probably need to start by installing tomcat on your instance: 

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$ parts install tomcat
=> Extracting archive...
=> Installing...
=> Activating...
=> Installed tomcat 7.0.53
To start the Apache Tomcat server:
  $ parts start tomcat

To stop the Apache Tomcat server:
  $ parts stop tomcat

Apache Tomcat config is located at:
  $ /home/action/.parts/packages/tomcat/7.0.53/conf

Default webapps at:
  $ /home/action/.parts/packages/tomcat/7.0.53/webapps

Default port: 8080

Next, you’ll need to enable access to the tomcat manager application. Edit the conf/tomcat-users.xml to enable the manager-text manager-script role and assign a user to that role (use a more complex password). 

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$ tail .parts/packages/tomcat/7.0.53/conf/tomcat-users.xml
<!--
  <role rolename="tomcat"/>
  <role rolename="role1"/>
  <user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat"/>
  <user username="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1"/>
  <user username="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1"/>
-->
  <role rolename="manager-script"/>
  <user username="maven" password="password" roles="manager-script"/>
</tomcat-users>

Update your maven settings file with the corresponding username and password. Since the settings file is external to your project, your credentials shouldn’t leak out when you distribute your project. 

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$ cat ~/.m2/settings.xml
<settings>
  <localRepository>/MyApps/Developer/MavenRepo</localRepository>

  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>nitrous</id>
      <username>maven</username>
      <password>password</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

Add a plugin to your pom.xml for tomcat7. Note the configuration lines for the:

  • url [of your tomcat instance]
  • server [defined in your maven settings file]
  • path [of your webapp]
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$ git diff
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ef884e8..db07a75 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -22,6 +22,17 @@
                     <target>1.7</target>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
+
+            <plugin>
+              <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
+              <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+              <version>2.2</version>
+              <configuration>
+                <url>http://xxxxxx-nnnnnn.use1-2.nitrousbox.com:8080/manager/text</url>
+                <server>nitrous</server>
+                <path>/jersey-json</path>
+              </configuration>
+            </plugin>
         </plugins>
     </build>

Now maven can deploy your war with tomcat7:deploy (use tomcat7:redeploy to redeploy). 

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$ mvn tomcat7:deploy
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]                                                                         
[INFO]
 ...

[INFO] Webapp assembled in [106 msecs]
[INFO] Building war: /Projects/webapps/tutorial/jersey-gson/target/jersey-gson.war
[INFO] WEB-INF/web.xml already added, skipping
[INFO] 
[INFO] <<< tomcat7-maven-plugin:2.2:deploy (default-cli) < package @ jersey-gson <<<
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- tomcat7-maven-plugin:2.2:deploy (default-cli) @ jersey-gson ---
[INFO] Deploying war to http://xxxxxx-nnnnnn.use1-2.nitrousbox.com:8080/jersey-json  
Uploading: http://xxxxxx-nnnnnn.use1-2.nitrousbox.com:8080/manager/text/deploy?path=%2Fjersey-json
Uploaded: http://xxxxxx-nnnnnn.use1-2.nitrousbox.com:8080/manager/text/deploy?path=%2Fjersey-json (3609 KB at 660.9 KB/sec)

[INFO] tomcatManager status code:200, ReasonPhrase:OK
[INFO] OK - Deployed application at context path /jersey-json
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 22.585 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2014-09-21T17:23:14-04:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 19M/245M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

And a quick test to verify that the application has been successfully deployed. 

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$ curl http://xxxxxx-nnnnnn.use1-2.nitrousbox.com:8080/jersey-json/
<html>
<body>
    <h2>Jersey RESTful Web Application!</h2>
    <p><a href="webapi/myresource">Jersey resource</a>
    <p>Visit <a href="http://jersey.java.net">Project Jersey website</a>
    for more information on Jersey!
</body>
</html>
$ ack --nopager url-pattern --xml
src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
16:        <url-pattern>/webapi/*</url-pattern>
$ ack --nopager -w @Path
src/main/java/com/ideoplex/tutorial/MyResource.java
11:@Path("myresource")
$ curl http://xxxxxx-nnnnnn.use1-2.nitrousbox.com:8080/jersey-json/webapi/myresource
Got it!%

View the jersey-gson project on github.

27 Sep: Corrected tomcat role.