How to deploy Maven based war file to Tomcat

How to deploy Maven based war file to Tomcat

Published: April 19, 2011 , Updated: April 19, 2011 , Author: mkyongHere we show you how to use Maven-Tomcat plugin to package and deploy a WAR file to Tomcat.

1. Tomcat Authentication

First, add an user with administrator access right for Tomcat. To add Tomcat user, edit this file – “

%TOMCAT_PATH%/conf/tomcat-users.xml

“.

File : tomcat-users.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<tomcat-users>
<role rolename="manager"/>
<role rolename="admin"/>
<user username="admin" password="password" roles="admin,manager"/>
</tomcat-users>

Later, you will use the user “admin” to do the deployment.

2. Maven Authentication

In Maven side, you need to add the same user authentication information in “

%MAVEN_PATH%/conf/settings.xml

“.

File : settings.xml

//...
<server>
<id>TomcatServer</id>
<username>admin</username>
<password>password</password>
</server>
//...

3. Maven-Tomcat-Plugin

Declare “Maven-Tomcat plugin” and related Tomcat server detail in your

pom.xml

file.

<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>tomcat-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<url>http://127.0.0.1:8080/manager</url>
<server>TomcatServer</server>
<path>/mkyongWebApp</path>
</configuration>
</plugin>

See a full pom.xml file.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.mkyong</groupId>
<artifactId>mkyongweb-core</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>1.0</version>
<name>mkyongweb-core Maven Webapp</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<build>
<plugins>
<!-- Maven Tomcat Plugin -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>tomcat-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<url>http://127.0.0.1:8080/manager</url>
<server>TomcatServer</server>
<path>/mkyongWebApp</path>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<!-- Maven compiler plugin -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>

How it works ?
During deployment, it tell Maven to deploy the WAR file to Tomcat server (http://127.0.0.1:8080/), on path “/mkyongWebApp“, and using “TomcatServer” (in

settings.xml

) username and password for authentication.

4. Deploy to Tomcat

Issue “

mvn tomcat:deploy

” to package your project in a WAR file, and deploy it to Tomcat server. To verify it, just access to the Tomcat’s manager page and make sure “/mkyongWebApp” path is existed.

URL : http://127.0.0.1:8080/manager/

How to redeploy ?
For subsequent deployment, where “mkyongWebApp” web application is existed, you should use “

mvn tomcat:redeploy

” instead.For more usages, please refer to this Maven-Tomcat plugin page.