How to deploy Spring Boot app to Tomcat 6 Servlet 2.5 - spring

Question

I created a FAQ using spring boot. it needs to be deployed to a tomcat 6 server (servlet 2.5). I need to configure the current parent java app(war) web.xml to point all request to url pattern "/faq/*" for example, to my spring boot FAQ app. I've copied the FAQ.jar file into the lib folder of the parent app. But I'm not sure how to configure/register the spring boot servlet and servlet mapping within the web.xml of the parent application.
Using the spring boot legacy sample.. I placed my spring boot app in the parent app lib folder along with the dependency jar files. I added this code block to the web.xml of the parent app.
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>faq.Application</param-value>
</context-param>
<listener>
<listener-class>
org.springframework.boot.legacy.context.web.SpringBootContextLoaderListener
</listener-class>
</listener>
<filter>
<filter-name>metricFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>metricFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>SpringServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>contextAttribute</param-name>
<param-value>org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext.ROOT</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>SpringServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
But when I start up Tomcat, I get the following error.
Jun 30, 2014 12:17:23 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.boot.legacy.context.web.SpringBootContextLoaderListener
java.lang.IllegalAccessError: tried to access method org.springframework.core.io.support.SpringFactoriesLoader.loadFactoryNames(Ljava/lang/Class;Ljava/lang/ClassLoader;)Ljava/util/List; from class org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.getSpringFactoriesInstances(SpringApplication.java:355)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.getSpringFactoriesInstances(SpringApplication.java:346)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.initialize(SpringApplication.java:222)
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.(SpringApplication.java:198)
at org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder.(SpringApplicationBuilder.java:83)
at org.springframework.boot.legacy.context.web.SpringBootContextLoaderListener.initWebApplicationContext(SpringBootContextLoaderListener.java:48)
at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:47)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4779)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5273)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:897)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:873)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:615)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1095)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDirectory.run(HostConfig.java:1617)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Jun 30, 2014 12:17:23 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Error listenerStart
KevyKev

Answer 1

Spring Boot doesn't support Servlet 2.5 officially, but it doesn't take a lot to make it work. You might find this useful: https://github.com/scratches/spring-boot-legacy. Sample here: https://github.com/scratches/spring-boot-sample-gae.