How to create war files

Question

What are the best practices of creating war files (using eclipse) to run on tomcat? tutorials, links, examples are highly appreciated.

Answer 1

**Making War file in Eclips Gaynemed of grails web project **

1.Import project:

2.Change the datasource.groovy file

Like this: url="jdbc:postgresql://18.247.120.101:8432/PGMS"

2.chnge AppConfig.xml

3.kill the Java from Task Manager:

4. run clean comand in eclips

5. run 'prod war' fowllowed by project name.

6. Check the log file and find the same .war file in directory of workbench with same date.

Answer 2

Simpler solution which also refreshes the Eclipse workspace:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="project" default="default">    
    <target name="default">
        <war destfile="target/MyApplication.war" webxml="web/WEB-INF/web.xml">
            <fileset dir="src/main/java" />
            <fileset dir="web/WEB-INF/views" />
            <lib dir="web/WEB-INF/lib"/>
            <classes dir="target/classes" />
        </war>
        <eclipse.refreshLocal resource="MyApplication/target" depth="infinite"/>
    </target>
</project>

Answer 3

Another option would be to build it automatically using Eclipse. Of course if you have continuous integration environment Ant or Maven is recommended. The export alternative is not very convenient because you have to configure every time the export properties.

STEPS:

1. Enable "Project Archives" support; this might depend on your project (I used it on Java EE/Web project). Right-click project root directory; Configure -> Add Project Archives Support.

2. Go and create a new archive in the "Project Archives" top dir. You have only jar option, but name you archive *.war.

3. Configure Fileset-s, i.e what files to be included. Typical is to configure two filesets similar how the Web Deployment Assembly (project property) is configured.

   • copy /WebContent to /
   • copy /build/classes to WEB-INF/classes (create this fileset after you define the WEB-INF/classes directory in the archive)

4. You might need to tweek the fileset exclude property depending where you placed some of the config files or you might need more filesets, but the idea is that once you configured this you don't need to change it.

5. Build the archive manually or publish directly to server; but is also automatically built for you by Eclipse

Answer 4

Use ant build code I use this for my project SMS

<property name="WEB-INF" value="${basedir}/WebRoot/WEB-INF" />
<property name="OUT" value="${basedir}/out" />
<property name="WAR_FILE_NAME" value="mywebapplication.war" />
<property name="TEMP" value="${basedir}/temp" />

<target name="help">
    <echo>
        --------------------------------------------------
        compile - Compile
        archive - Generate WAR file
        --------------------------------------------------
    </echo>
</target>

<target name="init">
    <delete dir="${WEB-INF}/classes" />
    <mkdir dir="${WEB-INF}/classes" />
</target>

<target name="compile" depends="init">
    <javac srcdir="${basedir}/src" 
                destdir="${WEB-INF}/classes" 
                classpathref="libs">
    </javac>
</target>

<target name="archive" depends="compile">
    <delete dir="${OUT}" />
    <mkdir dir="${OUT}" />
    <delete dir="${TEMP}" />
    <mkdir dir="${TEMP}" />
    <copy todir="${TEMP}" >
        <fileset dir="${basedir}/WebRoot">
        </fileset>
    </copy>
    <move file="${TEMP}/log4j.properties" 
                    todir="${TEMP}/WEB-INF/classes" />
    <war destfile="${OUT}/${WAR_FILE_NAME}" 
                    basedir="${TEMP}" 
                    compress="true" 
                    webxml="${TEMP}/WEB-INF/web.xml" />
    <delete dir="${TEMP}" />
</target>

<path id="libs">
    <fileset includes="*.jar" dir="${WEB-INF}/lib" />
</path>

Answer 5

Simplistic Shell code for creating WAR files from a standard Eclipse dynamic Web Project. Uses RAM File system (/dev/shm) on a Linux platform.

#!/bin/sh

UTILITY=$(basename $0)

if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
    echo "usage: $UTILITY [-s] <web-app-directory>..."
    echo "       -s ..... With source"
    exit 1
fi

if [ "$1" == "-s" ] ; then
    WITH_SOURCE=1
    shift
fi

while [ ! -z "$1" ] ; do
    WEB_APP_DIR=$1

    shift

    if [ ! -d $WEB_APP_DIR ] ; then
        echo "\"$WEB_APP_DIR\" is not a directory"
        continue
    fi

    if [ ! -d $WEB_APP_DIR/WebContent ] ; then
        echo "\"$WEB_APP_DIR\" is not a Web Application directory"
        continue
    fi

    TMP_DIR=/dev/shm/${WEB_APP_DIR}.$$.tmp
    WAR_FILE=/dev/shm/${WEB_APP_DIR}.war

    mkdir $TMP_DIR

    pushd $WEB_APP_DIR > /dev/null
    cp -r WebContent/* $TMP_DIR
    cp -r build/* $TMP_DIR/WEB-INF
    [ ! -z "$WITH_SOURCE" ] && cp -r src/* $TMP_DIR/WEB-INF/classes
    cd $TMP_DIR > /dev/null
    [ -e $WAR_FILE ] && rm -f $WAR_FILE
    jar cf $WAR_FILE .
    ls -lsF $WAR_FILE
    popd > /dev/null

    rm -rf $TMP_DIR
done

Answer 6

A war file is simply a jar file with a war extension, but what makes it work is how the contents is actually structured.

The J2EE/Java EE tutorial can be a start:

http://java.sun.com/j2ee/tutorial/1_3-fcs/doc/WebComponents3.html

And the Servlet specification contains the gory details:

http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/download.html

If you create a new web project in Eclipse (I am referring to the Java EE version), the structure is created for you and you can also tell it where your Appserver is installed and it will deploy and start the application for you.

Using the "Export->WAR file" option will let you save the war file.