Apache Tomcat Web Server



Update for 2020! We’ll Cover a Total of 9 Reasons to Use Tomcat in This Post.

Without additional plugins you can't create a web project through the Project Wizard, or add a Tomcat (or other server). The reason is; NetBeans has been migrated from Oracle to Apache, and the initial focus is to provide a stable Java SE environment, including support for JDK releases (until now JDK 11) in NetBeans. Learn how to use Apache Tomcat server for hosting Java web applications. How to download, install, configure the server and deploy Java web applications into.

Born out of the Apache Jakarta Project, Tomcat is an application server designed to execute Java servlets and render web pages that use Java Server page coding. Accessible as either a binary or a source code version, Tomcat’s been used to power a wide range of applications and websites across the Internet. At the time of writing, it’s definitely one of the more popular servlet containers available.

Don’t take my word for it, though – why not give it a try yourself?

Here are five of our favorite uses for Apache Tomcat server to run your website’s Java applications – and a few reasons it’s a great choice for you.

Tutorial for java 8 and tomcat 8 Tutorial 2 same as the before with some more little hints. What is the problem. When i reached the step of starting tomcat, it failed. Failed to start apache tomcat web server tomcat.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=203. The examples web application deployed into Tomcat are published after installation by default on server-url:8080/examples. We will proxy requests coming to the server's port 80 (the default http port) requesting something from the server-url/examples to be served by the examples web application deployed into Tomcat. Tomcat is a web server and a Servlet/JavaServer Pages container. It is often used as an application server for strictly web-based applications but does not include the entire suite of capabilities that a Java EE application server would supply. Links: Apache Tomcat home page; Explanation of Servlet technology; Explanation of JavaServer Pages.

It’s Incredibly Lightweight

Even with JavaEE certification, Tomcat is an incredibly lightweight application. If offers only the most basic functionality necessary to run a server, meaning it provides relatively quick load and redeploy times compared to many of its peers, which are bogged down with far too many bells and whistles. This lightweight nature also allows it to enjoy a significantly faster development cycle.

Of course, if you’re looking for a feature-rich application server, then Tomcat might not be the best choice for you. If you just want a quick-and-easy means to run your applications, though? Go with Tomcat – you won’t regret your choice.

It’s Open-Source

For me, open-source always counts as a win. Tomcat’s free, and the source code for the server is readily available to anyone who’d care to download it. What this means is that – assuming you’re willing to tinker with the moving parts of your server – you’ve got an incredible degree of freedom insofar as what you want to do with a Tomcat installation.

It’s Highly Flexible

Thanks to its lightweight nature and a suite of extensive, built-in customization options, Tomcat is quite flexible. You can run it in virtually any fashion you choose, and it’ll still work as intended. The fact that it’s open-source helps as well, since you can tweak it to fit your needs, provided you’ve the knowledge to do so.

Your Server Will Be More Stable

Tomcat is an extremely stable platform to build on – and using it to run your applications will contribute to your server’s stability, as well. This is because Tomcat runs independently of your Apache installation – even if a significant failure in Tomcat caused it to stop working, the rest of your server would run just fine.

It Offers An Extra Level Of Security

Many organizations choose to position their Tomcat installation behind an extra firewall, accessible only from the Apache installation. In short, depending on how you implement your Tomcat installation, it can add an extra layer of security to your server – which is never a bad thing.

It’s mature

Tomcat has existed for nearly 20 years, allowing it to mature over time. As open-source software maintained by the open source community, new releases and updates come out regularly. Tomcat’s maturity has turned it into one of the most stable application servers for software development and deploying Java applications. It is a stable option that has grown with great community support. Ie edge chromium.

It’s well-documented

Tomcat has a variety of good documentation available, including a wide range of online tutorials that can be viewed or downloaded. This makes it a popular choice to fill the role of an application server in almost all Java web applications. Whether you are looking for startup settings, hardening and security guides, installation instructions, or server configuration notes, Tomcat has you covered.

It’s the most widely used Java application server

Tomcat is estimated to hold over 60 percent of the market share of all Java application server deployments, making it the most popular application server used with Java web applications. Technically, it does not implement all the features required of a Java EE application server, but it does enable you to run Java EE applications. Tomcat acts as a “webserver” or “servlet container,” However, that’s more of a terminology stipulation than anything else.

It’s geared towards Java-based content

In contrast to Apache HTTPS Server, Tomcat was developed to offer the JSP functionality not available through Apache HTTPS Server. The latter is better suited for handling both static and dynamic (and usually PHP-based) web content but does not have the ability to manage Java Servlets and JSP.

The best part is that both can be run side by side for projects involving both Java and PHP-based content. In that case, Apache can handle static and dynamic content and Tomcat can handle the JSP. For sites entirely built on JSP, Tomcat is the best bet.

As a Java Servlet container that provides extended functionality to interact with Java Servlets, Tomcat is a powerful option to execute Java servlets and render web pages that use Java Server page coding. Tomcat enables a pure Java web server environment, bringing together Java-based technologies to run applications built on Java programming language. While its flexibility and interoperability enable Apache Tomcat to behave as a web application server under certain conditions, its true identity is primarily as a Java servlet container.

As a lightweight, highly flexible option, Tomcat enables quick load and redeploy times without sacrificing built-in customization options. In addition to providing stability, it also offers extra security for organizations that choose to position their Tomcat installation behind an extra firewall. Developers looking to run applications that operate seamlessly and fast should consider Tomcat as an option.

Education

Matthew Davis

Matthew Davis is a technical writer and Linux geek for Future Hosting.

In this article, we are going to learn how to configure the Tomcat server to run a simple “Hello World” application on the web browser with JSP and Servlet (i.e Hello World with the web edition 🙂 ).

