Plans for officially embedding Ofbiz inside an App Server (Tomcat)?

[Ritesh Trivedi]

Hi,

Is there a plan to officially be able to embed ofbiz inside an application server such as Tomcat? I know there is a how to's about this already on this - but I am afraid it doesnt work reliably when ofbiz is used with other frameworks within the same container due to classloader issues. I am experiencing them now especially when using caching in Ofbiz.

Thanks

[David E Jones]

Welcome to the wonderful world of J2EE app servers!

These sorts of problems are common and painful, and one of the reasons  
why we work so hard to have and maintain embedded app server  
infrastructure inside of OFBiz so that it runs easily OOTB.

The biggest question for external app servers is why do you want to  
run OFBiz that way? The reason that's a big question is that usually  
it's not a good idea...

-David


On Sep 19, 2008, at 1:39 PM, Ritesh Trivedi wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Is there a plan to officially be able to embed ofbiz inside an  
> application
> server such as Tomcat? I know there is a how to's about this already  
> on this
> - but I am afraid it doesnt work reliably when ofbiz is used with  
> other
> frameworks within the same container due to classloader issues. I am
> experiencing them now especially when using caching in Ofbiz.
>
> Thanks
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Plans-for-officially-embedding-Ofbiz-inside-an-App-Server-%28Tomcat%29--tp19578380p19578380.html
> Sent from the OFBiz - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>

[Ritesh Trivedi]

Thanks for the reply.

Well there are several

- Be able to "use" Ofbiz with other frameworks and applications within the container - possibly within the same webapp
- Be able to get the latest improvements/enhancements from the containers themselves
- Be able to loadbalance based on proven container level architecture (By this I dont mean one cannot cluster ofbiz servers)

- Have never been able to get hot deploy to work reliably on both linux and windows, not only for the hot-deploy directory based components but also for other application/framework components during development causing considerable time waste in restarting ofbiz.
etc..

David E Jones wrote

Welcome to the wonderful world of J2EE app servers!

These sorts of problems are common and painful, and one of the reasons  
why we work so hard to have and maintain embedded app server  
infrastructure inside of OFBiz so that it runs easily OOTB.

The biggest question for external app servers is why do you want to  
run OFBiz that way? The reason that's a big question is that usually  
it's not a good idea...

-David


On Sep 19, 2008, at 1:39 PM, Ritesh Trivedi wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Is there a plan to officially be able to embed ofbiz inside an  
> application
> server such as Tomcat? I know there is a how to's about this already  
> on this
> - but I am afraid it doesnt work reliably when ofbiz is used with  
> other
> frameworks within the same container due to classloader issues. I am
> experiencing them now especially when using caching in Ofbiz.
>
> Thanks
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Plans-for-officially-embedding-Ofbiz-inside-an-App-Server-%28Tomcat%29--tp19578380p19578380.html
> Sent from the OFBiz - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>

[Adam Heath-2]

Ritesh Trivedi wrote:
> - Have never been able to get hot deploy to work reliably on both linux and
> windows, not only for the hot-deploy directory based components but also for
> other application/framework components during development causing
> considerable time waste in restarting ofbiz.
> etc..

hot-deploy is not for runtime redeployment/addition of components.  You
are meant to restart ofbiz when you add/remove components from that
directory.  At least that's what I have always done.

[Ritesh Trivedi]

not addition/removal of components - just redeployment of the existing compnent jars

Adam Heath-2 wrote

Ritesh Trivedi wrote:
> - Have never been able to get hot deploy to work reliably on both linux and
> windows, not only for the hot-deploy directory based components but also for
> other application/framework components during development causing
> considerable time waste in restarting ofbiz.
> etc..

hot-deploy is not for runtime redeployment/addition of components.  You
are meant to restart ofbiz when you add/remove components from that
directory.  At least that's what I have always done.

[BJ Freeman]

I guess your the candidate to make this work.
:)
I believe once you have worked this out you will have a better
understanding.

Ritesh Trivedi sent the following on 9/19/2008 12:57 PM:

> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Well there are several
>
> - Be able to "use" Ofbiz with other frameworks and applications within the
> container - possibly within the same webapp
> - Be able to get the latest improvements/enhancements from the containers
> themselves
> - Be able to loadbalance based on proven container level architecture (By
> this I dont mean one cannot cluster ofbiz servers)
>
> - Have never been able to get hot deploy to work reliably on both linux and
> windows, not only for the hot-deploy directory based components but also for
> other application/framework components during development causing
> considerable time waste in restarting ofbiz.
> etc..
>
>
> David E Jones wrote:
>>
>> Welcome to the wonderful world of J2EE app servers!
>>
>> These sorts of problems are common and painful, and one of the reasons  
>> why we work so hard to have and maintain embedded app server  
>> infrastructure inside of OFBiz so that it runs easily OOTB.
>>
>> The biggest question for external app servers is why do you want to  
>> run OFBiz that way? The reason that's a big question is that usually  
>> it's not a good idea...
>>
>> -David
>>
>>
>> On Sep 19, 2008, at 1:39 PM, Ritesh Trivedi wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Is there a plan to officially be able to embed ofbiz inside an  
>>> application
>>> server such as Tomcat? I know there is a how to's about this already  
>>> on this
>>> - but I am afraid it doesnt work reliably when ofbiz is used with  
>>> other
>>> frameworks within the same container due to classloader issues. I am
>>> experiencing them now especially when using caching in Ofbiz.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> --
>>> View this message in context:
>>> http://www.nabble.com/Plans-for-officially-embedding-Ofbiz-inside-an-App-Server-%28Tomcat%29--tp19578380p19578380.html
>>> Sent from the OFBiz - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>>
>>
>>
>

[David E Jones]

>
> Ritesh Trivedi sent the following on 9/19/2008 12:57 PM:
>> Thanks for the reply.
>>
>> Well there are several
>>
>> - Be able to "use" Ofbiz with other frameworks and applications  
>> within the
>> container - possibly within the same webapp
>> - Be able to get the latest improvements/enhancements from the  
>> containers
>> themselves
>> - Be able to loadbalance based on proven container level  
>> architecture (By
>> this I dont mean one cannot cluster ofbiz servers)
>>

All of these are possible with OFBiz using the embedded containers. If  
you want to use Tomcat there is simply no benefit to having OFBiz in  
Tomcat instead of Tomcat in OFBiz.

-David

[Ritesh Trivedi]

Great to know these are possible - Are there any which are available out of these? will appreciate pointers - esp. for the hot deploy item.

David E Jones wrote

>
> Ritesh Trivedi sent the following on 9/19/2008 12:57 PM:
>> Thanks for the reply.
>>
>> Well there are several
>>
>> - Be able to "use" Ofbiz with other frameworks and applications  
>> within the
>> container - possibly within the same webapp
>> - Be able to get the latest improvements/enhancements from the  
>> containers
>> themselves
>> - Be able to loadbalance based on proven container level  
>> architecture (By
>> this I dont mean one cannot cluster ofbiz servers)
>>

All of these are possible with OFBiz using the embedded containers. If  
you want to use Tomcat there is simply no benefit to having OFBiz in  
Tomcat instead of Tomcat in OFBiz.

-David

[Adam Heath-2]

Ritesh Trivedi wrote:
> not addition/removal of components - just redeployment of the existing
> compnent jars

Do you mean modifying some library file, or jar, then doing 'something'
to have ofbiz see the change?

The answer is to restart.  There is no classpath reloading support in ofbiz.

If you are talking about other files, then the answer is that it
depends.  entitymodel/service definitions require a restart.  Property
files can be cleared thru webtools.