Web Development

Recently I've had to do some SOA development using Java and Tomcat. I've never dipped my toes into Java web service development so it's a new world to me. Compared to ASP.NET it seems very convoluted with many different frameworks and conflicting/incomplete/outdated tutorials. I ended up using Axis2 as the framework but wanting to develop on OS X I had to install a servlet container to host my web services. I also wanted to integrate this into Apache for various reasons. After some research and searching here is a process I came up with to install Tomcat on OS X using Apache.

These instructions are for OS X 10.4 (Tiger) with JDK 1.5 and Tomcat 5.5:

Step 1: Download Tomcat and JK source

You can download Tomcat from this link

In order to integrate Tomcat with Apache you need to use the JK Apache module. I downloaded the source for the module and compiled it. You can download the JK Apache module source from this link

Step 2: Install Apache Tomcat

First unpack apache tomcat (double click the file in the Finder) then move folder to /usr/local (or optionally /Library)


sudo mv apache-tomcat-5.5.20 /usr/local


Next create a symbolic link in /usr/local for tomcat. I do this to make it easier to update tomcat versions later.


sudo ln -s apache-tomcat-5.5.20 tomcat


Step 3: Build and install the JK module for Apache

Unpack JK module (double click the file in the Finder) and then open a Terminal and change to the directory that contains the JK source code native directory. You need to build the module from source code to do this issue these commands:

Want a free book on PHP 4.0? Simply click here for a free ebook on PHP 4.0 from Apress. It's not PHP 5.0 but hey it's free and lots of it will still be relevant. I found this through the Drupal Announcements RSS feed:

Free PHP 4.0 ebook from Apress | drupal.org:

For the PHP 4.0 ebook, you should be able to simply go to http://apress.com/free/content/ProgrammersIntroductionToPHP4.pdf and view the PDF file. If that doesn't work, follow these steps:

1. Go to http://apress.com/free/index.html

2. Unclick “Subscribe to Apress newsletter” (unless you really want the newsletter).

3. Click “Download the book” without entering your email address (unless you want the newsletter).

4. On the next screen, to the right of where it says, “A Programmer's Introduction to PHP 4.0 (4.2 MB PDF file),” click on “Download now.”

5. The next screen takes you to http://apress.com/free/content/ProgrammersIntroductionToPHP4.pdf. It might take a few moments due to the PDF file being 4.2MB.

Enjoy!