Exclude gwt-dev.jar from a war deploy for Tomcat

[Magallo]

Hi, all. I'm trying to create a .war file of my GWT project to deploy in Tomcat. I see that in Eclipse there is the possibility to deploy a war file just opening the context menu with right-click of the mouse on the module name file .java in the package explorer and choosing the "Google Web Toolkit->Deploy module" menu item. Doing this, Eclipse will automatically create a build.xml file. Then the build.xml script is generated and the package is created. This works but there is a problem. The file gwt-dev-jar is copied in the WEB-INF/lib directory and it is included in the war file. I know that gwt-dev.jar must not be deployed but for a reason that I don't uderstand, but in any case the build process copies it. Why? Anyway....I would like to change this build.xml file to make some customization, but every time I build choosing "Google Web Toolkit->Deploy module" from the context menu, it is deleted and re-generated so I can't edit it manually. Where I can set some customization so that the automatically generated  build.xml file does what I want? How can I customize it to exclude gwt-dev.jar? Please help.

[skippy]

I am not sure about what you are trying to go, but instead of running
the deploy menu option try to right clicking on the build.xml and
click run as Ant. then the xml file will not be re-generated.

[JoyaleXandre]

I asked myself the same question, not only for gwt-dev.jar, but also to junit.jar. If we could remove them, we could have a lighter file to upload on the remote server.

[Magallo]

I understand what you say. Maybe you're right. In any case this leads me to make these questions:

1) Why the "Deploy module" process copies the gwt-dev.jar file to the WEB-INF/lib directory?

2) The build.xml file generated contains some absolute paths that are specific of my machine. I think Eclipse resolves these paths at run time when I start the "Deploy module" procedure. When working in a team and using a control version system like subversion or CVS, If I commit this build.xml file containing these absolute paths, when a teammate does an "update" and uses the build.xml created be me, he will have a lot of problems because the absolute paths defined in the file could be wrong for him. This leads me to think that the build.xml file should not be committed on the repository but any person in the team must use the "Deploy module" procedure to make a build creating its own build.xml file. Am I wrong? Am I missing something? For example the build.xml contains some sections like this:

<project name="ImageViewer" default="all" basedir="<full path of the project>"> => this is a full path
................................
................................
................................
<property name="gwt.home" value="<full path of the gwt sdk directory>" />
................................
................................
................................
<copy todir='war/WEB-INF/lib'>
    <fileset file="<full path of the gwt sdk gwt-dev.jar file>" />
    <fileset file="<full path of the gwt sdk validation-api-1.0.0.GA-sources.jar file>" />
    <fileset file="<full path of the gwt sdk validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar file>" />
</copy>
................................
................................
................................
These are just some of the totals. There are many more. How to solve this problem?

3) Ehen the build.xml file is created, the first row of the file is:
<project name="ImageViewer" default="all" basedir="<full path of the project>">
What is ImageViewer? Where does it come from? My project name isn't ImageViewer.

[Patrick Tucker]

Just export and zip your projects war folder. If you have anything specific to running inside eclipse, remove it from the export feature.

[Freddie Jefferson]

1) Google Compile (its a right click menu option)

2) Copy and past the war folder to your desktop. 

3) Rename the war folder to the name of your project.

4) Move your project to tomcat's webapps directory.

As for the other questions, i have no answers for them, but the above steps will satisfy your objective from your first post.

Regards,

Sigma

[JoyaleXandre]

've created the WAR file with the Deploy Module function. Then I opened it with a zip program and deleted the gwt-dev.jar and junit.jar file. I published my WAR file as normally and everythings was good. I use Jetty server instead of Tomcat.

[Magallo]

Yes, this way it works. It is just what I do now and it works. But, as you can easily admit, this is not a good standard and clean way to proceed. Do you agree? I was just wondering why the "Deploy module" function works like this and how is it possible to customize. I can't believe that Google people didn't think about it. Also regarding the point I mentioned about working with CVS (or Subversion or whatever).