Mr N

In order to avoid full file-system paths in a Tomcat configuration, you make all the file references point to elements on the classpath. The classpath is an environment variable which is set outside of Tomcat, and is the search path that the class loader uses in order to find classes.

When importing another bean definition file you would be far better off using something along the lines of the following, instead of a file:/path/to/file

<import resource="classpath:uk/co/bigsoft/beans.xml"/>

Under Eclipse (3.4 Ganymede (but I’m sure this applies to all versions of Eclipse)) you can link projects together and create project dependencies. Creating a dependency means that when you open a project, it will open the projects it depends on. Also, when you run the project it incorporates the classpath of the dependant projects into its own classpath.

If you do this and run Tomcat you will get an error similar to:

class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.BeanDefinitionParsingException: Configuration problem: Failed to import bean definitions from URL location [classpath:uk/co/bigsoft/proj/dino.live.xml]
Offending resource: ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/sitemanager-webapp-config.xml]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from class path resource [uk/co/bigsoft/proj/dino.live.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [uk/co/bigsoft/proj/dino.live.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist

This problem occurs because Tomcat is running as a separate application with its own environment - an environment that does not include classpath links to your other Eclipse projects (even though you have linked them together in Eclipse).

There follows a step-by-step guide to adding multiple Eclipse projects to Tomcat classpath. This follows on from the Configuring Eclipse to use Tomcat and the Spring Framework article I wrote earlier.

1. After attaching the project to the Tomcat server, double click the Tomcat v6.0 Server at localhost to popup the Tomcat server configuration window.
2. Click General Information->Open launch configuration
3. Select Classpath tab
4. Highlight User Entries (buttons will become enabled)
5. Click Add projects… button
6. Check the boxes of the projects you want to include.
7. Click ok….ok….etc