Tomcat milestone build - 3.2b4 vs 4.0m1

[Bob Byron <bb...@radit.com>]

So, what are the differences between 3.2 and 4.0 and why would
I pick one over the other?  I suspect that 3.2b4 is probably more
stable, but what are the new features in 4.0m1?

Bob Byron
RAD Systems, Inc.
www.radit.com
(972)516-4256

Re: Tomcat milestone build - 3.2b4 vs 4.0m1

["Craig R. McClanahan" <Cr...@eng.sun.com>]

Bob Byron wrote:

> So, what are the differences between 3.2 and 4.0 and why would
> I pick one over the other?  I suspect that 3.2b4 is probably more
> stable, but what are the new features in 4.0m1?
>

Yes, 3.2 is more stable because the 4.0 code had the initial bugs shaken
out yet.  That situation will change rapidly.

3.2 also has web connectors (Apache/IIS/Netscapce) which are not yet
ported to 4.0.  Once ported, the connector will be aware of the web.xml
settings so you won't have to do things like configure extension mapping
in two places.

A brief list of 4.0 new stuff versus 3.2 (features-oriented - there are
also many internal things that make Tomcat 4.0 easier to maintain and
enhance):
* Support for servlet 2.3 and JSP  1.2 (per current draft specs)
* Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) support
  for managing web site content
* HTTP/1.1 support for stand-alone mode
* Configurable caching of static content to improve performance in
  stand-alone mode for apps that are primarily dynamic
* All four login methods supported (BASIC, DIGEST, Form Based,
  and Client Certificate)
* Optional "single sign on" support
* Support for request filtering based on matching regular expressions
  against request properties (for example, you can do IP address
  filtering at the per-webapp level if you want).
* Auto-reloading that recognizes changes in bean classes (but
  does not force the JSP pages to be recompiled -- you still need
  to "touch" them).
* Webserver-style access log for stand-alone use
* Log files configurable by virtual host and/or by webapp
* Per-webapp configurable mapping of incoming HTTP headers to the
  character set that is assumed if the request does not include one.
* Wrappers to manage Tomcat 4.0 via JMX (and soon Avalon).
* HTTP-accessible manager application that allows hot deployment,
  undeployment, and reload of web applications -- under access
  control, of course.
* Restores reading of the "conf/web.xml" file for setting global
defaults
  (same as what 3.1 does, but was removed in 3.2).
* Tomcat 4.0 shutdown requires a password configured in the
  server.xml file -- no security hole like 3.1 :-)

I'm sure that there is more I'm forgetting off the top of my head.

Tomcat 4.0 will also be serving as the basis for the web container in
the J2EE 1.3 reference implementation.

>
> Bob Byron

Craig McClanahan

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