Run Jetty Externally and Connect Remotely With Eclipse

There's another alternative to embedding Jetty inside Eclipse.  We can also use Eclipse to use Maven to start Jetty for us.  Then we can remotely connect and debug/manage it.  It's your choice as to which option you prefer.


Configure Maven to run Jetty

<plugin>
        <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
<version>6.1.24</version>
<configuration>
 <connectors>
<connector implementation="org.mortbay.jetty.nio.SelectChannelConnector">
                  <!-- Use whatever you want the http port to be -->
 <port>8080</port>  
</connector>
 </connectors>
 <userRealms>
<userRealm implementation="org.mortbay.jetty.security.HashUserRealm">
 <name>default</name>
 <config>src/main/resources/jetty-realm.properties</config>
</userRealm>
 </userRealms>
          <!-- If you plan on changing this file during execution, turn the scan interval higher than 0 -->
 <scanIntervalSeconds>0</scanIntervalSeconds>
 <webDefaultXml>src/main/resources/webdefault.xml</webDefaultXml>
</configuration>
</plugin>

You will need a jetty-realm.properties file and a webdefault.xml file.

jetty-realm.properties:

user1: pass1,role1

user2: pass2,role2

webdefault.xml:

http://docs.codehaus.org/display/JETTY/webdefault.xml

Mine looks like the "JSP configuration" section

Setup Start Server Command

1. Run -> External Tools -> External Tools Configuration 
2. Right Click Program -> New
1. Name: Whatever
2. Location: Browse to your mvn executable
3. Working Directory: click Browse Workspace button and select ${YOUR_WEB_PROJECT}
4. Arguments: jetty:run
3. Click Environment
1. Click New
2. Enter a variable names MAVEN_OPTS and set it to "-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8787,server=y,suspend=n"

Setup Remote Debugging

1. Run -> Debug Configurations
2. Right Click Remote Java Application -> New
1. Name: Whatever
2. Project: ${YOUR_WEB_PROJECT}
3. Connection Type: Standard (Socket Attach)
4. Host: localhost
5. Port: 8787
3. Also click "Allow termination of remote VM".  It's going to be the only way to elegantly kill your Jetty server without opening the task manager.

Usage

1. Start the server using the external tools 
2. Start the remote debugging once the server is up
3. Open up the debug perspective -> Right click the VM and click terminate to kill the server