THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
This page introduces how to customize a server with plugins from the existing one to meet requirements of your application.
Building a plugin
By far the easiest way to build a Geronimo plugin is with maven using the car-maven-plugin to build a module. Any such module will include a geronimo-plugin.xml descriptor with at least minimal information. When possible, such as the description and license, this information is taken from the pom itself. Normally you will build the dependency list from the modules dependencies which are constructed from the maven dependencies plus whatever additional dependencies the deployers determine are needed. For instance an ejb application will have the openejb plugin added as a dependency by the openejb deployer. If necessary you can specify the dependencies for both the module and plugin descriptor explicitly in the car-maven-plugin configuration.
Here's an example of a car-maven-plugin configuration using maven dependencies and configuring most of the additional information possible:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.geronimo.buildsupport</groupId>
<artifactId>car-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<useMavenDependencies>
<value>true</value>
<includeVersion>true</includeVersion>
</useMavenDependencies>
<category>Tomcat</category>
<instance>
<plugin-artifact>
<copy-file relative-to="server" dest-dir="var/catalina">tomcat-base/</copy-file>
<config-xml-content>
<!-- To disable accesslogging uncomment the following lines
<gbean name="TomcatEngine">
<reference name="TomcatValveChain" />
</gbean>
<gbean name="AccessLogValve" load="false"></gbean>
-->
<gbean name="TomcatWebConnector">
<attribute name="host">${ServerHostname}</attribute>
<attribute name="port">${HTTPPort + PortOffset}</attribute>
<attribute name="redirectPort">${HTTPSPort + PortOffset}</attribute>
<attribute name="maxHttpHeaderSize">8192</attribute>
<attribute name="maxThreads">150</attribute>
<attribute name="minSpareThreads">25</attribute>
<attribute name="maxSpareThreads">75</attribute>
<attribute name="enableLookups">false</attribute>
<attribute name="acceptCount">100</attribute>
<attribute name="connectionTimeout">${WebConnectorConTimeout}</attribute>
<attribute name="disableUploadTimeout">true</attribute>
</gbean>
<gbean name="TomcatAJPConnector">
<attribute name="host">${ServerHostname}</attribute>
<attribute name="port">${AJPPort + PortOffset}</attribute>
<attribute name="redirectPort">${HTTPSPort + PortOffset}</attribute>
<attribute name="minSpareThreads">25</attribute>
<attribute name="maxSpareThreads">75</attribute>
<attribute name="enableLookups">false</attribute>
</gbean>
<gbean name="TomcatWebSSLConnector">
<attribute name="host">${ServerHostname}</attribute>
<attribute name="port">${HTTPSPort + PortOffset}</attribute>
<attribute name="maxHttpHeaderSize">8192</attribute>
<attribute name="maxThreads">150</attribute>
<attribute name="minSpareThreads">25</attribute>
<attribute name="maxSpareThreads">75</attribute>
<attribute name="enableLookups">false</attribute>
<attribute name="acceptCount">100</attribute>
<attribute name="disableUploadTimeout">false</attribute>
<attribute name="clientAuth">false</attribute>
<attribute name="algorithm">Default</attribute>
<attribute name="sslProtocol">TLS</attribute>
<attribute name="keystoreFile">var/security/keystores/geronimo-default</attribute>
<attribute name="keystorePass">secret</attribute>
<attribute name="keystoreType">JKS</attribute>
</gbean>
<gbean name="TomcatHost">
<attribute name="initParams">
name=${ServerHostname}
appBase=
workDir=work
</attribute>
</gbean>
</config-xml-content>
<config-substitution key="HTTPPort">8080</config-substitution>
<config-substitution key="AJPPort">8009</config-substitution>
<config-substitution key="HTTPSPort">8443</config-substitution>
<config-substitution key="ServerHostname">0.0.0.0</config-substitution>
<config-substitution key="WebConnectorConTimeout">20000</config-substitution>
<config-substitution key="webcontainer">TomcatWebContainer</config-substitution>
<config-substitution key="webcontainerName">tomcat6</config-substitution>
</plugin-artifact>
</instance>
</configuration>
</plugin>
As you use maven to build plugins, a geronimo-plugins.xml plugin catalog is automatically maintained in your local maven repository. You can force this to be rebuilt by running
mvn org.apache.geronimo.buildsupport:car-maven-plugin:create-pluginlist
This might be necessary if you prune your maven repository and remove plugins listed in the catalog.
Alternatively, you can construct the geronimo-plugin.xml file by hand and include it in a deployed module in a geronimo server.
The admin console also allows limited editing of geronimo-plugin.xml files but editing the information about how the plugin fits into the server is not yet supported.
Installing plugins
If the appropriate admin console plugin is installed (and your geronimo server includes web app support) you can install plugins from a plugin repository. After selecting the "plugins" page from the navigation menu select the plugin repository you want, such as your local maven repository if you have been building your own plugins. Next you see a list of available plugins from the repository. Select multiple plugins using the checkboxes or a single plugin as a link, and on the next page you will see more information on the plugins. On your approval the plugins will be downloaded and installed.
Alternatively you can use gshell to install plugins using the deploy/list-plugins command. This can be run with a command line or interactively. Interactively you can select the plugin repository to use (if more than one is known), and then select the plugins to install. Again, they will be downloaded and installed. An example of command line usage will be seen in later when we discuss assembling a server.
Extracting a server from an existing server.
Just as with installing plugins, this can be done from the admin console, gshell, and the Geronimo Eclipse Plugin. In the admin console you specify the groupId and artifactId of the server you want, the version, and the archive type and then select the plugins you want installed. The server will be assembled in var/temp.
Similarly you can use the gshell deploy/assemble-server command specifying the same information on the command line or interactively.
Important Note
In order to get a working server you must include the geronimo-boilerplate-minimal plugin which includes several files used to start the server
TODO: The groupId is not currently used but the intention is to copy the assembled server into an appropriate maven repository.
Here's an example of a gshell script to install the roller plugin into the framework assembly and extract a server that only supports roller (and does not include the admin console or any deployment capabilities)
TODO: use something like this: snippet:url=geronimo/plugins/roller/trunk/roller-jetty-commands
TODO: get gshell to accept line continuations as in the following (these DO NOT WORK IN REAL LIFE):
# assembles a server containing roller-jetty from the geronimo-framework server. # run using ./bin/gsh < roller-jetty-commands deploy/list-plugins -u system -w manager -r file:/Users/david/.m2/repository/\ org.apache.geronimo.plugins/roller-jetty/0.0.2-SNAPSHOT/car\ org.apache.geronimo.plugins/roller-themes/0.0.2-SNAPSHOT/car deploy/assemble -g org.apache.geronimo.assemblies -a geronimo-roller-jetty -v 1.0-SNAPSHOT\ org.apache.geronimo.assemblies/geronimo-boilerplate-minimal/2.1-SNAPSHOT/jar\ org.apache.geronimo.plugins/roller-jetty/0.0.2-SNAPSHOT/car\ org.apache.geronimo.plugins/roller-themes/0.0.2-SNAPSHOT/car
The use of the GEP to assemble a custom server is very similar to the other methods. While the Geronimo server is running, use the server's popup menu to launch the Custom Server Assembly dialog. Specify the artifact name, group, version, archive type, path (relative to the running server), and plugins that you want installed. Once again, remember that the geronimo-boilerplate-minimal plugin must be included to get a working server.