Alright peeps, thought I'd let you all know that I fixed it, and I know what the problem was. First problem - and this one is a doozy - is the horrible way that my new Vista box doesn't let you know if you can't save files to a directory. So basically I've been screwing around with this blasted configuration for 2 days straight because nothing I did was actually being saved.
This is, of course, a totally awesome thing to figure out after all of this time. I also had a couple of problems with my server.xml and web.xml - SQL Server drivers names and the like. So I can find this stupid problem again, when I run into it 2 years from now - here is my final server.xml and web.xml - at least the important parts.
If you're paying attention, you'll notice that we're talking about maybe an 8 character difference in what I posted earlier. 8 characters that I actually figured out 10 minutes after my post, and then the next 10 hours figuring it out over and over again.
So, my tip? When working in Vista, check to make sure that a save command actually saves in the directory you are saving to. Also, when double checking your xml files, remember that browsers default to caching that kind of stuff too.
I'm off to find a stiff drink.
Oh yeah, I hate it when other people forget to post this stuff....
Tomcat 5.5.25
MS SQL Server Express 2005
Windows Vista Ultimate
Did I leave anything out for good search data? Ehh, probably.
[ January 11, 2008: Message edited by: Davin Atkins ]