How to run a main after embedded tomcat is run

Question

There is a java webapp with an embedded tomcat 7 that is built with this instructions (Using tomcat7-maven-plugin).

this webapp is launching with a jar file like this: java -jar webapp.jar

Question: How to run a main class after launching this embedded tomcat?

Answer 1

What you need is to setup your application's entry point. For this you need to configure your main class inside the jar's Manifest file.

Something like

Manifest-Version: 1.0.1
Created-By: <jdk_version>
Main-Class: fully.qalified.class.name.with.main.method

For more details on Manifest, take a look into this link here

For making this step part of your maven build cycle, you need to make some changes in the mave.jar.plugin. Something like

<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<configuration>
  <archive>
    <manifest>
    <mainClass>fully.qalified.class.name.with.main.method</mainClass>
    </manifest>
  </archive>
</configuration>
</plugin>

The final jar that is created will have your main method as the applications entry point