Following are three easy steps for installing Tomcat in debug/development mode, appropriate for those
using Tomcat on their desktop machines for developing and testing servlets and JSP. These steps assume you are using
Microsoft Windows, but they can easily be adapted for MacOS, Linux, Solaris, and other Unix environments. For more
information on configuration, please see the more detailed
Apache Tomcat Tutorial.
Unzip Tomcat.
Unzip tomcat-6.0.18-preconfigured.zip
into the top level of the C drive. This should result in
C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.18\. Tomcat is already
set up in the most common development configuration.
Set JAVA_HOME. Set this environment variable to point
at the top-level of your Java installation directory (e.g.,
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_08). See this
sample autoexec.bat file.
Set CLASSPATH. Set this environment variable to include
".", C:\Servlets+JSP, and the servlet/JSP JAR files. See this
sample autoexec.bat file.
For a very quick test, open C:\Servlets+JSP, double click on the shortcut
to startup.bat, and open http://localhost/ in your browser. If you see
something about Tomcat, the setup was successful.
But be sure to do the more complete server tests
to verify that you have your development and deployment environment also set up
properly.
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Unzip Tomcat.
Unzip tomcat-6.0.18-preconfigured.zip
into the top level of the C drive. This should result in
C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.18\. This version of Tomcat has the following settings already in place:
The port is changed from 8080 to 80. This lets you enter URLs
of the form http://localhost/... instead of
http://localhost:8080/....
When you download Tomcat
from the Apache site, the port is 8080 in case you already
have another server running on port 80.
Servlet reloading is enabled. This lets you deploy a modified
servlet .class file without restarting the server.
When you download Tomcat
from the Apache site, servlet reloading is disabled
for performance reasons. You might want it disabled
on a server used for a deployed application, but you
definitely want it enabled during development.
The invoker servlet is enabled. This lets you drop a servlet .class
file into webapps/appName/WEB-INF/classes/packageName and
immediately run it with a URL of the form
http://localhost/appName/servlet/packageName.servletName.
That is, the invoker servlet saves you from editing web.xml to
give a servlet-mapping to your servlet.
When you download Tomcat
from the Apache site, the invoker servlet is disabled.
You definitely want the invoker servlet disabled
on a server used for a deployed application, but having it enabled
on your development server is very convenient for quick testing.
Tomcat monitors struts-config.xml and faces-config.xml.
Whenever either of these files changes, Tomcat reloads the Web
application. This saves you from restarting the server when
you change these files.
If you do not use Struts or JSF, this change will not
be beneficial to you. But it does not hurt either way.
Directory listings are turned on.
If you type a URL ending in / and there is no welcome file,
Tomcat shows a directory listing.
Directory listings were on by default in previous
Tomcat versions. They are not required but
are convenient, especially during development.
For a very quick test, open C:\Servlets+JSP, double click on the shortcut
to startup.bat, and open http://localhost/ in your browser. If you see
something about Tomcat, the setup was successful.
But be sure to do the more complete server tests
to verify that you have your development and deployment environment also set up
properly.
