WAR files

[Erin Lester <ec...@student.math.uwaterloo.ca>]

Can anyone point me to some information about creating WAR files.
Supposedly you can create them with deploytool, but I only know how to do
this with the gui version and don't have an x-windows server on the server
I'm working on.  I've also read that you can use jartool to create WAR
files, but the instructions said you will need to create your own version
of the deployment descriptor.  What does this mean?  create my own
web.xml?  I have a web.xml but don't really use it for much (not all the
servlets are in the web.xml).
 
Is there anything special we need to do in the web.xml/deployment
descriptor file? and will a WAR created with the jar tool preserve the
directory structure of the application?


Thanks!
e.

Re: WAR files

[John Hebert <jo...@vedalabs.com>]

Erin Lester wrote:

> Can anyone point me to some information about creating WAR files.


http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-3.3-doc/appdev/deployment.html

 > Supposedly you can create them with deploytool, but I only know
 > how to do this with the gui version and don't have an x-windows
 > server on the server I'm working on.

Very easy. Use Ant: http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/index.html . Ant is 
the default build tool (like 'make') for Jakarta applications.
And take a look at the Tomcat source examples/build.sh and 
examples/build.xml files to see how Ant builds a WAR file.

> I've also read that you can use jartool to create WAR
> files, but the instructions said you will need to create your own version
> of the deployment descriptor.  What does this mean?  create my own
> web.xml?  I have a web.xml but don't really use it for much (not all the
> servlets are in the web.xml).


Yup, it means create your own web.xml. Just make sure it is in 
appname/WEB-INF/.


> Is there anything special we need to do in the web.xml/deployment
> descriptor file?


Nope.

> and will a WAR created with the jar tool preserve the
> directory structure of the application?


Yup.




-- 
John Alex Hebert
john@vedalabs.com
System Engineer