如何在Linux Debian OS中的tomcat Web服务器上部署数据文件

Question

I have a web application developed using JSP and Servlet. This web application is deployed on server having Debian Linux as OS and The Tomcat version is 5.5.31. As this applications required some data files, These data files will be get created automatically when setting are done using a standalone java application. This application is deployed on another machine. This setup is done. As I dont know much about Debian Linux and where my application is goes on it so I have some doubts in deployment of these autimatically generated data files which are as follows

1. As I made the .war file of my web application and deployed it using Tomcat Manager. so I dont know where exactly my application goes. I dont know the exact path. How do I find it?

2. Is it possible to create FTP for this web application which is deployed on Debian Linux server? I think that if creating FTP is possible then I will directly connect to FTP using my Stand alone Java program and will easily do the creation of the file and other file and directory manipulation.

Answer 1

If you've deployed a war, the application isn't anywhere on the filesystem as such. Most servers will unpack the war somewhere, but you shouldn't rely on where that is.

I can think of several options:

1. getServletContext().getAttribute("javax.servlet.context.tempdir") to get the application's temp directory, then inform you external program of this location and place the file somewhere in there in a know location.

2. Arrange for a "know location" outside of the application, such as /tmp/somewhere or /var/cache/your-app/somewhere to place such files. (Note: /tmp is usually cleaned on startup of a linux machine)

As for getting the file onto the server from a remote machine: You could get your client to upload the file directly to your webapp (something like Apache HTTPClient will help you there), which means that you could do without the "know location" above. If you want to do this outside of the application though, I'd avoid FTP (due to security). Instead, I'd go with scp (secure copy).

Edit: Reading between the lines a little, you mention "setting" in the data file. If this is a configuration file which is not changed once the app is running, you may find it more convenient to have a "deploy" step on your server which simply takes the settings file and adds it to the war before deploying it. This is easy enough with "ant war" for example. You could then access the file using getClass().getResourceStream(..) or such.