Default web app in tomcat

Question

Its been few days i've been searching for a solution. My question is..I have to deploy a project in tomcat and make it as a default webapp. What I did is copied my war file and placed it in the tomcat/webapps folder. Started tomcat and changed the port to default. Now I can access my application at http://localhost/myapp .What i want is to see my application at http://localhost. How can I do this?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/715506/tomcat-6-how-to-change-the-root-application/6093662#6093662 — , May 29 '12 at 09:51
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1363605/tomcat-base-url-redirection — asio_guy, Mar 06 '14 at 10:51

score 26 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 14 '11 at 05:39

I was able to do it by adding "Context" element with path="" attribute under Host in server.xml file.

            <Context path="" docBase="/usr/local/tomcat/mywebapps/myapplication">
                <WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource>
            </Context>

Note: I am using Tomcat 7. Also I had to move my webapp to different location than default webapps folder. I also deleted default webapps provided by tomcat. But this solution works even without deleting them.

Here are contents of my server.xml for reference. Hope this helps.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<!-- Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor 
    license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional 
    information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to 
    You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use 
    this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of 
    the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Unless required 
    by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the 
    License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS 
    OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific 
    language governing permissions and limitations under the License. -->
<!-- Note: A "Server" is not itself a "Container", so you may not define 
    subcomponents such as "Valves" at this level. Documentation at /docs/config/server.html -->
<Server port="8005" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">
    <!-- Security listener. Documentation at /docs/config/listeners.html <Listener 
        className="org.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener" /> -->
    <!--APR library loader. Documentation at /docs/apr.html -->
    <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener"
        SSLEngine="on" />
    <!--Initialize Jasper prior to webapps are loaded. Documentation at /docs/jasper-howto.html -->
    <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.JasperListener" />
    <!-- Prevent memory leaks due to use of particular java/javax APIs -->
    <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.JreMemoryLeakPreventionListener" />
    <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.mbeans.GlobalResourcesLifecycleListener" />
    <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.ThreadLocalLeakPreventionListener" />

    <!-- Global JNDI resources Documentation at /docs/jndi-resources-howto.html -->
    <GlobalNamingResources>
        <!-- Editable user database that can also be used by UserDatabaseRealm 
            to authenticate users -->
        <Resource name="UserDatabase" auth="Container"
            type="org.apache.catalina.UserDatabase" description="User database that can be updated and saved"
            factory="org.apache.catalina.users.MemoryUserDatabaseFactory"
            pathname="conf/tomcat-users.xml" />
    </GlobalNamingResources>

    <!-- A "Service" is a collection of one or more "Connectors" that share 
        a single "Container" Note: A "Service" is not itself a "Container", so you 
        may not define subcomponents such as "Valves" at this level. Documentation 
        at /docs/config/service.html -->
    <Service name="Catalina">

        <!--The connectors can use a shared executor, you can define one or more 
            named thread pools -->
        <!-- <Executor name="tomcatThreadPool" namePrefix="catalina-exec-" maxThreads="150" 
            minSpareThreads="4"/> -->


        <!-- A "Connector" represents an endpoint by which requests are received 
            and responses are returned. Documentation at : Java HTTP Connector: /docs/config/http.html 
            (blocking & non-blocking) Java AJP Connector: /docs/config/ajp.html APR (HTTP/AJP) 
            Connector: /docs/apr.html Define a non-SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8080 -->
        <Connector port="80" protocol="HTTP/1.1" connectionTimeout="20000"
            redirectPort="443" />
        <!-- A "Connector" using the shared thread pool -->
        <!-- <Connector executor="tomcatThreadPool" port="80" protocol="HTTP/1.1" 
            connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="443" /> -->
        <!-- Define a SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443 This connector uses the 
            JSSE configuration, when using APR, the connector should be using the OpenSSL 
            style configuration described in the APR documentation -->
        <!-- <Connector port="443" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true" maxThreads="150" 
            scheme="https" secure="true" clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS" /> -->

        <!-- Define an AJP 1.3 Connector on port 8009 -->
        <Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="443" />


        <!-- An Engine represents the entry point (within Catalina) that processes 
            every request. The Engine implementation for Tomcat stand alone analyzes 
            the HTTP headers included with the request, and passes them on to the appropriate 
            Host (virtual host). Documentation at /docs/config/engine.html -->

