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javaspringmaventomcatwar

Java Spring Boot - war file not deploying on Tomcat Apache


I am building a Java Spring boot project - and as a requirement I need to generate the project as a war file - and then have Tomcat Apache run from this alone.

I've built the war file, but when I try to deploy it, its as if the structure is incorrect and its generating a 404 trying to view the project.

  • the problem enter image description here

enter image description here enter image description here

  • my pom

    http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"> 4.0.0

    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>gs-spring-boot</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.0</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.5.7.RELEASE</version>
    </parent>
    
    <dependencies>
        <!-- web -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <!-- test -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Spring Security -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <!-- jpa -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.hibernate.javax.persistence/hibernate-jpa-2.0-api -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.1.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- mysql connector -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <!-- mail service -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-mail</artifactId>
        </dependency>       
        <!-- hot swapping, disable cache for template, enable live reload -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <!-- freemarker template -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.freemarker</groupId>
            <artifactId>freemarker</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.23</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- json simple -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.googlecode.json-simple</groupId>
            <artifactId>json-simple</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.1</version>
        </dependency>
    
        <!-- tag::actuator[] -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <!-- end::actuator[] -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-processor</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.194</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    
    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>
    
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>integration-test</goal>
                            <goal>verify</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
    


Solution

  • To get Spring Boot to deploy as a war - you need to reconfigure the Application class.

    https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/html/howto-traditional-deployment.html#howto-create-a-deployable-war-file

    @SpringBootApplication
    public class Application extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
    
        @Override
        protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
            return application.sources(Application.class);
        }
    
        public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
            SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
        }
    
    }
    

    in the pom.xml add

    <packaging>war</packaging>
    

    as I was using maven I also added the dependency.

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    

    My application was complicated in that I was using reactjs as a frontend presentation layer and the Java just as an api layer. I had to move the reactjs build into main/src/webapps -- this then gets rendered in the war file correctly as bundle of js, css and html files. With the reactjs acting as a presentation layer it could only connect to the java side via the api - so the url structure is important and I had placed everything in anticipation it would run from the root. So if you deploy to tomcat - you may need to rename the war file ROOT.war.