Why are my JSP changes are not reflected without restarting Tomcat?

Question

I am editing JSP files which are residing directly inside tomcat/webapps/myapp/WEB-INF, but to see the changes, I have to restart the server. As far as I know, JSP changes don't require you to restart the server. The only configuration I found which is related to automatic reloading is reloadable = "true"

Set to true if you want Catalina to monitor classes in /WEB-INF/classes/ and /WEB-INF/lib for changes, and automatically reload the web application if a change is detected.

I used this attribute in the context.xml, but still the problem persists. What could be the other possible reason of not detecting changes in JSP files without restarting?

@Bozho: This is the excerpt from web.xml. Do I need to change something?

 <servlet>
        <servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>fork</param-name>
            <param-value>false</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>xpoweredBy</param-name>
            <param-value>false</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>3</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

the config is fine. check my update (and your browser cache) — Bozho, Jan 05 '10 at 09:27
Thus, you're using an IDE which takes control over from the appserver? — BalusC, Jan 05 '10 at 11:51
Got the same Problem with Tomcat 8 and Java 8. Worked fine with Tomcat 7 and Java 7. I also tried the development parameter but it's still not working. Maybe it is caused by the WTP library update which was necessary to configure Eclipse Kepler with Tomcat 8. — Chip, Sep 04 '14 at 10:56

Bozho · Answer 1 · 2010-01-05T09:26:51.120

32

In the tomcat docs, see the development setting. It must be set to true in order to have jsps reloaded.

development - Is Jasper used in development mode? If true, the frequency at which JSPs are checked for modification may be specified via the modificationTestInterval parameter.true or false, default true.

This is in your CATALINA_HOME/conf/web.xml

Additionally, if you need to refresh a jsp in a production environment without restart, you can go to CATALINA_HOME/work/Catalina/localhost/contentName/org/apache/jsp and delete the your_jsp.java and your_jsp.class files. They will be recreated the next time they are accessed.

Edit: after providing your configuration, and comment about not refreshing the content, I have another though: clear your browser cache, or open the page from another browser.

edited Jan 05 '10 at 09:26

answered Jan 05 '10 at 08:03

Bozho

588,226
146
1,060
1,140

3

interesting thins is i have deleted all files from `CATALINA_HOME/work/Catalina/localhost/contentName/org/apache/jsp` and on accessing the page, new .java and .class files are created for the jsp. But still the changes are not getting reflected. :( – Rakesh Juyal Jan 05 '10 at 09:11
We have the same issue from time to time, @RakeshJuyal have you found any solution? – Marcus Dec 06 '12 at 13:26
The comment about clearing the browsers cache saved me from losing another day on this! – M.C. Feb 17 '13 at 22:14

kkk · Answer 2 · 2014-09-05T11:24:55.537

11

An even more late answer ...

Setting "antiResourceLocking" to "true" in the context file may prevent JSP to be reloaded by the Tomcat (Bugzilla 37668).

This is documented on the Tomcat doc, at the "antiResourceLocking" parameter explanation

edited Sep 05 '14 at 11:24

answered Sep 05 '14 at 11:19

kkk

818
8
11

Had this problem and antiResourceLocking was also the problem! – Diego Duarte Feb 02 '17 at 13:46
This saved my day! – Pablo Fradua Feb 03 '17 at 12:38

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 25 '14 at 17:25

Simple to figure out though it may be, here's what "setting development to true" means (more for a quick reference):

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>fork</param-name>
        <param-value>false</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>xpoweredBy</param-name>
        <param-value>false</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <!-- Add the following init-param -->
    <init-param>
        <param-name>development</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>3</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

And then restart.

