Tomcat configuration in Eclipse...inputs appreciated

[Ak Rahul]

Hi,
I have never worked on java web application. I have a .war file for an application(I don't have access to source for this war) that I have to deploy in Tomcat. I directly put this war in the <tomcat-install-dir>/webapps and ran catalina.sh directly. This made sure that the war deployed fine for now.

I now want to deploy this war file using Tomcat that is set up in eclipse. How can I make sure that my tomcat(configured in eclipse) can deploy the war directly from eclipse?

I also have a java project in my eclipse. It is not a dynamic web project. The source code in this java project is used as a jar in the war file that I deployed to tomcat.
Right now, I am building the jar, and copying it to <tomcat-install-dir>/webapps/<app-name>/WEB-INF/lib and then restarting tomcat to make sure my changes are reflected in the application.

Is there an easier way in eclipse so that my source code changes are directly copied to the deployed application using eclipse and the tomcat setup in eclipse?

Any advice will be appreciated.

[Ak Rahul]

I don't mind starting tomcat from the tomcat installation directory as long as my eclipse project publishes my changes directly to the exploded war in tomcat. I am not quite sure how I can publish my changes from eclipse to tomcat directly. Any response is appreciated.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Closing as a duplicate of this thread.