Webapp runner is designed to allow you to launch an exploded or compressed war that is on your filesystem into a tomcat container with a simple java -jar command. It supports the following version of Tomcat:
git clone git@github.com:jsimone/webapp-runner.git
mvn package
java -jar target/webapp-runner.jar path/to/my/project
or
java -jar target/webapp-runner.jar myProject.war
java -jar target/webapp-runner.jar --help
Prints out all arguments accepted
You can use the Maven dependency plugin to download webapp-runner as part of your build. This will eliminate the need for any external dependencies other than those specified in your build to run your application.
Add the following to your pom.xml:
<build>
...
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals><goal>copy</goal></goals>
<configuration>
<artifactItems>
<artifactItem>
<groupId>com.github.jsimone</groupId>
<artifactId>webapp-runner</artifactId>
<version>8.0.33.0</version>
<destFileName>webapp-runner.jar</destFileName>
</artifactItem>
</artifactItems>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
...
</build>
Now when you run maven package webapp runner will be downloaded for you. You can then launch your application with:
$ java -jar target/dependency/webapp-runner.jar target/<appname>.war
In versions 7.0.29.1 and newer support for a session manager that stores sessions in memcache is built in.
To use it add --session-store memcache to your startup command:
$ java -jar target/dependency/webapp-runner.jar --session-store memcache target/<appname>.war
Then make sure that three environment variables are available for configuration: MEMCACHE_SERVERS, MEMCACHE_USERNAME, MEMCACHE_PASSWORD
In versions 7.0.29.1 and newer support for a session manager that stores sessions in redis is built in.
To use it add --session-store redis to your startup command:
$ java -jar target/dependency/webapp-runner.jar --session-store redis target/<appname>.war
Then make sure that Redis environment variable is available for configuration: REDIS_URL
If you are using webapp-runner behind a proxy server, you can set the proxy base url within tomcat:
$ java -jar target/dependency/webapp-runner.jar --proxy-base-url http://example.com target/<appname>.war
If you pass an HTTPS base url, e.g. https://example.com, secure flag will be automatically added to session cookies. This indicates to the browser that cookies should only be sent over a secure protocol.
Since your application will just be a standard webapp you can still use WTP and the traditional Tomcat integration points to run your application within Eclipse. However the containerless nature of webapp runner allows you to run from within Eclipse in a simpler way.
Start by importing your project into Eclipse. It is best to import it as an existing Maven project using the m2eclipse plugin.
Add the following dependency to your pom.xml:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.github.jsimone</groupId>
<artifactId>webapp-runner</artifactId>
<version>8.0.30.1</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
This will cause Eclipse to include webapp-runner on the classpath of your project so that it can be used for launching. It won't affect the final artifact built for your application.
- Right-click on your project and choose 'Debug As -> Debug Configurations...'
- From the 'Debug Configuration' window create a new 'Java Application' launch configuration by double-clicking on 'Java Application' in the left hand list or right-clicking on it and selecting 'New'
- Give your launch configuration a sensible name. Then enter the name of your project in the 'Project' box
- Enter 'webapp.runner.launch.Main' in the 'Main Class' box
- Click on the 'Arguments' tab and enter './src/main/webapp' in the 'Program Arguments' box
- Click 'Apply' and then 'Run'
Your application should start and you should see the log output in the Eclipse console. Since you have a debugger attached to your application you'll now see changes to your code get automatically loaded without restarting and can set breakpoints.
You can stop the application from the red square in the console pane or from the debug perspective. It can be restarted by right-clicking on the project and choosing your new launch configuration from the 'Debug As' menu or from the debug menu in the Eclipse toolbar (the icon with the little bug).
Note: webapp runner is now available in Maven Central. The version scheme has also chanaged to match the version of
Tomcat that it relies on. The format is <tomcat version>.<minor webapp runner version>.
Versions 0.0.1 to 0.0.7 are still available at http://jsimone.github.com/webapp-runner/repository.
$ java -jar webapp-runner.jar --help
Usage: <main class> [options]
Options:
--basic-auth-pw Password to be used with basic auth.
Defaults to BASIC_AUTH_PW env variable.
--basic-auth-user Username to be used with basic auth.
Defaults to BASIC_AUTH_USER env variable.
--compressable-mime-types Comma delimited list of mime types
that will be compressed when using GZIP
compression.
Default: text/html,text/xml,text/plain,text/css,application/json,application/xml,text/javascript,application/javascript
--context-xml The path to the context xml to use.
--enable-basic-auth Secure the app with basic auth. Use
with --basic-auth-user and
--basic-auth-pw or --tomcat-users-location
Default: false
--enable-client-auth Specify -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore and
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword in JAVA_OPTS
Default: false
--enable-compression Enable GZIP compression on responses
Default: false
--enable-ssl Specify -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore
and -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword
in JAVA_OPTS. Note: should not be used
if a reverse proxy is terminating SSL
for you (such as on Heroku)
Default: false
--expand-war Expand the war file and set it as
source
Default: false
--help
Default: false
--path The context path
--port The port that the server will accept
http requests on.
Default: 8080
--scanBootstrapClassPath Set jar scanner scan bootstrap
classpath.
Default: false
--session-store Session store to use (valid options
are 'memcache' or 'redis')
--session-store-ignore-pattern Request pattern to not track
sessions for. Valid only with memcache
session store. (default is
'.*\.(png|gif|jpg|css|js)$'
Default: .*\.(png|gif|jpg|css|js)$
--session-store-locking-mode Session locking mode for use with
memcache session store. (default is all)
Default: all
--session-store-operation-timeout Operation timeout for the memcache
session store. (default is 5000ms)
Default: 5000
--session-timeout The number of minutes of inactivity
before a user's session is timed out.
--shutdown-override Overrides the default behavior and
casues Tomcat to ignore lifecycle failure
events rather than shutting down when they
occur.
Default: false
--tomcat-users-location Location of the tomcat-users.xml
file. (relative to the location of the
webapp-runner jar file)
--uri-encoding Set the URI encoding to be used for
the Connector.
--use-body-encoding-for-uri Set if the entity body encoding
should be used for the URI.
Default: false
To run the entire suite of integration tests, use the following command:
$ mvn clean install -Pintegration-test
To run an individual integration test, use a command like this:
$ mvn clean install -Pintegration-test
Copyright (c) 2012, John Simone All rights reserved.
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