Jakarta Tomcat

Tomcat functions as a servlet container developed at the Apache Software Foundation. Tomcat implements the servlet and the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specifications from Sun Microsystems. That is to say, it provides an environment for Java programming language code to run in cooperation with a web server. It also adds tools for configuration and management, but it can also be configured by editing configuration files that are normally XML-formatted. Because Tomcat includes its own HTTP server internally, it is also considered to be a standalone web server.

=Environment=

Tomcat is a web server that supports servlets and JSPs. Tomcat comes with the Tomcat Jasper Compiler that compiles JSPs into servlets.

The Tomcat servlet engine often appears in combination with an Apache HTTP Server or other web servers. Tomcat can also function as an independent web server in itself. Earlier in its development, the perception existed that standalone Tomcat was only suitable for development environments and other environments with minimal requirements for speed and transaction handling. However, that perception is no longer true. Tomcat is increasingly being used as a standalone web server in high-traffic, high-availability environments.

Since its developers wrote Tomcat in Java programming language, it runs on any operating system that has a Java Virtual Machine.

=Development status=

Members of the Apache Software Foundation and independent volunteers develop and maintain Tomcat. Users have free access to the source code and to the binary form of Tomcat under the Apache License. The initial Tomcat release appeared with versions 3.0.x. Tomcat 5.5.x, the latest production quality release as of 2005, implements the Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 specifications. Versions 4.0 and later use the Tomcat Catalina servlet container internally.

=Directory structure=

The typical and default directory hierarchy of a Tomcat installation comprises the following:

bin - startup, shutdown and other scripts and executables

common - common classes that Catalina and web applications can use

conf - XML files and related Document Type Definitions to configure Tomcat

logs - Catalina and application logs

server - classes used only by Catalina

shared - classes shared by all web applications

webapps - directory containing the web applications

work - temporary storage for files and directories

However, alternative configurations are possible. The documentation that ships with Tomcat contains more details.

=Product features=

==Tomcat 3.x (initial release)==

implements the Servlet 2.2 and Java Server Pages 1.1 specifications

servlet reloading

basic HTTP functionality

==Tomcat 4.x==

implements the Servlet 2.3 and Java Server Pages 1.2 specifications

servlet container redesigned as Tomcat Catalina

JSP engine redesigned as Jasper

Coyote connector

Java Management Extensions (JMX), JSP and Struts-based administration

==Tomcat 5.x==

implements the Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 specifications

reduced garbage collection, improved performance and scalability

native Windows and Unix wrappers for platform integration

faster jsp parsing

=History=

Tomcat started off as a servlet specification implementation by James Duncan Davidson who worked as a software architect at Sun Microsystems. He later helped in making the project open source and in its donation by Sun to the Apache Software Foundation.

Davidson had initially hoped that the project would become open-sourced, and since most open-source projects had O Reilly Media books associated with them featuring an animal on the cover, he wanted to name the project after an animal. He came up with Tomcat , since he reasoned the animal represented something that could take care of and fend for itself. His wish to see an animal cover eventually came true, when O Reilly published their Tomcat book with a tomcat on the cover.

=External links=

http://tomcat.apache.org/ - Official Tomcat website

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/tomcat/ - O Reilly Tomcat book with animal cover.