Intellij IDEA 13.1 - Where does it keep the deployed webapp files in tomcat server?

Question

I use IntelliJ IDEA 13.1 and have configured a Java web application to deploy to a Tomcat server. After starting the server, if I go to my tomcat webapps folder, I couldn't see the exploded version of my web app there.

So, do IntelliJ keep the deployed files somewhere else other than the tomcat webapps folder?

Btw, I did check the answer for this question: Where is my app placed when deploying to Tomcat?. But I couldn't find my deployed files in the ${dir.to.idea.project}\YourWebApp\out\artifacts folder either.

Any help?

Answer 1

Typically the exploded war is built in your web-module's target directory (called either target or out by default depending on whether you use maven or not), with a .war extension on the folder. Tomcat (and most other application servers) are pointed at this directory.

However, you shouldn't, in most cases, need to know this. When you make a change to your code, IntelliJ will update the contents of the exploded war for you. You shouldn't really change it yourself, otherwise the code will get out of sync with the deployed app.