OpenCms 8: avoiding “opencms/opencms” in URL

A normal local installation of OpenCms in a Tomcat container yields URLs like http://localhost:8080/opencms/opencms/welcome/  etc. If OpenCms is the only application on Tomcat, there’s no need for the first ‘opencms’. And if the second will be automatically filtered out, you can use OpenCms with URLs like this: http://localhost:8080/welcome/  .

There’s no need to use an additional Apache WebServer (httpd), just plain Tomcat and a Java class and some tricks.

1. Before installation of OpenCms rename original opencms.war file to ROOT.war
2. remove default ROOT folder in your $CATALINA_HOME/webapps (e.g. /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.41/webapps)
3. install MySQL server if needed
4. start Tomcat (e.g. with /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.41/bin/startup.sh )
5. start OpenCms installation in your browser (localhost:8080/setup )
6. next… next… finish (default values should be ok for your local installation)
7. see welcome page (with one remaining ‘opencms’ in URL): http://localhost:8080/opencms/welcome/
8. in web.xml (in ROOT/WEB-INF folder) add the following code:

   <filter>
      <filter-name>UriRewriteFilter</filter-name>
      <filter-class>com.dcampus.opencms.web.UriRewriteFilter</filter-class>
      <init-param>
          <param-name>ignore-uri</param-name>
          <param-value>/opencms/,/resources/,/export/,/setup/,/update/,/webdav/,/opencms-errorhandler/</param-value>
      </init-param>
      <init-param>
      <param-name>prefix</param-name>
      <param-value>/opencms</param-value>
      </init-param>
   </filter>
   <filter-mapping>
      <filter-name>UriRewriteFilter</filter-name>
      <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
   </filter-mapping>
   

9. and alter in that same web.xml file the following line from

   <context-param>
      <param-name>OpenCmsServlet</param-name>
      <param-value>/opencms/*</param-value>
   </context-param>
   

   to

   <context-param>
      <param-name>OpenCmsServlet</param-name>
      <param-value>/*</param-value>
   </context-param>
   

   (‘/opencms’ removed)

10. now download the UriRewriteFilter Java class into your home directory, compile it and deploy it to OpenCms as follows:

    1. wget http://opencms.996256.n3.nabble.com/attachment/10246/0/UriRewriteFilter.java
       

    2. javac -cp /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.41/lib/servlet-api.jar UriRewriteFilter.java
       

    3. mkdir -p /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.41/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/com/dcampus/opencms/web
       

    4. cp UriRewriteFilter*.class /usr/local/apache-tomcat-7.0.41/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes/com/dcampus/opencms/web
       

11. restart Tomcat
12. go to URL-shortened welcome page: http://localhost:8080/welcome

    Appendix:
    http://lists.opencms.org/pipermail/opencms-dev/2011q3/035947.html

    http://www.jvmhost.com/opencms-hosting#url_shortening