craigmcc 2003/01/19 16:03:22
Modified: doc/userGuide configuration.xml
Log:
Add a sidebar to discourage people from putting struts.jar and commons-*.jar
in a container's "shared JARs" repository.
Revision Changes Path
1.15 +88 -0 jakarta-struts/doc/userGuide/configuration.xml
Index: configuration.xml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/cvs/jakarta-struts/doc/userGuide/configuration.xml,v
retrieving revision 1.14
retrieving revision 1.15
diff -u -r1.14 -r1.15
--- configuration.xml 19 Jan 2003 00:40:41 -0000 1.14
+++ configuration.xml 20 Jan 2003 00:03:22 -0000 1.15
@@ -1116,6 +1116,94 @@
for how to avoid copying the tlds into your application.
</p>
+ <div align="center">
+ <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" width="80%">
+ <tr><td bgcolor="cyan">
+
+ <h3 align="center">
+ Sidebar: Sharing JAR Files Across Web Applications
+ </h3>
+
+ <p>
+ Many servlet containers and application servers provide facilities
+ for sharing JAR files across multiple web applications that depend
+ on them. For example, Tomcat 4.1 allows you to put JAR files into
+ the <code>$CATALINA_HOME/shared/lib</code> or
+ <code>$CATALINA_HOME/common/lib</code> directories, and the classes
+ in those JAR files will be available in all applications, without
+ the need to place them in every web application's
+ <code>/WEB-INF/lib</code> directory. Usually, the sharing is
+ accomplished by creating a separate class loader that is the parent
+ of the class loader (created by your container) for each individual
+ web application.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ If you have multiple Struts-based web applications, it is tempting
+ to consider taking advantage of this container feature, and placing
+ <code>struts.jar</code> and the various <code>commons-*.jar</code>
+ files in the shared directory, rather than in each web application.
+ However, there are several potential, and actual, problems with
+ this approach:
+ </p>
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ Classes loaded from the shared class loader cannot see classes
+ in the web application's class loader, unless they are specifically
+ programmed to use the Thread context class loader.
+ <blockquote>
+ For example, Struts dynamically loads your action and form bean
+ classes, and normally would not be able to find those classes.
+ Struts has been programmed to deal with this in <em>most</em>
+ scenarios, but it has not been thoroughly audited to ensure that
+ it works in <em>all</em> scenarios. The Commons libraries that
+ Struts uses have <strong>NOT</strong> been audited to catch all
+ possible scenarios where this might become a problem.
+ </blockquote>
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ When a class is loaded from a shared class loader, static variables
+ used within that class become global as well. This can cause
+ inter-webapp conflicts when the underlying code assumes that the
+ statics are global only within a particular web applicaiton (which
+ would be true if the class was loaded from the webapp class loader).
+ <blockquote>
+ There are many cases where Struts, and the Commons libraries it
+ relies on, use static variables to maintain information that is
+ presumed to be visible only within a single web applicaiton.
+ Sharing these JAR files can cause unwanted interactions, and
+ probably cause incorrect behavior.
+ </blockquote>
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ When JAR files are shared like this, it is not possible to update
+ the JAR file versions employed by a single web application without
+ updating all of them. In addition, because updating a Struts version
+ normally requires recompilation of the applications that use it,
+ you will have to recompile all of your applications as well, instead
+ of being able to manage them independently.
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+ <p>
+ In spite of these difficulties, it is possible that sharing the
+ Struts and Commons JAR files <em>might</em> appear to work for you.
+ However, this is <strong>NOT</strong> a supported configuration.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ If you file a bug report for <code>ClassNotFoundException</code> or
+ <code>NoClassDefFoundError</code> exceptions, or similar situations
+ where it appears that the wrong version of a class is being loaded,
+ the bug report will <strong>NOT</strong> be processed unless the
+ problem exists with the JAR files in their recommended location,
+ in the <code>/WEB-INF/lib</code> subdirectory of your webapp.
+ </p>
+ </td></tr>
+ </table>
+ </div>
+
</section>
<section
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