Tomcat Bible

Author: (USA) Jason
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: "This is the book I've been waiting for about Tomcat. It's truly an excellent technical manual." — Jason Hunter, author of Java Servlet Programming and a member of the servlet and JSP expert group. Jakarta Tomcat is the world's most widely used Java servlet and JSP platform. In addition to serving as Sun's reference implementation for servlet and JSP specifications, it has a place in hundreds of thousands of websites, including static HTML homepages and dynamic e-commerce sites serving millions of users. This book is a toolkit for anyone developing, managing, or using Tomcat. It begins with basic installation on major operating systems (Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, OpenBSD, and MacOSX) and quickly moves into advanced topics. You will learn how to configure Tomcat to interact with the system, including automatic startup and shutdown, and detailed instructions on the various configuration options provided by Tomcat. Additionally, you will learn how to use different Realm implementations to authenticate users using plain text files, databases, and directory servers. At the same time, you will explore beyond the Tomcat program itself. This book provides a detailed explanation of the complex interaction between Apache httpd (the most popular Apache web server) and Tomcat, as well as how to properly connect the two. In fact, this is the only book that provides detailed information on using the mod_jk2 connector to balance Tomcat's load, and contains specialized information on building advanced clustering systems using Apache httpd and Tomcat, including Tomcat's new session replicator. The book also delves into security topics. You will learn how to set up Tomcat to manage X.509 certificates, execute Tomcat in a chroot jail (including a complete C program to automate this process), avoid many types of malicious attacks, and filter harmful data from web applications. The book also covers Tomcat's log files, including discussions on formatting files in useful ways. Finally, for servlet and JSP developers, the book is filled with useful tips. We will delve into the server.xml and web.xml files, allowing you to master all the features Tomcat provides for web applications. The book also mentions Tomcat's Valve interface and provides examples of many implementations, with detailed explanations of all Realm implementations. You will clearly understand how Tomcat handles HTTP sessions, receive direct debugging instructions, and learn how to write applications to support clustering systems. "This is the book I've been waiting for about Tomcat. It's truly an excellent technical manual." — Jason Hunter, author of Java Servlet Programming and a member of the servlet and JSP expert group. Jakarta Tomcat is the world's most widely used Java servlet and JSP platform. In addition to serving as Sun's servlet and JSP specification reference implementation, it has a place in hundreds of thousands of websites. This book is a toolkit for anyone developing, managing, or using Tomcat. It begins with basic Tomcat installation and quickly moves into advanced topics. You will learn how to configure Tomcat to interact with the system, including automatic startup and shutdown, and detailed instructions on the various configuration options provided by Tomcat. Additionally, you will learn how to use different Realm implementations to authenticate users using plain text files, databases, and directory servers. At the same time, the book provides a detailed explanation of the complex interaction between Apache httpd (the most popular Apache web server) and Tomcat, as well as how to properly connect the two. The book also introduces the use of the mod_jk2 connector to balance Tomcat's load and contains specialized information on building advanced clustering systems using Apache httpd and Tomcat, including Tomcat's new session replicator. For security issues, the book also provides in-depth exploration. The growing popularity of Jakarta Tomcat is undeniable. It is not only Sun's reference implementation for servlet and JSP specifications but also the world's most widely used servlet and JSP container. It is being used in hundreds of thousands of web sites, whether personal, non-profit, or commercial, and it performs exceptionally well. However, mastering Tomcat completely and systematically is not an overnight task. "Even though Tomcat4 is a perfect implementation of Java Servlet and WebServer, and even though it is not difficult for most people to get started with it, Tomcat4 is still a delicate combination of theory and technology, so truly understanding it is not easy," Jason Brittain, co-author of Tomcat Bible (O'Reilly, US$39.95), said. Brittain and his co-author Ian Barwin have four years of Tomcat experience and have been contributing to Tomcat since its release as an open-source project in 1999. Brittain said, "The goal of Tomcat Bible is to make using Tomcat easier and more convenient, and to provide more authoritative information and practical guides in the Tomcat field than other similar books." As Jason Hunter, a member of the servlet and JSP expert group, said, they succeeded. "This is exactly the Tomcat tutorial I wanted to see," Hunter said. "It is truly an authoritative guide." Tomcat Bible covers almost all mainstream operating platforms, including Windows, Solaris, Linux, and MacOSX. The book provides clear step-by-step instructions, using Tomcat4.1 as a reference, to explain how to install, configure, run (including automatic startup), and stop Tomcat, as well as detailed descriptions of each configuration option and Tomcat's features. The book also thoroughly explains how to use various different Realms for container-based authentication and how to use X.509-based authentication in Tomcat. It is the only book that introduces how to perform Tomcat load balancing and the only book that introduces how to perform Tomcat clustering and session replication. However, perhaps due to the authors' habits or other reasons, the examples in the book are all tested on Linux and Netscape, which may not align with the habits of most programmers in China. Nevertheless, I still recommend that every programmer or administrator who uses Tomcat should read this book. Additionally, for servlet and JSP developers, they will find a wealth of practical tips in Tomcat Bible, as well as in-depth research on server.xml and web.xml. The book also includes many classic code examples and debugging suggestions based on Tomcat development.