Adding an external directory to Tomcat classpath

Question

I have a folder in my C  drive as C  app config java app This folder contains some locale specific property files   I have a java class  PrjPropertilesLocator  that loads the property files based on default locale on the startup of the web App My web application is running inside tomcat  The problem is how should i set this directory C  app config java app in the tomcat classpath so that this becomes available to the ResourceBundle inside the PrjPropertilesLocator class  Is there a way i can set this folder specifically for a Single web app that needs it I do not want to put the property files inside WEB-INF classes folder   On weblogic this runs fine I set the directory inside the weblogic classpath in one of its startup scripts and it works fine  But on Tomcat i tried putting it in startup bat also in setclasspath bat  but was not able to do so successfully

User · Answer

You can create a new file  setenv sh  or setenv bat  inside tomcats bin directory and add following line there  export CLASSPATH  CLASSPATH  XX xx PATH TO DIR

User · Answer

What I suggest you do is add a META-INF directory with a MANIFEST MF file in  war file   Please note that according to servlet spec  it must be a  war file and not  war directory for the META-INF MANIFEST MF to be read by container   Edit the MANIFEST MF Class-Path property to C  app config java app   See Using JAR Files  The Basics  Understanding the Manifest   Enjoy

User · Answer

See also question  Can I create a custom classpath on a per application basis in Tomcat  Tomcat 7 Context hold Loader element  According to docs deployment descriptor  what in  lt Context gt  tag  can be placed in     CATALINA BASE conf server xml - bad - require server restarts in order to reread config  CATALINA BASE conf context xml - bad - shared across all applications  CATALINA BASE work  APP war  META-INF context xml - bad - require repackaging in order to change config  CATALINA BASE work  enginename   hostname   APP META-INF context xml - nice  but see last option    CATALINA BASE webapps  APP META-INF context xml - nice  but see last option    CATALINA BASE conf  enginename   hostname   APP xml - best - completely out of application and automatically scanned for changes      Here my config which demonstrate how to use development version of project files out of  CATALINA BASE hierarchy  note that I place this file into src test resources dir and intruct  Maven to preprocess   basedir  placeholders through pom xml  lt filtering gt true lt  filtering gt  so after build in new environment I copy it to  CATALINA BASE conf Catalina localhost  APP xml     lt Context docBase    basedir  src main webapp           reloadable  true  gt       lt  -- http   tomcat apache org tomcat-7 0-doc config context html -- gt       lt Resources className  org apache naming resources VirtualDirContext                 extraResourcePaths   WEB-INF classes   basedir  target classes  WEB-INF lib   basedir  target   project build finalName  WEB-INF lib   gt       lt Loader className  org apache catalina loader VirtualWebappLoader              virtualClasspath    basedir  target classes   basedir  target   project build finalName  WEB-INF lib   gt       lt JarScanner scanAllDirectories  true   gt        lt  -- Use development version of JS CSS files  -- gt       lt Parameter name  min  value  dev   gt       lt Environment name  app devel ldap  value  USER  type  java lang String  override  true   gt       lt Environment name  app devel permitAll  value  true  type  java lang String  override  true   gt   lt  Context gt    UPDATE Tomcat 8 change syntax for  lt Resources gt  and  lt Loader gt  elements  corresponding part now look like    lt Resources gt       lt PostResources className  org apache catalina webresources DirResourceSet                     webAppMount   WEB-INF classes  base    basedir  target classes    gt       lt PostResources className  org apache catalina webresources DirResourceSet                     webAppMount   WEB-INF lib  base    basedir  target   project build finalName  WEB-INF lib    gt   lt  Resources gt

User · Answer

In Tomcat 6  the CLASSPATH in your environment is ignored  In setclasspath bat you ll see  set CLASSPATH  JAVA HOME  lib tools jar   then in catalina bat  it s used like so    EXECJAVA   JAVA OPTS   CATALINA OPTS   DEBUG OPTS   -Djava endorsed dirs   JAVA ENDORSED DIRS   -classpath   CLASSPATH    -Dcatalina base   CATALINA BASE   -Dcatalina home   CATALINA HOME    -Djava io tmpdir   CATALINA TMPDIR    MAINCLASS   CMD LINE ARGS   ACTION    I don t see any other vars that are included  so I think you re stuck with editing setclasspath bat and changing how CLASSPATH is built  For Tomcat 6 0 20  this change was on like 74 of setclasspath bat  set CLASSPATH C  app config java app  JAVA HOME  lib tools jar

User · Answer

Just specify it in shared loader or common loader property of  conf catalina properties

User · Answer

I might be a bit late for the party but I follow below steps to make it fully configurable using IntelliJ s way of in-IDE app test  I believe the best way to go with is to Combine below with  BelusC s answer    1  run the application using IDE s tomcat run config   2  ps -ef   grep -i tomcat   this will give you a good idea about what the ide doing actually  3  Copy the -Dcatalina base parameter value from the command  this is your application specific catalina base  In this folder you can play with catalina properties  application root path etc   basically everything you have been doing is doable here too

[tomcat] Adding an external directory to Tomcat classpath

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