        <!-- You should set jvmRoute to support load-balancing via AJP ie : <Engine 
            name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="jvm1"> -->
        <Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost">

            <!--For clustering, please take a look at documentation at: /docs/cluster-howto.html 
                (simple how to) /docs/config/cluster.html (reference documentation) -->
            <!-- <Cluster className="org.apache.catalina.ha.tcp.SimpleTcpCluster"/> -->

            <!-- Use the LockOutRealm to prevent attempts to guess user passwords 
                via a brute-force attack -->
            <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.LockOutRealm">
                <!-- This Realm uses the UserDatabase configured in the global JNDI resources 
                    under the key "UserDatabase". Any edits that are performed against this UserDatabase 
                    are immediately available for use by the Realm. -->
                <Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.UserDatabaseRealm"
                    resourceName="UserDatabase" />
            </Realm>

            <Host name="localhost">

                <!-- SingleSignOn valve, share authentication between web applications 
                    Documentation at: /docs/config/valve.html -->
                <!-- <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.authenticator.SingleSignOn" 
                    /> -->

                <!-- Access log processes all example. Documentation at: /docs/config/valve.html 
                    Note: The pattern used is equivalent to using pattern="common" -->
                <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve"
                    directory="logs" prefix="localhost_access_log." suffix=".txt"
                    pattern="%h %l %u %t &quot;%r&quot; %s %b" resolveHosts="false" />

                <Context path="" docBase="/usr/local/tomcat/mywebapps/myapplication">
                    <WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource>
                </Context>

            </Host>
        </Engine>
    </Service>
</Server>

wouldn't this approach deploy twice the application under webapps then? from [official Tomcat doc](http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/config/host.html): "When using automatic deployment, the docBase defined by an XML Context file should be outside of the appBase directory. If this is not the case, difficulties may be experienced deploying the web application or the application may be deployed twice." — A_Di-Matteo, Jun 07 '17 at 13:51

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 16:48

15

Delete the Tomcat/webapps/ROOT folder (if any), rename your WAR file to ROOT.war and restart.

answered Apr 12 '11 at 16:48

BalusC

1,082,665
372
3,610
3,555

I did, but I get the apache tomcat home page. – sain Apr 12 '11 at 16:52
Then you're modifying or accessing the wrong Tomcat instance. Are you using an IDE or something? – BalusC Apr 12 '11 at 16:54
Yes, I used netbeans IDE to deploy the project. – sain Apr 12 '11 at 16:56
You should set context name to empty string or / in the project properties. I can't tell in detail how/where since I don't use Netbeans. Regardless, the answer works when leaving the IDE outside consideration and you do it exactly as mentioned in your question: copy the WAR and place in tomcat/webapps. – BalusC Apr 12 '11 at 16:57
Yes, I did that and I am not using netbeans anymore. I close the netbeans and just the war file is used. – sain Apr 12 '11 at 16:59
Then you're modifying or accessing the wrong Tomcat instance. Take a look in the webapps folder where you removed the `ROOT` folder and placed the `ROOT.war`. Did Tomcat expand the WAR upon startup? If not then it's definitely the wrong Tomcat instance which you're modifying and/or starting. If so, then there's probably a conflicting old one in the `Tomcat/work` folder which you should then remove. – BalusC Apr 12 '11 at 17:00

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 16:51

you could rename your webapp to ROOT (the default app for tomcat), or you can use a web server that can handle domain names and redirects (like apache httpserver), and configure your site there.

The first approach is not very elegant, but quick and efficient though.

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 12 '13 at 12:07

4

create index.html at webapps/ROOT with below.

<html>

<head>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content=0;URL="http://localhost/myapp">
</head>

<body>
</body>

</html>

answered Mar 12 '13 at 12:07

Satish Penmetsa

99
1
1

Would you mind adding some information about why you think this is the best solution to the problem? (And not a server-side redirect). I don't think it is an answer, before I vote on it I'd like to hear your reasoning. – Benjamin Gruenbaum Mar 12 '13 at 12:34
2

This will only work for clients that are browsers (i.e. that load and parse HTML). Not for instance if you are using Python `urllib2` or `httplib2` or `requests` libraries). – Jean Jordaan May 01 '14 at 09:18
1

As above, this is simply a web page, not a real redirect – AntonPiatek Sep 15 '15 at 13:26

Default web app in tomcat

4 Answers4

Linked