tomcat-context.xml support

"tomcat-context.xml" is an optional Tomcat file that configures individual web-app.

The purpose and syntax of "tomcat-context.xml" is documented at Tomcat reference.

Gretty recognizes and supports "tomcat-context.xml". As soon as Gretty finds existing "tomcat-context.xml" file, it reads the file and uses it to configure tomcat web-app. Even if "tomcat-context.xml" is not found, Gretty still works.

By convension Gretty looks for the file name "tomcat-context.xml". You can (but you don’t have to) change the file name by specifying property "contextConfigFile" in Gretty configuration:

gretty {
  // ...
  contextConfigFile = 'someFile.xml'
  // ...
}

If contextConfigFile is not specified, Gretty looks for one of the files: "tomcat8-context.xml" (for Tomcat 8), "tomcat7-context.xml" (for Tomcat 7), "tomcat-context.xml", "context.xml" in the directory "$project.webAppDir/META-INF". Tomcat version is defined by gretty.servletContainer property.

If explicitly defined contextConfigFile represents an absolute path, gretty will use just that.

If explicitly defined contextConfigFile represents a relative path, gretty tries to resolve it in the following directories:

  • "$project.projectDir/webapp-tomcat"

  • "$project.projectDir/webapp-config"

  • recursively in the abovementioned folders of the overlay sources (if any)

When you generate a product and "tomcat-context.xml" resides within "$project.webAppDir/META-INF", it is packed to the WAR-file. The running product automatically finds and applies "META-INF/tomcat-context.xml" of each included web-app.

When you generate a product and "tomcat-context.xml" resides within "webapp-tomcat" or "webapp-config", the file is copied to subdirectory "conf/$projectName" and referenced in "conf/server.json". The running product automatically applies "tomcat-context.xml" files listed in "conf/server.json".

Gretty sources contain example programs demonstrating support of "tomcat-context.xml" at work:

https://github.com/gretty-gradle-plugin/gretty/tree/master/integrationTests/testTomcatContextConfig

See also: