Hi, my name is Maurício and it’s the first time I’m posting here. I’m a Senior Software Engineer and I live in Brazil. I have six years working with web development and love Java and Javascript. I’ll be posting here from time to time development stuff. Hope you enjoy it!
Our subject for today: Once in a while, I do a small Java Web project and every time I think on which application server will host the app, Tomcat, GlassFish, WebLogic, WildFly, Payara and there are plenty more servers. Nowadays almost everybody uses a Docker container to host app’s, and that’s nothing wrong with that, but why load a container if I can just embed the server in a jar file?
If you have a Maven project, there’s almost no work to be done, just add a plugin that targets the package goal and there you go. In the end, you will have a jar file with your app-name-swarm.jar (i know, it’s a WildFly swarm, not a fully WildFly, but it weights just 64Mb). Run it like a normal jar and you will have a running web app.
<plugin> <groupId>org.wildfly.swarm</groupId> <artifactId>wildfly-swarm-plugin</artifactId> <version>2018.2.0</version> <executions> <execution> <goals> <goal>package</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin>
After all, if you want, that jar can be loaded in a Docker container and launched at a production server. There are other options like Tomcat embedded, Payara microserver and a few others. Go ahead and give a try to any one of them and share your experience, I’m sure you have something to say about them.
But remember, these options aren’t a full application server, they’re engineered to be small and focused on specific features so read their docs to see what they can and can’t do before using. 😉