Simple Tomcat Servlet not loaded in Eclipse

Question

I've been following the Servlet and JSP development with Eclipse WTP from vogella.com. I've installed Tomcat 7, copy-pasted the code (a simple Data Access Object and a simple HpptServlet), and started the server from eclipse.

When I open http://localhost:8080/de.vogella.wtp.filecounter/FileCounter in the web, the expected result is:

But I got a 404 error:

And this error log in the console:

Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 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: /Users/adamatan/Library/Java/Extensions:/Library/Java/Extensions:/Network/Library/Java/Extensions:/System/Library/Java/Extensions:/usr/lib/java:.
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:de.vogella.wtp.filecounter' did not find a matching property.
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 525 ms
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.42
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext resourcesStart
SEVERE: Error starting static Resources
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Document base /Users/adamatan/Personal/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.wst.server.core/tmp0/wtpwebapps/de.vogella.wtp.filecounter does not exist or is not a readable directory
    at org.apache.naming.resources.FileDirContext.setDocBase(FileDirContext.java:138)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.resourcesStart(StandardContext.java:5055)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5235)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1559)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1549)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)

Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Error in resourceStart()
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Error getConfigured
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Context [/de.vogella.wtp.filecounter] startup failed due to previous errors
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]
Sep 15, 2013 7:27:09 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 255 ms

Relevant information:

• Tomcat runs OK from the command line (catalina run).
• There is only one instance of Tomcat running at the same time.
• I could not get any other Tomcat servlet to run from Eclipse.

Any idea why isn't tomcat running my simple Servlet?

Update: I'm using OSX

Answer 1

I suspect you are running tomcat using an own user - it's a common practice in unix systems - and that that user does not have read privilege to your home directory /Users/adamatan.

Then you could try to add the tomcat user to you the group your user belongs to.

Better yet try to change the server location as described in this so question to a location where eclipse has write access and the tomcat user has read access.

EDIT

Actually its a setting in the Dynamic Web Project wizard, If you choose Dynamic web module version 3.0 (which is default) or higher on the first page then on the last page the checkbox for Generate web.xml deployment descriptor is disabled by default. If you choose 2.5 or lower it is then enabled by default. It has nothing to do with which tomcat you are actually using. If you want to use annotations though, then you have to have tomcat 7 with servlet specs 3.0

Answer 2

It was a Tomcat 6 tutorial, and I was using Tomcat 7.

Eclipse did not create a web.xml file, because it was expecting annotations in the Java code. The tutorial code did not contain any annotations, so the server started without servlets.