tomcat7-maven-plugin enable auto deployment under webapps

[Greg Amerson <gr...@liferay.com>]

Hello fellow tomcat7-maven-plugin users,

Is there a way to configure the embedded tomcat launched via the
tomcat7-maven-plugin in such a way that the
${project.build.directory}/tomcat/webapps folder will be monitored for
automatic deployments like it is with a standard tomcat bundle?

I dug around in the source of tomcat7-maven-plugin and even experimented
with my own modified version of the plugin where I added a HostConfig()
object to the embedded tomcat instance.  This seems to get the scanning of
"webapps" folder working again but when it goes to hot-deploy any webapps
out there, it quickly runs into ClassNotFound exceptions because the
WebappClassLoader for the thread that is hot-deploy my new webapp doesn't
have the right parent classloader.

I see where the tomcat7-maven-plugin is creating the WebappClassLoader for
all of the configured contexts via the <webapps> config section for the
maven plugin.  But I'm not sure how to get the WebappClassLoaders that are
created by the HostConfig.deployDirectory() to do the same.

Any clues?  Appreciate the help anyone can give.

-- 
Greg Amerson
Liferay Developer Tools
Liferay, Inc. www.liferay.com