my servlet is running without tomcat7

[Aftab Hassan]

Hello,
My servlets are running fine, but I haven't installed tomcat7. I haven't done something like 'sudo apt-get install tomcat7'.
All I did was browse and give the path to tomcat at the time of creating a 'New Server RunTime Environment'.

So what I'm observing is :
1. sudo service tomcat7 does not give anything
2. My servlet page at http://localhost:8080/HelloWorldProject/FirstPage shows the correct output, but when I just type http://localhost:8080/ on the browser, it says 'HTTP Status 404 - /'. It does not show me the Apache Tomcat home page.

So my question is :
1. How am I able to run my servlet although apache tomcat is not installed and there is no such service?
2. Assuming that eclipse installed tomcat7, why am I not seeing the tomcat7 home page, though I can see the servlet.

Please advise.
Thanks.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Apparently whatever "creating a 'New Server RunTime Environment'" does entails installing a servlet container.

The home page is served by a web app (the ROOT web app); it's likely that Eclipse only runs your web app, not any others that may happen to ship with a default Tomcat installation.

[Tim Cooke]

Aftab Hassan wrote:New Server RunTime Environment

I'm guessing that this is an option you found in Eclipse?

I'm also guessing by the 'apt-get' reference that you're using Linux. In which case if you run the command "ps -ef | grep java" and look for the process that looks like your application then you'll most likely be able to find out what servlet container is being used. It'll be the one bundled in with Eclipse, probably Jetty or Tomcat.

[Aftab Hassan]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:Apparently whatever "creating a 'New Server RunTime Environment'" does entails installing a servlet container.

Ulf Dittmer, thank you for the reply.
But I need a bit more explanation for the line above. If creating a 'New Server RunTime Environment is similar to installing tomcat7, then why am I not seeing it in the services in ubuntu when it is running?

Generally, do servlet developers install tomcat7 instead of 'creating a 'New Server RunTime Environment'?

Please see the attached images to see the procedure I followed to create the new serve runtime environment.

[Aftab Hassan]

Tim Cooke wrote:It'll be the one bundled in with Eclipse, probably Jetty or Tomcat.

Thanks for the reply Tim.
It is tomcat since I gave the path to Tomcat 7 at the time of creating a new Server.

My question is, why am I not able to see it outside of eclipse. Yes, the servlet works fine from a browser, but why can't I see it as a service with it's process id/port number etc from a linux command?

[Ulf Dittmer]

You're not seeing it as a service because it's not installed as a service. And you may not be seeing it as a separate process because it's running in-process with Eclipse. That's just speculation on my part, I have no idea what Eclipse does.

And I have anyway found that using IDE-integrated servlet containers causes more problems than it solves. So I advise you to install Tomcat as a standalone server, and to use that instead of whatever Eclipse does.

[Aftab Hassan]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:You're not seeing it as a service because it's not installed as a service. And you may not be seeing it as a separate process because it's running in-process with Eclipse. That's just speculation on my part, I have no idea what Eclipse does.

And I have anyway found that using IDE-integrated servlet containers causes more problems than it solves. So I advise you to install Tomcat as a standalone server, and to use that instead of whatever Eclipse does.

Thanks Ulf Dittmer, do I have time for a quick last question. So I understand that basically tomcat is running within the scope of eclipse.

But how am I able to see the servlet in a browser even outside of eclipse(I mean the normal browser, not the one that comes integrated with eclipse) when eclipse is on(server is running)
The moment I close eclipse, I cannot see the same page on the browser I was seeing when eclipse was on.

So looks like tomcat is controlled by eclipse?

[Ulf Dittmer]

The choice of browser is irrelevant. As long as some process is serving something on port 8080 you can point a browser at it.

[Tim Holloway]

At last count, none of the official Eclipse spins - including the JEE ones - did not include Tomcat, Jetty or any other webapp container.

There are a number of reasons why it didn't and shouldn't and not the least of them is that Tomcat and Jetty are not full-stack JEE servers. Another is that Eclipse is supposed to be product-neutral. If not Tomcat, why not bundle WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss/WildFly, JoNaS, or one of the other servers, instead?

You should be able to get a clue on what's happening by pointing your browser to a port 8080 page and supplying a dummy URL. Most webapp servers identify who they are on their default implementations of the 404 page. Knowing that, it should be relatively easy to scan your system's running process status/task manager and see what its parent process is.