Spring using JNDI with Tomcat... why do I need a META-INF/context.xml in my project - spring

I am trying to get Spring working with tomcat JNDI resource to access my database. My project works if a META-INF/context.xml in my project with the resource information but once I remove it it stops.. why.

If you deploy a Web application in Tomcat, in the deployment process, Tomcat will copy the META-INF/context.xml file in $CATALINA_HOME/conf/ so the context will be available for your application. Take in mind, that if you remove context.xml from you application because you dont want it, you also have to delete it manually from $CATALINA_HOME/conf/
If you have edited the server.xml for including your dababase resource and is not working when you remove context.xml it could be because you made some mistake defining your resourde in server.xml
UPDATED:
When resource is in server.xml, in context you should make a reference to global resource in server.xml. For example:
<Context crossContext="true" reloadable="true" >
<ResourceLink name="jdbc/myApp" type="javax.sql.DataSource" global="jdbc/myApp" />
</Context>

This is unrelated to Spring.
To use JNDI you are expected to define the various resources either as global configuration or as application specifici configuration. For example JNDI DataSource Configuration
Why do you expect it to work in any other case? How would Tomcat know which resources to provide if you don't define them?
UPDATE:
You define a resouce in your server.xml but you have to associate the resource with your web application. That is why you also need to modify context.xml

Related

Binding datasource to application when using springBootApplication in Liberty?

When deploying "regular" web apps to Liberty, I was used to binding the global datasource configured in Liberty's server.xml to the individual application by using a child element within the element, like this:
<application context-root="helloApp" location="..." name="helloApp" type="war">
<application-bnd>
<data-source id="db2appDs" name="jdbc/datasource" binding-name="jdbc/theDB"/>
</application-bnd>
...
</application>
<dataSource id="db2ds" jndiName="jdbc/theDB" type="javax.sql.DataSource">
...
</dataSource>
When configuring my first Spring Boot application to deploy to Liberty, I am trying to use the new <springBootApplication> element for it - but I don't seem to be able to add a binding for the datasource I want to use the same way, as this element doesn't seem to support such a child. (It seems to want only <classloader> as a child).
I've seen people suggest I use an #Resource annotation that includes both application-local JDNI name and global JNDI name for the datasorce - but that defeats the purpose, since I don't want to know what the global name is until deploy time.
Is there another way to do this, like we used to before? Or are applications deployed through <springBootApplication> expected to know the global JNDI name of the datasource(s) they want?
Application-defined datasources are not supported for <springBootApplication/>’s. While your application may certainly access a Liberty datasource using its global JNDI name, you should configure the spring.datasource.jndi-name property within your Spring Boot application as described in section 29.1.3 of the Spring Boot features reference. For your example try spring.datasource.jndi-name=jdbc/theDB.

Restrict remote access to folder inside tomcat webapp folder

I have Spring Boot micro-service based application hosted on Tomcat 9. So, I have multiple folders deployed in {{tomcat root dir}}/webapps folder. I want only one folder to be accessible from outside network (gateway service). Others folder should be accessible only from localhost.
So, how can I achieve this without adding context.xml? I know this can be achieved by adding context.xml but context.xml is getting overwritten after every war deployment.
So want to check if this can be achieved at more global level like modifying server.xml.
Valves must be defined in a <Context> section, but adding a META-INF/context.xml to your application is not the only way to define a context.
If you want to restrict most applications to localhost, the easiest way is to modify $CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml:
<Context>
...
<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1"" />
</Context>
or $CATALINA_BASE/conf/<engine_name>/<host_name>/context.xml.default (usually $CATALINA_BASE/conf/Catalina/localhost/context.xml.default) if you wish the changes to apply only to a single host.
Every web application context will inherit the <Valve>s in the aforementioned files. Since you want to have a web application (let's say /pubApp) without these restrictions you need to create a file $CATALINA_BASE/conf/<engine_name>/<host_name>/pubApp.xml and set the override attribute to true:
<Context override="true">
<!-- Remember to copy all configuration values from `conf/context.xml`
and `conf/<engine_name>/<host_name>/context.xml.default`
that you wish to apply, since they will not be read anymore.
-->
...
</Context>

LegacyCookieProcessor in standalone Tomcat and Spring Boot [duplicate]

