Howdy,
I don't think Remy's suggestion above is unreasonable -- AS LONG AS
IT'S DOCUMENTED (sorry for shouting). Especially if it's as simple as
adding a few lines in server.xml. (Well, it would be nice if it were
added to the server configuration documentation as well.)
Added to Context configuration documentation. Added to Tomcat FAQ (deployment page). And Remy just beat me to removing the <Context> example altogether (as opposed to commenting it out as it has been) from server.xml.
Thanks. BTW, why can't server.xml be reloaded? Here's part of your commit:
<p>You may define as many <strong>Context</strong> elements as you
- wish, nested within a <a href="host.html">Host</a> element in
- <code>conf/server.xml</code>. Each such Context MUST have a unique
+ wish. Each such Context MUST have a unique
context path, which is defined by the <code>path</code> attribute.
In addition, you MUST define a Context with a context path equal to
a zero-length string. This Context becomes the <em>default</em>
@@ -53,7 +52,9 @@
Application Deployment</a> for more information. This method allows dynamic
reconfiguration of the web application, since the main <code>conf/server.xml</code> file cannot be reloaded without restarting
- Tomcat.</p>
+ Tomcat. <b>Please note that for tomcat 5.x, unlike tomcat 4.x, it is NOT
+ recommended to place <Context> elements directory in the server.xml file.</b>
+ </p>
note that "directory" is should be "directly". It might also be clearer about *where* context elts should be placed.
Again, I think this is a bad way to configure software. "Everything in one place" is the quite reasonable mantra espoused in _The Practical Programmer_ among other places, not to mention I've had success with it as a rule of thumb. Logically, I want to see all contexts in one place. Moving that responsibility to the manager app doesn't count as "one place" because then I have to be pointing and clicking everywhere. I should be able to use vi to manage my server with one file. The apache web server has been doing it this way for a long, long time and it seems to work pretty well. I work alongside Perl and Apache folk, and I can hear their sniggers when I tell them I have to navigate a directory tree to modify a context...and they'd be right!
Perhaps there is some technical limitation to reloading server.xml. but I can't see it. Remy has said it's a "hack" but of course that doesn't really say anything. You are just trading one hierarchical data structure for another (directories for nested XML elts).
(I am looking into this but I can't get tomcat built, and no-one on the dev list has replied to my build questions yet. When I have more time tonight I'll try again.)
Thanks
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