Adding an external directory to Tomcat classpath

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I have a folder in my C: drive as C:\app_config\java_app This folder contains some locale specific property files.

I have a java class (PrjPropertilesLocator) that loads the property files based on default locale on the startup of the web App.My web application is running inside tomcat. The problem is how should i set this directory C:\app_config\java_app in the tomcat classpath so that this becomes available to the ResourceBundle inside the PrjPropertilesLocator class. Is there a way i can set this folder specifically for a Single web app that needs it.I do not want to put the property files inside WEB-INF/classes folder.

On weblogic this runs fine.I set the directory inside the weblogic classpath in one of its startup scripts and it works fine. But on Tomcat i tried putting it in startup.bat also in setclasspath.bat, but was not able to do so successfully.

6 Answers

I might be a bit late for the party but I follow below steps to make it fully configurable using IntelliJ's way of in-IDE app test. I believe the best way to go with is to Combine below with @BelusC's answer.

1. run the application using IDE's tomcat run config. 
2. ps -ef | grep -i tomcat //this will give you a good idea about what the ide doing actually.
3. Copy the -Dcatalina.base parameter value from the command. this is your application specific catalina base. In this folder you can play with catalina.properties, application root path etc.. basically everything you have been doing is doable here too. 
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