My code is working on tomcat 8 version 8.0.33 but on 8.5.4 i get :
An invalid domain [.mydomain] was specified for this cookie.
I have found that Rfc6265CookieProcessor is introduced in tomcat 8 latest versions.
It says on official doc that this can be reverted to LegacyCookieProcessor in context.xml but i don't know how.
Please let me know how to do this.
Thanks
You can try in context.xml
<CookieProcessor className="org.apache.tomcat.util.http.LegacyCookieProcessor" />
reference:
https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/config/cookie-processor.html
Case 1: You are using Standalone Tomcat & have access to change files in tomcat server
Please follow answer by #linzkl
Case 2: You are using Standalone Tomcat but you don't have access to change files in tomcat server
Create a new file called context.xml under src/main/webapp/META-INF folder in your application & paste the content given below
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context>
<WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource>
<WatchedResource>WEB-INF/tomcat-web.xml</WatchedResource>
<WatchedResource>${catalina.base}/conf/web.xml</WatchedResource>
<CookieProcessor className="org.apache.tomcat.util.http.LegacyCookieProcessor" />
</Context>
When you deploy your application in Standalone Tomcat, the context.xml file you placed under META-INF folder will override the context.xml file given in tomcat/conf/context.xml
Note: If you are following this solution, you have to do it for every single application because META-INF/context.xml is application specific
Case 3: You are using Embedded Tomcat
Create a new bean for WebServerFactoryCustomizer
#Bean
WebServerFactoryCustomizer<TomcatServletWebServerFactory> cookieProcessorCustomizer() {
return new WebServerFactoryCustomizer<TomcatServletWebServerFactory>() {
#Override
void customize(TomcatServletWebServerFactory tomcatServletWebServerFactory) {
tomcatServletWebServerFactory.addContextCustomizers(new TomcatContextCustomizer() {
#Override
public void customize(Context context) {
context.setCookieProcessor(new LegacyCookieProcessor());
}
});
}
};
}
Enabling the LegacyCookieProcessor which is used in previous versions of Tomcat has solved the problem in my application. As linzkl mentioned this is explained in Apache's website https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/config/cookie-processor.html.
The reason is that the new version of Tomcat does not understand the . (dot) in front of the domain name of the Cookie being used.
Also, make sure to check this post when you are using Internet Explorer. Apparently, it's very likely to break.
You can find context.xml in the following path.
tomcat8/conf/context.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8”?>
<!-- The contents of this file will be loaded for each web application —>
<Context>
<!-- Default set of monitored resources. If one of these changes, the -->
<!-- web application will be reloaded. -->
<WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource>
<WatchedResource>${catalina.base}/conf/web.xml</WatchedResource>
<!-- Uncomment this to disable session persistence across Tomcat restarts -->
<!-- <Manager pathname="" /> -->
<CookieProcessor className="org.apache.tomcat.util.http.LegacyCookieProcessor"/>
</Context>
The problem is still with Tomcat9. Same process need to follow for Tomcat 9 to set the class.
Add the class in context.xml file.
If you are using eclipse to run the application, need to set in the context.xml file in the server folder. Refer the below screenshot for more reference.
Hope this helps someone.
SameSite issue in tomcat version < 8.5.47 has resolved
In Tomcat 8.5.47 and bellow (Tomcat 8 versions), setting CookieProcessor tag to enable same site (as given bellow) in context.xml does not work due to a bug in Tomcat.
<CookieProcessor className="org.apache.tomcat.util.http.LegacyCookieProcessor" sameSiteCookies="none" />
If you find in this situation where it is not a easy thing to upgrade tomcat immediately (which I faced recently), or if you find any other case where you just need custom processing in cookies; You can write your own CookieProcessor class to get around.
Please find a custom CookieProcessor implementation and details of it's deployment steps here.
In my case I wrote a custom CookieProcessor based on LegacyCookieProcessor source code that allows tomcat 8.5.47 to enable SameSite attribute in cookies.
As mentioned by #atul, this issue persists in Tomcat 9. It will most likely persist moving forward with all future versions of Tomcat, since this is the new standard.
Using the legacy cookie processor (by adding the line above to the context.xml file) is working well for us. However, the true 'fix' is to adjust how your cookie is formed in the first place. This will need to be done in your application, not in Tomcat.
The new cookie processor does not allow the domain to start with a . (dot). Adjusting your cookie (if possible) to start with a value other than that will fix this problem without reverting to the old, legacy cookie processor.
Also, it should be obvious, but I didn't see it mentioned above: after updating the context.xml file, you need to restart the Tomcat service for the change to take effect.
Cheers!

Create Externalized Configuration in spring-boot along with profiles

I have a spring-boot application with annotations instead of context.xml.
In my src/main/resources folder I have: application-dev.properties and application-test.properties.
which work perfectly for different profiles (while running with VM option like -Dspring.profiles.active=dev)
Now I need to externalize this properties with file in /opt/software/Tomcat8/conf/app.properties
Some props override each other, some don't.
in Tomcat config context.xml I say:
<Environment name="app.properties"
value="file:///opt/software/Tomcat8/conf/app.properties"
type="java.lang.String" override="false"/>
How to use it via JNDI in my application configuring app with no XML but annotations in Spring-bot application class?
I need it to have priority to inner jar properties according to
Link to Spring-boot.doc
One solution I found was to have the vm argument -Dloader.path with the external path when executing the application. Please keep in mind if you're using a fat jar you may need to create the package in Zip model, otherwise it will not work.

How to configure JSF 2.0 application's project stage via JNDI in Tomcat

been struggling to find a way to configure Tomcat 7.0.11 so that my web application would use project stage setting from Tomcat's config. So far - no luck. The idea is to set this property in Tomcat server/host/application wide but not to set it in web.xml. Any ideas? I am using MyFaces JSF 2 implementation 2.0.5.
The specification says that the JSF implementation looks up the Project Stage using JNDI under java:comp/env/jsf/ProjectStage. If not found it uses the context parameter javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE from your web.xml. This means that if defined/found on your Tomcat using JNDI, the value of preferred over the web.xml setting.
There are two things you can do:
Option 1: Overwrite the context parameter: This means that context parameter is set/overwritten using the Tomcat server.xml or context.xml. You need to put this in your <Context>-tag:
<Parameter name="javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE" value="Production" override="false" />
Careful: override="false" here means that this parameter can NOT be overriden by the web.xml (not the other way around)!
Option 2: Configure a resource that can be found using JNDI: By using this that JSF implementation can resolve the project stage using the JNDI lookup.
<Environment name="jsf/ProjectStage" value="Production" type="java.lang.String" override="false"/>
You can also move this to the <GlobalResources>-tag in your server.xml. In this case you would need to reference this in your <Context>-tag by using <ResourceLink>-tag.

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