Embedding Tomcat and BlazeDS in an AIR 2 Application

Embedding Tomcat and BlazeDS in an AIR 2 Application

By Christophe Coenraets | Published: June 18, 2010

This was by far my most popular sample during the beta. So, here is an updated version for AIR 2 GA.

In this sample application, Tomcat and BlazeDS are embedded as part of the native installer. The first time you run the application, Tomcat is automatically copied to your applicationStorageDirectory from where the AIR application starts it. You can start and stop Tomcat manually from within the application, but in a real life application you would probably want to start Tomcat automatically when the AIR application starts.

Why would you want to embed Tomcat as part of an AIR application? First of all, I’m not saying that you should… This was just part of my exploration of new capabilities in AIR 2.0. That being said, I can think of a number of use cases where this could make sense. For example:

  • Tighter communication with Java code using BlazeDS locally as a way to directly invoke methods on remote Java classes.
  • Provide an offline mode for an application that closely mimics the online infrastructure.

Installation Instructions

  1. Make sure you have the AIR 2 runtime installed (you can download it here).
  2. Because Tomcat Launcher uses the Native Process API, you have to use a native installer:

After starting the application, enter the path to your Java home folder, then click the Start button. The application will remember the folder you entered the next time you use the application. Try the “Embedded JSP Example” and “Embedded RemoteObject Example”. If you get a BindingException when you start Tomcat, make sure it isn’t already started. You can also click the Stop button to stop a running instance.

You can download the project here: AIRAppWithEmbeddedTomcat.fxp.zip.

NOTE: If you want to compile the project, make sure you use the AIR 2 SDK available here.

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5 Comments

  1. Aseem Behl
    Posted June 22, 2010 at 9:29 am | Permalink

    I have not been able to get this to work, have been getting the following error every time. Has anybody faced a similar issue.

    Starting Tomcat…
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
    INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_18\jre\bin;.;C:\Windows\Sun\Java\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox;C:\Program Files\PC Connectivity Solution\;C:\Program Files\CollabNet\Subversion Server;c:\ruby\bin;C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client_1\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\10.0\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\10.0\DLLShared\;C:\Program Files\Windows Imaging\;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_18\bin;C:\apache-ant-1.7.1\bin;C:\grails-1.1.1\bin;C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin;C:\Python26;C:\SapJCo3;C:\PROGRA~1\IBM\CLIENT~1;C:\PROGRA~1\IBM\CLIENT~1\Shared;C:\PROGRA~1\IBM\CLIENT~1\Emulator;C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\sdks\3.5AIR2_RC\bin;C:\Program Files\GTK2-Runtime\bin;C:\apache-maven-2.2.1\bin;C:\Program Files\WinZip\
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol init
    INFO: Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
    INFO: Initialization processed in 314 ms
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService start
    INFO: Starting service Catalina
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start
    INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/6.0.20
    **** MessageBrokerServlet in application ‘undefined’ failed to initialize due to runtime exception: Exception: flex.messaging.config.ConfigurationException: Please specify a valid ‘services.configuration.file’ in web.xml. You specified ‘/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml’. This is not a valid file system path reachable via the app server and is also not a path to a resource in your J2EE application archive.
    at flex.messaging.config.ServletResourceResolver.isAvailable(ServletResourceResolver.java:54)
    at flex.messaging.config.FlexConfigurationManager.setupConfigurationPathAndResolver(FlexConfigurationManager.java:202)
    at flex.messaging.config.FlexConfigurationManager.getMessagingConfiguration(FlexConfigurationManager.java:78)
    at flex.messaging.MessageBrokerServlet.init(MessageBrokerServlet.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1173)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:993)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4149)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4458)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:987)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:909)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:495)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1206)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:314)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:722)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:583)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)

    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext loadOnStartup
    SEVERE: Servlet threw load() exception
    flex.messaging.config.ConfigurationException: Please specify a valid ‘services.configuration.file’ in web.xml. You specified ‘/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml’. This is not a valid file system path reachable via the app server and is also not a path to a resource in your J2EE application archive.
    at flex.messaging.config.ServletResourceResolver.isAvailable(ServletResourceResolver.java:54)
    at flex.messaging.config.FlexConfigurationManager.setupConfigurationPathAndResolver(FlexConfigurationManager.java:202)
    at flex.messaging.config.FlexConfigurationManager.getMessagingConfiguration(FlexConfigurationManager.java:78)
    at flex.messaging.MessageBrokerServlet.init(MessageBrokerServlet.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1173)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:993)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4149)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4458)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:987)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:909)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:495)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1206)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:314)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:722)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:583)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext loadOnStartup
    SEVERE: Servlet threw load() exception
    javax.servlet.ServletException: Unable to find MessageBroker, ensure that if messageBrokerId is set for the MessageBrokerServlet the RDS FrontEndServlet has a matching init-param value
    at flex.rds.server.RdsServlet.init(RdsServlet.java:64)
    at flex.rds.server.servlet.FrontEndServlet.loadServlet(FrontEndServlet.java:262)
    at flex.rds.server.servlet.FrontEndServlet.init(FrontEndServlet.java:127)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:212)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1173)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:993)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4149)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4458)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:526)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:987)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:909)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:495)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1206)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:314)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:722)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:583)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol start
    INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket init
    INFO: JK: ajp13 listening on /0.0.0.0:8009
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.jk.server.JkMain start
    INFO: Jk running ID=0 time=0/17 config=null
    Jun 22, 2010 7:54:45 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
    INFO: Server startup in 389 ms

  2. Aseem Behl
    Posted June 22, 2010 at 9:30 am | Permalink

    Apologize for the huge error log post.

    Thanks

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    Posted July 7, 2010 at 2:56 am | Permalink

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  4. Schnirup
    Posted July 7, 2010 at 11:33 am | Permalink

    Hi,

    when i try to start / stop the tomcat i receive ” error 3214 ” .

    How can i fix this and what does it indicate ? the JAVA_HOME is set.

    greetings and i hope for a reply since i´m very interested to test it further

  5. Schnirup
    Posted July 7, 2010 at 11:44 am | Permalink

    oh i found it myself…the java home was wrong :

    the AIR app found it to be C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0 while in reality it is C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_20 . adding _20 in the text box helped. weird tho

2 Trackbacks

  1. By Embedding Tomcat and BlazeDS in an AIR 2 Application | Lively Flash Tuts on June 19, 2010 at 2:30 am

    [...] Direct Link [...]

  2. By Flex learner | Blog | Embedding Tomcat and BlazeDS in an AIR 2 Application on June 22, 2010 at 2:52 am

    [...] Follow this link: Embedding Tomcat and BlazeDS in an AIR 2 Application [...]

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