A context root is a Java servlet-ism, which allows the container to route
incoming requests to the correct web app. In HTML-land if you're using relative
URLs, you generally never have to worry about this because the right value will
be used automatically. It's a little more complicated for a non-HTML client.
The context root for a web app can either be empty (i.e. /) or non-empty (i.e.
/MyApp), and on the client when a swf loads, it can inspect its URL but it
doesn't have any way to know what the server-side context root is. The
MessageBrokerServlet that processes HTTP-based requests from Flex clients is
not relative to where the swf was loaded from. You can define its path, which
will generally be something like:
http://{server}:{port}/{context.root}/messagebrokerservlet, but it could be
anything. To send a request to it successfully, the client needs to use the
correct context root. Take your URL below for example,
http://localhost:8080/MyApp/..., is the context root / or is it /MyApp - who
knows? Only the server. So unlike server name and port, the swf can't
dynamically determine the correct context root value at runtime on the client.
This means you need to either:
1. Specify it at compile time by hardcoding the proper context root into the
URL in your services-config.xml file, or by using a {context.root} token in
your URL in services-config.xml and passing the desired value at compile time
using the mxmlc -context-root flag.
2. Hardcode it into your client side ActionScript code.
3. Use the web tier mxmlc compiler which can replace a {context.root} token
with the correct value using HttpServletRequest#getContextPath() when you
request a .mxml in the browser
Seth
From: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert
Csiki
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 1:45 PM
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [flexcoders] Is the context-root value burnt into SWF?
Hi there,
Say I'm using a context root value "MyApp" when compiling my LCDS-based Flex
application. I package everything into an archive called "MyApp.war", depoly it
on my Tomcat, startup tomcat, access the application using
http://localhost:8080/MyApp, everything works fine (I have an index.html there
that serves up the SWF)
Now, if I want to deploy using a different context root for my application (say
"MyApp1")... call it using the URL http://localhost:8080/MyApp1 ... nothing
would work this time. The SWF still gets loaded, and that's it. It seems
this context-root value that's set in flex_config.xml gets somehow burnt in the
SWF? what can I do to have the app running under a different context root,
without the need to rebuild the SWF?
Also, a question: why this context-root configuration is required in Flex
environment? An application normally auto-detects it's context root at runtime.
An application is usually untied from a specific context root and can be
deployed using any context root.
Thanks, Robert
