Create war file from Spring:boot project in Eclipse

Question

I am pretty new to Spring Boot and I have completed a application that works well on my localhost. As I have been told to deploy it outside my localhost on for example a webbhotel or simular I need to export the project as a war-file and not as a jar-file.

UPDATE!! I run the project as a Springproject generated in Spring Initialzr and using Eclipse as a IDE.

In Eclipse I have followed the steps

<packaging>war</packaging>

and

<dependencies>
    <!-- … -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <!-- … -->
</dependencies>

from Spring Boot Referencepage https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/htmlsingle/#howto-create-a-deployable-war-file

In my project I use

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

Do I need to add the sprinng-boot-starter-tomcat dependency and add provided to that on aswell as tomcat-embed-jasper so that my dependency will be like this?

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-embed-jasper</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
     <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

When I try to export to war-file in Eclipse, Eclipse can't find my project. It can find it if I try to export Java>JAR FILE but not if I try Web>WAR FILE

Do anyone know what I am doing wrong and if it is neccesary to export to a WAR-file to deploy to a external server?

Answer 1

You need to extend ****SpringBootServletInitializer**** in your @SpringBootApplication

You don't need to add the ****sprinng-boot-starter-tomcat**** dependency for war file generation

Use below configuration in pom.xml

<packaging>war</packaging>

Configure Build Path for your project and select JDK

Right click on project > Run As > Maven Install

It will generate the war file inside target folder.

Copy this war and deploy to any web/application server (I have renamed it to demo.war).

You can access the app by using your host name followed by the port and app name.

Answer 2

To generate WAR file in STS (Spring Tools Suite): Run as-> Maven Install

Answer 3

Step1:- Create ServletInitializer file by extending SpringBootServletInitializer

public class ServletInitializer extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

@Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
    return application.sources(DemoApplication.class);
}
}

Step2:- Use @SpringBootApplication in main class

@SpringBootApplication
public class DemoApplication {

 public static void main(String[] args) {
    SpringApplication.run(DemoApplication.class, args);
 }
}

Step3:- Package type as war in pom.xml

<packaging>war</packaging>

Step4:- Give build filename as like this

<build>
 <finalName>demo</finalName>
</build>

Step5:- Add external tomcat dependency as provided scope

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

Note:- For reference purpose, I'm adding my completed pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.7.7</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>
<groupId>com.example</groupId>
<artifactId>demo</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>demo</name>
<description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
<properties>
    <java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
 <finalName>demo</finalName>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Answer 4

After change to <packaging>war</packaging> in pom.xml.

utilize the command: mvn package

Answer 5

You can also proceed by selecting menus File -> Export -> Web -> War file

Answer 6

I generated a war file by the following steps:

1. Add above dependency.
2. Open command prompt.
3. cd into your project directory.
4. Run the command: mvn clean install.

Then a war file will be generated in the target directory.

Answer 7

If you are using maven, you can add tag to specify the type we want to create - jar or war. After that in sts you trigger a maven build and specify the goals - clean install and specify the number of threads you want to run for the build. In case you want to skip the test case you can give skipTest =true, or if you to run from command prommpt you can give -Dmaven.test.skip=true. Once done, war file will be generated under target folder. (unless we specify a specific deployment folder)