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 08 '15 at 20:16

6

I had the same problem and fixed the issue. Make sure that in conf/context.xml you do not have following configuration

<Context antiJARLocking="true" antiResourceLocking="true">

If you have that one, remove both antiJARLocking="true" antiResourceLocking="true", just write

<Context>

edited Jan 08 '15 at 20:16

austin

5,816
2
32
40

answered Dec 05 '14 at 00:16

Rajan Kumar Kharel

129
1
2

1

This also appears to work for static files, like html, js, etc. that you may wish to update independent of restarting the application. – J E Carter II Feb 17 '16 at 21:40

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 26 '13 at 09:01

A late answer, anyone else might find this useful though.

Check the permissions on the Tomcat folder, I have tried a lot of other solutions and it did not work out.

Finally I gave my 'user account' 'Full control' permission to the Tomcat folder and Tomcat picked up the changes whenever I made a change in JSP. I am assuming you are using Windows. The rationale behind this was: whenever you make a change in JSP, it has to be compiled and deployed (written) to the webapps folder. If there is no 'write' permission on that folder, it will silently fail. This was happening in my case. So if reloadable = true and development = true in the context.xml do not work, try this permission fix.

I am using Tomcat 7 on Windows 7.

I think this worked for me... the class and java files I added under the work directory weren't being picked up so I tried this and ran garbage collection and finally my jsp updates were reflected on the server — Edd, Feb 12 '16 at 16:24

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 09 '13 at 18:06

2

Synchronize server & client time

you can check your server time and client system time. For me a few days ago after changing the server time correctly worked. It reflected the changes of the .jsp files.

answered Jul 09 '13 at 18:06

lighthouse

494
1
6
12

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 26 '13 at 08:59

0

You will need to go to the server project in Eclipse and edit the web.xml file and set 'development' to true.

edited Jun 26 '13 at 08:59

bluish

26,356
27
122
180

answered Apr 15 '13 at 18:22

user2283714

1
1

Can you please tell the exact line? I can not find where is `development` option is set in server project's `web.xml` file. – Half Blood Prince Sep 13 '16 at 08:39

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 07 '15 at 13:17

0

Open your context.xml file in your META-INF folder and set antiJARLocking to false.

Your directory tree should be as follows:

Web > META-INF > context.xml

edited Jul 07 '15 at 13:17

Celt

2,469
2
26
43

answered Jun 17 '15 at 00:50

Bic Mitchun

478
2
9
21

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 08 '16 at 16:46

I am using TomEE 1.7.2 on Windows 7 with Eclipse. The solution that worked for me was simply changing the web.xml file for the TomEE server at localhost-config (in my IDE) so that the development init param is true:

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>fork</param-name>
        <param-value>false</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>xpoweredBy</param-name>
        <param-value>false</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>development</param-name>
        <param-value>true</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>3</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 29 '16 at 17:18

0

(Tomcat 7.0.62) I had to go to CATALINA_HOME/temp/xx-mysite/, find my jsp file in that directory tree and edit it.

xx is a random(?) prefix number, in my case 11, but every site had one.

answered Mar 29 '16 at 17:18

denispyr

1,403
3
21
34

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 11 '17 at 17:25

I too faced this problem while doing jsp changes in myeclipse, those are not reflecting in the application while running. I hope these checks will help you.

Double click on Tomcat Server from MyEclipse.
click the Publishing menu from the Overview window.
Select the Radio button "Automatically publish when resources change"
enter the publishing interval time as 1 second.

I hope this will help you.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered May 19 '22 at 13:55

0

Go to your web.xml find your jsp servlet, add this parameter after the other ones:

<init-param>
  <param-name>developer</param-name>
  <param-value>true</param-value>
</init-param>

answered May 19 '22 at 13:55

Eduardo Vilaça

11
2

score -2 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 29 '17 at 16:08

-2

Actually jsp engine check whether jsp page is older than its servlet page or not and on the basis of this it it's decide whether changes are needed or not.

answered Jun 29 '17 at 16:08

Pankaj Singla

1
1

Why are my JSP changes are not reflected without restarting Tomcat?

13 Answers13

Linked

Related