This whole process might seem confusing and complicated at first. There are a lot of new terms and tools to learn, and that can be daunting. But I promise that if you stick with it and follow along step by step it will get easier and you will know enough to configure Tomcat to run most web applications.

Apache Tomcat Web Server Tutorial

First, there are 3 prerequisites that you need in your computer first before we’re moving on:

IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate is required for run enterprise application such as a web application run on Tomcat. You will also need to install the Tomcat server before we proceed any further, in this tutorial I use Tomcat server version 8, but of course, you can choose a different version if you want. Last but not least, the Java EE specification is also a requisite to run our application.

What is Tomcat Server?

You can live blissfully without going through this session and still can configure the Tomcat server. However, if you have no idea about what is Tomcat, then it’s essential for us to find out what is Tomcat and why we need them.

Apache Tomcat is an open-source Servlet container that implements several enterprise specifications such as Servlet, JSP, Expression Language, and WebSocket APIs. It’s also can be called a web server or a web container. Tomcat itself is a sophisticated and complicated piece of software that is composed of many components, however, at its core, there is a component named Catalina which acts as a Servlet container. It provides you the actual implementation for Tomcat’s servlet specification, when you start running Tomcat, you’re usually run start Catalina.

Apache Tomcat Web Server Download

Apache Tomcat doesn’t limit itself just as a Servlet container, it also contains an engine called Coyote, which is a web server. Thanks to Coyote, you can run Tomcat other of Java enterprise specifications. However, in the scope of this article, we are only interested in working with Servlet.

Let’s get started

Open Intellij IDEA => Choose Create New Project => Choose Java Enterprise on the side bar:

For Project SDK, you can choose a different version you have if you want, but you should choose java version 8 because newer versions such as Java 14, or Java 15 you might run into some problems. For the Java EE version, choose the newest version Java EE 8. For the Application Server, choose the Tomcat version you just installed by clicking on New, a new dialog will appear to let you choose the Tomcat location and click OK:

Then, on the Additional Libraries and Framework tab as on the first screen, scroll down and find Web Application and check it. Next, tick on Create web.xml. Finally, click Next.

Apache Tomcat Web Server

A new window shows up, in this window, you simply provide your project name and its location, you can leave everything else as it is and click Finish:

As the project window appears, on the top corner, click on “Add Configuration” (or Edit Configuration if the Tomcat configuration is already there):

On Run/Configuration window, on the Templates tab, scroll down and click to the Tomcat Server and choose Local:

For the Application Server, you choose the correct Tomcat server’s location. For JRE, again, you can choose a different version than what you’re seeing on the screen. You also need to choose a browser to when your application starts, here I chose Chrome. Next, click to the Deployment Tab:

Apache

This is an important step to make our application later runnable. Click on the “+” sign as shown on the screen, choose Artifact:

Now for the deployment at the server startup, you can see an artifact to be deployed, for the Application context, it’s the URL in which your application will run on the browser, you can leave it or choose a more concise name:

On the Log tab, check Tomcat Locahost Log and Tomcat Catalina Log:

Now moving back to the Server tab, once you the artifact, you can see the URL now is on the http://locahost:8080/<your-application-context>, for me, it’s demoservlet. The locahost is the default name describing a local computer address, on this address, there are many different ports, and each port might have different functions such as port 80 is for an HTTP request, or port 25 is for SMTP, and so on. In this case, you can choose the port 80 as it’s port for HTTP requests. However, in case you have a web server running on port 80 and have another web server handling HTTP requests, then using port 8080 as an alternative option is a good practice.

On ‘Update’ action and On frame deactivation, you choose Update resources:

If you’re experimenting this warning, then click on this:

Finally, click “Apply” and “OK“:

Apache Tomcat Web Server

For now, you should see the Tomcat icon on the top corner and your web application is ready to start, in the starter “index.jsp” file, you can edit its content as an HTML file if you wish, and click on “Run Tomcat“:

Once you press the Run button, wait a bit for Tomcat server to start, and then you should see this text on the web broswer:

But wait, I thought you were introducing Servlet, but why it’s JSP? JSP is a technology that goes along with Servlet to create dynamic web content, on the JSP file, you can write HTML, embedded Java code, and also expression language. In essence, JSPs are Servlets, through the JSP life cycle, JSP files are always translated to Servlet first. And then this Servlet file will then be compiled.

You can also view log the Server log, and Tomcat Catalina log by clicking to Services:

If you want to go further, instead of editing the aforementioned JSP file, let’s create a Servlet. On src, create a new package called it servlet:

Under the package we’ve just created, right-click on this, choose New =>Create New Servlet:

Apache Server Vs Tomcat Server

A new window pops up, you can choose the name for your servlet, and its location. Uncheck “Create Java EE 6 annotated class”, click on OK:

Next, we configure the WEB-INF/web.xml file, here servlet-name is self-explanatory, servlet-class defined the type of the servlet, inside the servlet-mapping tag, we define the url-pattern in which this servlet will be available:

Now, navigate to your HelloWorld servlet, in the doGet() method, write the following code and click to Run Tomcat:

When your browser opened, go to this URL to see your servlet response: http://localhost:8080/<your-application-context>/hello. My application context is demoservlet, hence I enter http://localhost:8080/demoservlet/hello to see my servlet responses:

Apache Tomcat Web Server Wikipedia

Apache tomcat web server download

Conclusion

Apache Tomcat Web Server 9.0

I hope you have properly set up and run the Tomcat server on IntelliJ IDEA, and if you have any troubles while configuring, don’t hesitate to leave your question in the comment session. And if you think what I am sketching is useful, don’t forget to subscribe to get weekly updates from my blog. Once again, happy coding!