Is it possible to use tomcat 7.0.20 within eclipse indigo?

Question

While installing the new eclipse indigo IDE I've tried to setup the tomcat server previously downloaded from Apache web site (tomcat 7.0.20) with no success. When I fill the tomcat directory in the form it causes an error to appear saying the version I chosen is not valid. It also suggests to download the tomcat version 7.0.12. Why? Is there a way to use the latest version of tomcat with indigo eclipse? Is there a compatibility problem with version newer than 7.0.12?

I downloaded the windows 64bit version of tomcat 7.0.20, but using an old 7.0.16 I already had the result is the same.

Answer 1

I think the invalid version message is a bit misleading; it just doesn't like something about the installation. Anyway, here's what worked for me, using Ubuntu 11.10, eclipse Indigo JavaEE SR2, tomcat 7.0.21.

I have a standalone tomcat installation as per the standard ubuntu tomcat7 package. I used tomcat7-instance-create to create a separate tomcat instance for eclipse:

$ tomcat7-instance-create -p 8000 -c 8003 ~/dev/eclipse/tomcat

This required a few additions to keep eclipse happy

$ cd ~/dev/eclipse/tomcat
$ ln -s /usr/share/tomcat7/lib
$ ln -s /var/lib/tomcat7/conf/policy.d/03catalina.policy conf/catalina.policy
$ ln -s /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/bootstrap.jar bin/bootstrap.jar
$ ln -s /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/tomcat-juli.jar bin/tomcat-juli.jar
$ tree
.
├── bin
│   ├── bootstrap.jar -> /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/bootstrap.jar
│   ├── setenv.sh
│   ├── shutdown.sh
│   ├── startup.sh
│   └── tomcat-juli.jar -> /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
├── conf
│   ├── catalina.policy -> /var/lib/tomcat7/conf/policy.d/03catalina.policy
│   ├── catalina.properties
│   ├── context.xml
│   ├── logging.properties
│   ├── server.xml
│   ├── tomcat-users.xml
│   └── web.xml
├── lib -> /usr/share/tomcat7/lib
├── logs
├── temp
├── webapps
└── work

Then just add a new runtime environment and server as normal, and it's all good!

HTH,