How to provide a context configuration for a web application in Tomcat?

Question

I have a web application that relies on some resources and parameters to be configured after it is installed, like a JDBC connection.

What I have come up with is pro

Answer 1

I managed to resolve this issue somehow.

1- Install an exploded WAR directory somewhere outside Tomcat's appBase, let's assume it is in /usr/local/MyApp. [You can use a WAR file for this step instead of WAR directory, if your application runs from an unexploded war.]

2- Copy the context configuration file into [tomcat.conf]/[engine]/[hostname] directory, let's call it MyApp.xml. This file will point to the location of the application:

3- You are now free to go and modify the configuration file.

4- Update the application by copying new version of your application in /usr/local/MyApp

Notes:

a) This solution applies to an unexpanded .war file as well, but since we use Spring's Log4JConfigListener it wouldn't run from an unexploded .war file. Tomcat doesn't explode .war files put outside appBase (webapps) folder.

b) This approach doesn't prevent you from having context.xml in /usr/local/MyApp/META-INF/context.xml since it will not be used by Tomcat in this configuration. You can use it in your dev environment, where you dump your .war file into the appBase (webapps) folder.

This is what I've got so far, still looking out for better solutions.