The Jakarta Project
    The Tomcat Servlet/JSP Container

Server Configuration Reference

JTC Connectors

Introduction

JTC means Jakarta-Tomcat-Connectors. jakarta-tomcat-connectors is the repository of the Tomcat connectors sources. The connectors are released together with Tomcat. For example you can find the connectors sources in http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat-4.x/release/v4.x.y/src/ The tarball are named like: jakarta-tomcat-connectors-4.x.y-src.tar.gz

There are two different types of connectors. Connectors that allow browsers to connect directly to the Tomcat and connectors that do it through a Web Server.

The connectors allowing direct connections are in the binary of Tomcat. They are jar files.

The connectors used with a Web Server are made of 2 components. One written in Java and the other written in C. The Java part is made of jar files are inclosed in the Tomcat binaries.

The binary builds of connectors are available in http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat-4.0/release/v4.x.y/bin/plaform. For example the Apache Solaris8 *.so files for SPARC will be in the solaris8/sparc subdirectory. (Do not hesitate to ask for the binary needed for your platform to the Tomcat mail lists, but be patient).

Tomcat connectors

The following table lists most of the existing Tomcat connectors.

HTTP Connectors for Tomcat 4.x
ClientProtocolTomcat classNameNotes
Ancient browserHTTP/1.0 org.apache.catalina.connector.http10.HttpConnector Deprecated. See HTTP/1.1
Modern browserHTTP/1.1 org.apache.catalina.connector.http.HttpConnector Deprecated. See HTTP/1.1
Modern browserHTTP/1.1 org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteConnector Current practice. See Coyote HTTP/1.1
Web Server Connectors
Web Server SideProtocolTomcat SiteNotes
mod_jservAJP/1.2 Ajp11 Obsolete Read more at JServ
mod_jkAJP/1.3 CoyoteConnector with JkCoyoteHandler mod_jk supports load balancing. Enabled by default in 4.1; works in 4.0. See Coyote JK 2
mod_jk2AJP/1.3 CoyoteConnector with JkCoyoteHandler Currently developed native connector. Enabled by default in 4.1. mod_jk2 supports in-process JVM and load balancing. See Coyote JK 2
mod_webappWARP/1.0 WarpConnector Deprecated. Not for Win32; no in-process nor load balancing; works in 4.x. Use APR. Supported Apache-2.0 and Apache-1.3). See Webapp
Why a Tomcat connector with a native Web Server?

A Web Server can host different applications written using PERL, PHP, C or any other language. If one application is written in Java using the Servlet API a connector is need to route the requests from the Web Server to the Servlet Engine. In the case a Web Server specific connector is needed. Most of the Web Servers allow to load dynamic extentions (DLL). Some of these extentions are available in the binary builds of connectors.


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