[Yanel-dev] redeploying WARs fully automatically

[Michael Wechner]

Guillaume Déflache wrote:
> Michael Wechner schrieb:
>> Guillaume Déflache wrote:
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> At lunch we discussed what still prevent Yanel webapps to be 
>>> redeployed fully automatically.
>>>
>>> A few things we could think of:
>>> - WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties file which ATM use absolute paths 
>>> for the various log files
>>> - WEB-INF/classes/realms.xml which must point to at least one custom 
>>> realm: ATM we do that using an absolute path
>>>
>>> We thought we could maybe use the servlet context temporary 
>>> directory[1] to store the realms.xml file itself or even the path 
>>> under which it may be found.
>
> One argument in favor of storing the path itself: if you have many 
> custom realms it may get tedious to reconfigure all of them by 
> recreating the whole XML file: better keep realms.xml in a safe place!

well, you can always keep a copy of the realms.xml file in a save place ;-)


>
>
>> Btw, the realms.xml path is already configured within 
>> local/apache-tomcat-5.5.20/webapps/yanel/WEB-INF/classes/yanel.xml
>
> Yes, and that's why as explained during lunch we might even want to 
> use that for yanel.xml instead of realms.xml! ;)


I didn't mean either/or, of course we can provide for all config files 
alternative directories


>
>
>> re the working/temp dir I guess you mean with
>>
>> File dir = (File) getServletContext()
>>
>>     .getAttribute(
>>     "javax.servlet.context.tempdir");
>>
>>
>> right?
>
> Yes.
>
>
>>> I am not so sure it's a good idea since it looks like this directory 
>>> may be deleted without notice: the application may be unable to 
>>> restart automatically if this happens... :/
>>
>> if the paths of the realms are wrong within classes/realms.xml then 
>> it doesn't start either ;-)
>
> Yes, but then the adminstrator can only blame himself for that, 
> whereas we may not want to trust what the servlet engine and/or the 
> operating system does with the work directory...
>
> BTW I had a look at what a Cocoon 2.1 application stores there and 
> there are only cache files, no configuration.

that's why it is called temporary/work dir ;-)

Cheers

Michi
>
>
>> I think the question is what situations is this directory deleted.
>>
>> Let me give it a try ...
>
> Good luck! :)
>
>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Michi
>>
>>>
>>> Ideas?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>   Guillaume
>>>
>>>
>>> [1] defined in the servlet specification since v2.2: 
>>> http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Servlets/servletapi/ 
>>> look for "javax.servlet.context.tempdir"
>>> Tomcat configuration: 
>>> http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/context.html look for 
>>> "workDir" there
>>
>