[Rob Bender]

I’ve been assigned to an existing web application with a somewhat unusual directory structure. Something like this

BigProject
|-src\java
|-bin (various scripts and binaries called by the app)
|-template (xsl templates, etc)
|-war (root of web app)
|-WEB-INF
|-classes
|-lib

The “src\java” directory is actually three separate “projects” checked out from Visual SourceSafe into the same directory (Yes, it’s gross and I’ve never seen anything like it before). However, it is kept as one single project in Eclipse (not using MyEclipse). Output folder is set to “war\WEB-INF\classes” and JARs from all three projects are kept in “war\WEB-INF\lib”. Tomcat is configured with a context pointing directly at the project’s “war” directory. This has the advantage of letting the developers easily code, compile and test the project in place without any special tools or build scripts.

I would like to migrate the team to MyEclipse and break apart the project into separate dependent projects, each with their own src and lib directories. At the same time, I don’t want to add an extra steps or complications to the development process.

I can setup an exploded deployment that pulls in the classes and JARs from the two dependent projects into the third project’s web app. However, I can only seem to deploy to folder outside the project tree. Unfortunately the web application is designed to look for templates and scripts underneath the parent directory.

What I would like to do is deploy the application into a directory inside the project itself. I haven’t been able to get MyEclipse to do that. Is it possible? If not, does anyone have any suggestions on migrating this project in MyEclipse withotu adding any extra manual build steps everytime the project is compiled?

Thanks,
Rob

[Scott Anderson]

Rob,

I’ll see if I can help.

I would like to migrate the team to MyEclipse and break apart the project into separate dependent projects, each with their own src and lib directories. At the same time, I don’t want to add an extra steps or complications to the development process.

Sounds like a good plan so far.

I can setup an exploded deployment that pulls in the classes and JARs from the two dependent projects into the third project’s web app.

Good. Setting up dependent projects and getting them deployed as part of your webapp is a great start. For others that are curious on how to configure that, it’s detailed in the “Working with Web Projects” tutorial in the documentation section.

What I would like to do is deploy the application into a directory inside the project itself. I haven’t been able to get MyEclipse to do that. Is it possible?

No, we explicitly disallow that from our deployers simply because its so easy to destroy your project this way. Additionally, copying the entire app back into the project will cause a bunch of validators and builders to run on the “new content” which isn’t really desireable.

Unfortunately the web application is designed to look for templates and scripts underneath the parent directory.

Couldn’t you just place the template and scripts directories directly under your web root (‘war’ in this case)? That would cause them to be automatically deployed correctly to the server with the rest of the content.

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