Jan Luehe wrote:
> The way you declare a default context in Tomcat is different from
> AS. Tomcat does not support promoting an already deployed web module
> to a default web module.
>
> In Tomcat, a web module is considered a default web module by virtue
> of its context root, which must be equal to "".
...
> In AS, *any* web module may be promoted to a default web module, by
> referencing its id from the virtual server's default-web-module
> attribute (no such attribute exists in Tomcat!). In fact, deployment
> of a web module with an empty context root will fail in AS, if the target
> virtual server declares a default-web-module.
>
> The semantics of default-web-module have existed since iAS7.
> Here's a quote from the iAS7 dev guide
> (http://docs.sun.com/source/817-2149-10/dwwebapp.html#wp38547):
>
> Using the Administration Interface
>
> You can assign a virtual server to a web module during deployment as
> described in "Deploying Web Applications". To use the Administration
> interface to specify a virtual server's default web module:
>
> 1. Deploy the web application or J2EE application as described in
> "Deploying Web Applications".
> 2. Open the HTTP Server component under your server instance.
> 3. Open the Virtual Servers component under the HTTP Server component.
> 4. Select the virtual server to which you want to assign the web
> application.
> 5. Select the web application from the Default Web Module drop-down list.
> 6. Select the Save button.
> 7. Go to the server instance page and select the Apply Changes button.
>
> This doesn't say that the web module you've selected form the drop down
> will no longer be available under its original context root.
Nor does it say that it will. And I still haven't heard a motivation
for why it should be.
> When you designate a web module as a default-web-module, all that's
> changing
> is the value of the virtual server's default-web-module. The web module
> declaration in domain.xml, including its context root, are not changing,
> implying that the web module will continue to be available under its
> declared context root.
I'm not sure the way we represent this in domain.xml should drive the
view of this that we present to users. I think we should consider
moving to a model more similar to what Tomcat uses, where the default
web app is the web app that's deployed at "/" (or "" if you prefer).
Or rather, that designating a web app as the default web app changes
it to be deployed at "/".