how to reloads classes with out restart

[Reynir Hübner <Re...@hugsmidjan.is>]

hi tomcat users, 

I´m thinking if anyone has a servlet or something in that way that
reloads classes with out restarting tomcat.
I´m using a servlet chaining mechanism that I wrote my self. the basic
functionality is it has a starter servlet (that always gets reloaded)
that reads an xml document that has the rest of the servlets in the
chain specified and the parameters for those, and some different
functionality in there.

So the first servlet in the chain gets reloaded (probably because it
get´s the request) but all the other servlets dont unless I restart the
server. The Javabeans dont either get reloaded unless I restart the
server. 

So now I´m thinking if there is a functionality within Tomcat that
triggers reload on all of the classes available with out restart. 
Such a functionality is important in a developement face of a web (it´s
timeconsuming to have to restart).
I can probably write some class or a servlet that reloads by
instanciating a new classloader..etc., but someone must have solved this
already (right ?)

how do you do it ?

thanx, 
 -r