Tomcat Web Application Deployment

Posted 2020-10-11

Introduction

　　Web application deployment may be accomplished in a number of ways within the Tomcat server.

　　　　Statically; the web application is setup before Tomcat is started

　　　　Dynamically; by directly manipulating already deployed web applications (relying on auto-deployment feature) or remotely by using the Tomcat Manager web application

　　The Tomcat Manager is a web application that can be used interactively (via html GUI) or programmatically (via URL-based API) to deploy and manage web applications.

　　There are a number of ways to perform deployment that rely on the Manager web application. Apache Tomcat provides tasks for Apache Ant build tool. Apache Tomcat Maven Plugin 　　　　project provides integration with Apache Maven. There is also a tool called the Client Deployer, which can be used from a command line and provides additional functionality such as 　　　　compiling and validating web applications as well as packaging web application into web application resource (WAR) files.

Installation

　　There is no installation required for static deployment of web applications as this is provided out of the box by Tomcat. Nor is any installation required for deployment functions with the 　　Tomcat Manager, although some configuration is required as detailed in the Tomcat Manager manual. An installation is however required if you wish to use the Tomcat Client Deployer 　　(TCD).

　　The TCD is not packaged with the Tomcat core distribution, and must therefore be downloaded separately from the Downloads area. The download is usually labelled apache-tomcat-　　　7.0.x-deployer.

A Word On Context

　　In talking about deployment of web applications, the concept of a Context is required to be understood. A Context is what Tomcat calls a web application.