Define one notify block for several tasks in Ansible

Question

Is it possible to define one notify block for several tasks?

In next code snippet notify: restart tomcat defined 3 times, but I want to define it only one time and "apply" to list of tasks

- name : template context.xml
  template:
    src: context.xml.j2
    dest: /usr/share/tomcat/conf/context.xml
    group: tomcat
    mode: 0664
  notify: restart tomcat

- name : copy server.xml
  copy:
    src: server.xml
    dest: /etc/tomcat/server.xml
    group: tomcat
    mode: 0664
  notify: restart tomcat

- name : copy atomikos-integration-extension
  copy:
    src: atomikos-integration-extension-3.7.1-20120529.jar
    dest: /usr/share/tomcat/ext-libs/
    group: tomcat
    mode: 0664
  notify: restart tomcat

Answer 1

No, you cannot.

Notify sets a trigger to run the specified handler based on the status of the task. There is no "status for a block of tasks" in Ansible hence you cannot define notify for a block.

Besides, it wouldn't change anything functionally, only influence the visual appeal (and I would claim by obscuring things rather than simplifying). The handler is run only once regardless of how many tasks triggered it.