How-to: Configure the home directory for the deployable web application

The home directory is the root directory for the runtime directory structure used by Pineapple. The directory structure contains:

Two examples are included:

  • How to configure the home directory at runtime.
  • How to configure the home directory at development time.

Configuration of the home directory at runtime

Where the home directory is configured in the deployable web application

The unzipped client contains the directory layout:

pineapple-web-application-VERSION.war
     |     
     +--- META-INF
     |               
     +--- WEB-INF
     |     +--- classes
     |     |     +--- stufff 
     |     |             
     |     +--- images
     |     |     +--- stufff 
     |     |             
     |     +--- jsp
     |     |     +--- stufff 
     |     |             
     |     +--- lib
     |     |     +--- stufff 
     |     |             
     |     +--- log4j
     |     |     +--- stufff 
     |     |             
     |     +--- spring   
     |     |     +--- stufff 
     |     |             
     |     |--- web.xml
     |

The home directory is configured in the web.xml file where it is defined by the context parameter pineapple.home.dir.

web.xml

web.xml looks something like this;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.4" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
        
        <display-name>Pineapple web application</display-name>

        <!-- Configures the pineapple.home.dir system property, used by the PineappleHomeInitializer class -->  
        <context-param>
                <param-name>pineapple.home.dir</param-name>
                <param-value>${user.home}/.pineapple</param-value>
        </context-param>

        <!-- Initialization of the Pineapple Home directory -->
        <listener>
                <description>ServletContextListener which initiates the Pineapple Home directory.</description>
                <listener-class>com.alpha.pineapple.web.context.PineappleHomeInitializer</listener-class>
        </listener>
        
        .......

The home directory is defined by the property:

        <!-- Configures the pineapple.home.dir system property, used by the PineappleHomeInitializer class -->  
        <context-param>
                <param-name>pineapple.home.dir</param-name>
                <param-value>${user.home}/.pineapple</param-value>
        </context-param>

The value of the home directory is resolved from the JVM system property user.home which defines the Home directory for the current user.

Example: Change the home directory to c:/temp

Change the value of property pineapple.home.dir:

        <param-value>c:/temp</param-value>

The web application must be ZIP'ed and redeployed for the change to take effect as the configuration is only read when the web application starts up.

Configuration of the home directory at development time

web.xml

The configuration of the home directory is located in the project pineapple-web-application-war in the directory: src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml.

Modify the property as shown above.

The WAR must be built and deployed for the change to take effect.