Tomcat: keeping specific files when deploying a WAR file

tomcatweb-applications

Is there a way to tell tomcat to keep specific files under a exploded WAR file's directory?

let's say I have the following folder that I've created after the WAR has been deployed:

/webapps/myApp/uploads

Everytime I deploy the WAR it is deleted. Is there a way to keep this directory and its files?

Best Answer

According to the Tomcat 6.0 deployment howto, the exploded webapp "is removed, and the .WAR is expanded again". So the whole /webapps/myApp/ directory gets deleted upon deployment. There is no way to keep the files in it.

If you want to keep the uploaded files, you should define a directory outside your webapp dir, and use that from within the web application.

Related Solutions

Tomcat – Auto-deploy WAR to arbitrary URL on Tomcat

Thanks to a mailing list response, I found a way to do what I want.

The solution is to not use the auto-deploy feature for WAR files in "/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps", but instead uploading the WAR file to another directory. Then one must explicitly create a context configuration file matching the URL path, e.g. "/var/lib/tomcat6/conf/Catalina/localhost/sub#url.xml" with this content:

<Context docBase="/path/to/war/arbitrary-filename.war" />

Web-server – Create tomcat war file from static web dir

In order to deploy content on tomcat, one has to include a file /WEB-INF/web.xml. Below an example of a web.xml that I used to deploy some static content through tomcat.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app>
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>debug</param-name>
            <param-value>0</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
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            <param-value>false</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>fork</param-name>
            <param-value>false</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>3</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.json</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.csv</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
         <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.html</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.css</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.jpg</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.jpeg</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.png</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.gif</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <mime-mapping>
        <extension>csv</extension>
        <mime-type>text/csv</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>      

    <mime-mapping>
        <extension>css</extension>
        <mime-type>text/css</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>  

    <mime-mapping>
        <extension>js</extension>
        <mime-type>application/javascript</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>     

    <mime-mapping>
        <extension>html</extension>
        <mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
    </mime-mapping>     

  <security-constraint>
    <web-resource-collection>
      <web-resource-name>Restricted URLs</web-resource-name>
      <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </web-resource-collection>
    <user-data-constraint>
      <transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
    </user-data-constraint>
  </security-constraint>

  <!-- Default page to serve -->
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>

</web-app>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Tomcat – Auto-deploy WAR to arbitrary URL on Tomcat

Web-server – Create tomcat war file from static web dir

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