Apache Tomcat is a Java web application server that provides possibility to deploy your Servlet application.

There are two ways to configure your different web application to deploy in tomcat:

• server.xml
• via Context file

Most of the case, it’s discouraged to configure the deployment on server.xml so here I propose for deploying application using context file.

The context file:

• is located at apache-tomcat-7.x.x\conf\Catalina\localhost
• Filename is the application context name (e.g. http://localhost:8080/mycontextapp/)
• One context file is for deploying one application war

Sample configuration (file: apache-tomcat-7.x.x\conf\Catalina\localhost\mycontextapp.xml)

<Context path="/mycontextapp" reloadable="true" 
	docBase="D:/tmp/webapp" 
	workDir="D:/tmp/webapp/work" />

If you are looking for the way to call this context and deploying the application with eclipse, please have a look to this article.

And enjoy other application server topic.