Java - Tomcat: Reload context.xml without restarting server

Question

I'm using spring mvc and tomcat as a server. I want to be able to change a jndi field that is Autowired(as String):

<jee:jndi-lookup id="someMessage" jndi-name="someMessage"/>

in one of the my services, that is referenced to conf/context.xml of Tomcat, that looks something like this:

<Environment name="someMessage" value="Change this." type="java.lang.String" />. 

However, when I change the value on context.xml, this change is not reflected on my service managed by spring, unless I restart server. Is there anyway to reflect this change without restarting or redeploying war? I know there is a solution to include such a dynamic field in one of properties file and then use commons configuration library to reload the changes, but I'm looking for a solution to keep this field on my conf/context.xml...

Mushroom

Is your context.xml in META-INF in your webapp or at the root of Tomcat? If it's in your webapp, you can set reloadable - see the context docs under the "reloadable" field and the exploded WAR will be polled for changes. But, as the docs say, this is pretty expensive. You can also set it at a virtual host level and reload just that virtual host/webapp. – Loosetongued

It's on the root of Tomcat. Reloading it seems an expensive way to do it, even though it's a solution. – Mushroom

Answer 1

I think that is not possible. Why don't use a property file or a static class?

Monohydric

The guys that take care of servers already know how to work with context.xml and it is "easier" to tell them to change a property in there, then to go for example in conf/webapps/whatever/WEB-INF(or META-INF) and look for a specific properties file to change a value there. It's a sensitive information so I wouldn't want to put it into a static class and work with that (make a call for it or anything). But if there's no other way around, seems like commons configuration and putting it on properties file is the one I'll have to go with. – Mushroom

Answer 2

As far as I know, it's impossible if you put it into the conf/context.xml of your tomcat home as the following doc shows:

• StandardContext.html#reload(): If the context.xml has changed, you should stop this Context and create (and start) a new Context instance instead. -- i.e. can't achieve by original context
• Reload Existing App: Reload an existing web application, to reflect changes in the contents of /WEB-INF/classes or /WEB-INF/lib. -- i.e. not reflect the change of context.xml

But you can define your app's /META-INF/context.xml, which will be packed into war and you can replace war without restart server.

Nympho