Eclipse "Server Locations" section disabled and need to change to use Tomcat installation

Question

I have set up a dynamic web project in Eclipse with a Tomcat 5.5 installation.

I want to be to set the server to us the Tomcat installation instead of the workspace metadata location, but when Eclipse displays the "Overview" screen for the server the "Server Locations" section is disabled and therefore I am unable to change it.

The overview screen is displayed when you have the servers view open and you then double click on the server.

Is it possible to enable this part of the "Overview" screen or hack a config file to point at the Tomcat installation?

Danu

Answer 1

Ok, sorry for my previous answer, I had never seen that Overview screen before.

Here is how I did it:

1. Right click on my tomcat server in "Servers" view, select "Properties…"
2. In the "General" panel, click on the "Switch Location" button
3. The "Location: [workspace metadata]" bit should have been replaced by something else.
4. Open (or close and reopen) the Overview screen for the server.

Infliction

See the update to the question on how to access the screen I am having problems with – Danu

Ok, thank you for these precisions. Hope that new answer works. – Infliction

If you really do want to enable the disabled parts of the UI, see Ramon's answer. – Phan

Answer 2

Right click on the server, then Add/Remove, then remove any projects that are in the Configured panel. Then right click on the server and choose "Clean..." from the context menu. Then the Server Locations option will be enabled.

Bookmobile

Works, but it just demonstrates how much eclipse is unintuitive and does not try to save my time for better things than looking for the mysterious places in order to set a very simple setting. A decent tool would figure out all this tinkering by itself, clean by itself, etc... yes I know it's a plugin but still.. – Borlase

This should be the accepted answer OP, not the other (Remove & Publish would also re-enable the grayed section). – Enchantment

Answer 3

I've just had same issue, this is what worked for me :

Note the message 'Server must be published with no modules present to make changes' on server dialog. So after removing the projects, re-publish your server, the option to set the server location should become re-enabled.

Merozoite

Answer 4

it worked for me after deleting and adding the server back.

Imitate

Answer 5

Starting server and publishing without any projects helped me to modify the "Server Locations".

Senate

Answer 6

If your server is not loaded with heavy configuration, the best solution would be to delete the tomcat and set it again.
It will be much easier then doing try and error for 7-10 times!

Germ

Answer 7

Before making any changes in Tomcat Server Location, you need to remove project(s) deployed on server.

To remove project: expand tomcat server in "Servers" view
right click and select remove

Tepid

Answer 8

Make sure that there is no project Deploy in server. If so ,please right click on server ,select add and remove ,Then remove all project. After this you can double click on server and the option will be enabled for you.

Tomekatomes

Thank you. Earlier I strugglled to enabled those option as I did not remove projects from tomcat. Happy coding !!! – Karoline

Answer 9

I started Eclipse as admin, and it worked.

Califate

Answer 10

You can change this by using the VM arguments as well in the launch configuration.

Kempis

Answer 11

If the former actions haven't had effect, backup your server configurations, remove the server and reinclude it. It was my case.

Vitia