Add multiple files in WEB-INF of war

[Shiaber Shaam]

My dev structure doesnt have a WEB-INF directory. How can i add multiple files other than web.xml to WEB-INF directory of the war?

I want to do this using the ant script.

[Peter Johnson]

Use the <copy> task?

Personally, I follow the Maven build pattern - I first gather the contents of the WAR in a single directory location, then I package up the whole directory. That way I have both a packaged WAR file and an "exploded" WAR directory.

[Tim Holloway]

Second on Peter's suggestion.

I did learn a LONG time ago that it's best to make project directories either read-only or write-only, regardless of the build system you're using. I normally build an exploded WAR and feed that directly to Tomcat for debugging, then jar up the exploded WAR when I want to make a distribution module. In keeping with not having permanent files in an output directory, I copy them from a static file source directory (or directories) into the exploded WAR directory when I do a build, just as I compile to the exploded WAR's WEB-INF/classes directory.

[Ali Qanavatian]

ant does not allow using <copy> in <war> block, you may use
<fileset dir="any-dir" />
in your ant file. and then just create a "WEB-INF" directory in "any-dir" directory, and put xml files there.
the directory structure would be like this:
+any-dir
     +WEB-INF
        <xml-files-are-here>

that's how i did it.

[Michael Henderson]

why not use the webinf element. This works for me.

    <target name="war" depends="compile">
        <!--echo message="${build.classes.dir}"></echo-->
        <war destfile="${build.dir}/${war}" webxml="${resources.dir}/web.xml">
            <lib dir="${lib.dir}/deploy"/>
            <webinf file="${resources.dir}/dwr.xml"/>
            <fileset dir="${web.dir}"/>
            <classes dir="${build.classes.dir}">
                <include name="**/*.class"/>
            </classes>
        </war>
    </target>