Tomcat Maven plugin Archetype

There is an archetype for the Tomcat Maven plugin to show various features with concrete samples.

Using it

Use a released version:

mvn archetype:generate \
   -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.tomcat.maven \
   -DarchetypeArtifactId=tomcat-maven-archetype \
   -DarchetypeVersion=2.3-SNAPSHOT

Use a SNAPSHOT version:

mvn archetype:generate \
   -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.tomcat.maven \
   -DarchetypeArtifactId=tomcat-maven-archetype \
   -DarchetypeVersion=2.3-SNAPSHOT \
   -DarchetypeRepository=https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/snapshots/

You will have the following output (we will use a project named tomcat-sample)

....
[INFO] Using property: groupId = org.apache.tomcat.maven
Define value for property 'artifactId': : tomcat-sample (project will be created in ./tomcat-sample )
...
cd tomcat-sample

Project details

Note: it's a complex hello world sample :-)

The goal is to expose a REST service called HelloService and use it in a web application.

@Path( "HelloService" )
public interface HelloService
{
    @Path( "sayHello/{who}" )
    @GET
    @Produces( { MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN } )
    String sayHello( @PathParam( "who" ) String who );
}

The Apache Cxf will be used to expose the implementation as a REST service.

Now you have a standard multi module Maven projects layout:

  • basic-api (service interface)
  • basic-api-impl (service default impl). For more details on how cxf works have a look at spring configuration files.
  • basic-webapp (our webapp module)
  • basic-webapp-exec (module to generated executable war)
  • basic-webapp-it (module to run selenium tests with generated war)

Using the plugin with the project

Running the webapp

From the top directory, you can use: mvn tomcat6:run or mvn tomcat7:run (depends on tomcat version you want).

Now hit your browser http://localhost:9090 and you will use a very complicated hello world webapp sample

Integration tests with Selenium

Use mvn clean install. Default browser is firefox but you can use -Pchrome or -Piexplore.

Using an executable war/jar

Now you have now an executable jar/war.

Try it:

cd basic-webapp-exec/target/
java -jar basic-webapp-exec-1.0-SNAPSHOT-war-exec.jar -httpPort 9191

And go to http://localhost:9191 with a browser.

So you now have a Tomcat 7 instance running this fabulous application without needing to install anything!