Create a Java executable JAR with the Tomcat plug-in for Maven
The trend toward microservices development and Docker-based deployments turned the world of Java application packaging on its head.
It was once normal to install a single application server on a powerful piece of hardware, where you would then deploy multiple applications. The practice today is to package individual web applications within a single Java executable JAR file and then use an embedded Tomcat server as the servlet engine. You then package the Tomcat server embedded in the Java executable JAR in a Docker container, deployed to cheap, commodity-based hardware and managed at runtime by a microservices orchestration tool, such as Kubernetes or Docker Swarm. The key to all of this is the ability to run web apps in their own Java executable JAR.
An embedded Tomcat example
This video will step you through an embedded Tomcat example in which a simple Java application is deployed into a web-based runtime and packaged as a Java executable JAR. You will learn the steps to create a simple Java web app up to the stage before deployment to a Docker container begins.
The Tomcat plug-in for Maven
This particular embedded Tomcat example relies heavily on the Tomcat plug-in for Maven. Once installed and configured, the Tomcat plug-in for Maven performs a number of key tasks. It downloads the Java web server, builds the application and packages the required components in the Java executable JAR file. Without the Tomcat plug-in for Maven, this embedded Tomcat example would require twice as many steps.
Significance of the Java executable JAR
After you view the video and work through this embedded Tomcat example, you should also take away a deeper understanding of how the trend toward microservices and cloud-native computing impacts the way developers build enterprise applications, especially if you are a software professional with a history of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition-based development.