TomcatAntTasks

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1. First, I defined a tomcat.classpath for the catalina-ant.jar file. Putting in in $ANT_HOME/lib did not work - and this way seemed cleaner. So in properties.xml, I added:

    <!-- For Tomcat Tasks -->
    <path id="tomcat.classpath">
        <fileset dir="${tomcat.home}/server/lib" 
            includes="catalina-ant.jar" />
    </path>

    <!-- Tomcat Tasks -->
    <taskdef name="install" 
        classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.InstallTask" 
        classpathref="tomcat.classpath" /> 
    <taskdef name="list" 
        classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ListTask" 
        classpathref="tomcat.classpath" /> 
    <taskdef name="reload" 
        classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask"
        classpathref="tomcat.classpath" /> 
    <taskdef name="remove" 
        classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.RemoveTask" 
        classpathref="tomcat.classpath" /> 

    <!-- =================================================================== -->
    <!-- install, list, reload and remove are all Tomcat deployment targets. -->
    <!-- =================================================================== -->
    <target name="install" depends="package-web"
        description="Install application to servlet container">
        <install url="${tomcat.manager.url}" username="${tomcat.username}"
            password="${tomcat.password}" path="/${webapp.name}"
            war="file://${webapp.dist}/${webapp.war}"/>
    </target>

    <target name="list" depends="define-tasks"
        description="List installed applications on servlet container">
        <list url="${tomcat.manager.url}" username="${tomcat.username}"
            password="${tomcat.password}" />
    </target>

    <target name="refresh" depends="package-web"
        description="Reload application on servlet container">
        <reload url="${tomcat.manager.url}" username="${tomcat.username}"
            password="${tomcat.password}" path="/${webapp.name}"/>
    </target>

    <target name="remove" depends="define-tasks"
        description="Remove application on servlet container">
        <remove url="${tomcat.manager.url}" username="${tomcat.username}"
            password="${tomcat.password}" path="/${webapp.name}"/>
    </target>

4. My understanding is that I should be able to point the install and refresh tasks at the .war file for my app, and it'll install/reload as requested. The list and remove tasks work fine at this point.

My Issues:

[install] OK - Installed application at context path /appfuse

Remove: Doesn't seem to work, but it actually does. Here's what Ant reports:

[remove] FAIL - Encountered exception java.io.IOException: java.lang.NullPointerException

[remove] FAIL - No context exists for path /appfuse

Reload: Doesn't work:

[reload] FAIL - Reload not supported on WAR deployed at path /appfuse

My Thoughts

• The problem might be that I'm not pointing to a build/appfuse directory that contains an already intact webapp directory structure - instead I'm pointing to a real .war file. My context has path="/appfuse" rather than path="/appfuse.war", so I wonder if that matters.
• Reload seems pointless to me, I still have to deploy (copy files to $CATALINA_HOME/webapp) to Tomcat, and when I do this with Ant's <copy> task, Tomcat reloads the app automagically.
• Using these tasks seems like a waste of time - especially since I'm just replacing something that already works for me. Please, someone prove me wrong. And not with points and counterpoints - but by checking out AppFuse from CVS and submitting patches. ;-)

~ MattRaible

Comments

Install: Doesn't work.: Well, you need to specify the context XML file also (it's a separate deployment, so the existing one doesn't get picked up automatically). If the Context element is in server.xml, then it won't work.

Remove: Doesn't seem to work: I don't know about that one. Probably the fact that there a context file is causing trouble of some sort.

Reload: Doesn't work: You can't reload a WAR indeed (you undeploy it, and then redeploy it when it is updated; however, its content cannot change unless the WAR itself changes, that's why reloading has no meaning for a WAR). Webapp reloading is for automatic class change tracking. It doesn't prevent any manual reloading.

The behavior of the deployer and its related tasks will be more intuitive in TC 5, and more integrated with the auto deployer. the latest nightly has a lot of this stuff implemented http://cvs.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat-5/nightly/jakarta-tomcat-5-bin-20030624.tar.gz. Note that both install and remove are now deprecated, replaced by deploy and undeploy.

~ Remy ~

Corrections

Newer distributions (Tomcat4.1.24, Tomcat4.1.27) document in detail the usage of the ant tasks, see Manager_App_HOW-TO in the tomcat-docs.
A very confusing point is the different syntax of the war attribute : In target install you need the syntax of a jar-URL:

<!-- Install war file to servlet container -->
  <target name="install">
    <install url="${managerapp.url}"
             username="${managerapp.userid}"
             password="${managerapp.password}"
             path="/${context}"
             war="jar:file:${build.dir}/${war.file}!/" />
  </target>

<!-- Deploy an application to servlet container -->
  <target name="deploy">
    <deploy url="${managerapp.url}"
            username="${managerapp.userid}"
            password="${managerapp.password}"
            path="/${context}"
            war="file:${build.dir}/${war.file}" />
  </target>

<!-- Remove an application on servlet container -->
  <target name="remove">
    <remove url="${managerapp.url}"
             username="${managerapp.userid}"
             password="${managerapp.password}"
             path="/${context}" />
  </target>

<!-- Undeploy an application from servlet container -->
  <target name="undeploy">
    <undeploy url="${managerapp.url}"
             username="${managerapp.userid}"
             password="${managerapp.password}"
             path="/${CONTEXT}" />
  </target>

FAIL - Cannot remove document base for path /eai_sc

~ Martin Wolf ~

server-minimal-4.1.29.xml		2693 bytes
server-minimal-5.0.16.xml		1680 bytes