Running the webapp

Development

For development work, Kiln provides the Jetty web application server, pre-configured, to minimise setup. To use it:

  • Run the build script found in the KILN_HOME directory. On Windows double-clicking the BAT file is sufficient.
  • Open the URL http://localhost:9999/ (for the root of the site).
  • To stop the web server, press Ctrl-C in the shell window.

Production

The built-in Jetty web server is not suitable for production deployments, and a more robust solution such as Apache Tomcat should be used. Kiln uses the standard webapp structure, so deployment is a matter of copying the files in webapps into the server’s existing webapps directory. Under Tomcat, at least, the Solr webapp requires an extra step: adding a solr.xml file specifying a Tomcat Context to TOMCAT_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost/. An example of such a file is provided at webapps/solr/conf/solr.xml.

Further, there are good reasons to run a proxying web server in front of Tomcat, for caching, load balancing, and/or URL rewriting. It is advised that Solr and RDF4J not be exposed to any clients (including users) that are not local (eg Cocoon). If this is required, in the case of Solr, a more recent version of Solr should be used than that which comes with Kiln.

Static Build

Kiln includes a task that allows to create a static version of the website. To execute it:

  • Run the build script as described above to start the web application.
  • Re-run the build script supplying static as argument.

WAR Build (Web Application Archive)

Kiln includes a task that allows to create a Web Application Archive (for use with Apache Tomcat, e.g.). To execute it:

  • Run the build script supplying war as argument.