2011/08/05 - Jakarta Cactus has been retired.

For more information, please explore the Attic.

Cactus Configuration

Here are the configuration files used to configure Cactus manually:

Configuration files

There are 3 kinds of configuration:

Cactus configuration works by setting Java System properties. You can set the Cactus configuration properties:
  • On the command line (using -Dxxx=yyy).
  • In a configuration file (recommended). By default Cactus will look for a cactus.properties file located in your classpath. You can override the name and location of the configuration file by setting the cactus.config System property. For example you can pass the following when starting the JVM: -Dcactus.config=c:/cactus.txt.
  • In your tests (using System.setProperty()). This option is not recommended as it is better to share a single configuration across all tests.
Please note that the different options for configuring Cactus works both for Cactus client side (i.e. from where you start the JUnit Test Runner) and for the Cactus server side (i.e. from where you start your application server).

Client side configuration

The following table lists the properties that can be defined on Cactus client side:
Property Name cactus.contextURL
Required Yes
Description Webapp Context under which the application to test runs.
Example cactus.contextURL = http://localhost:8080/test


Property Name cactus.servletRedirectorName
Required No. Defaults to "ServletRedirector".
Description Name of the Cactus Servlet Redirector as it is mapped on the server side in web.xml (see below). This property is needed only if your test classes are extending ServletTestCase (see the TestCase Howto tutorial).
Example cactus.servletRedirectorName = ServletRedirector


Property Name cactus.jspRedirectorName
Required No. Defaults to "JspRedirector".
Description Name of the Cactus JSP Redirector as it is mapped on the server side in web.xml (see below). This property is needed only if your test classes are extending JspTestCase (see the TestCase Howto tutorial).
Example cactus.jspRedirectorName = JspRedirector


Property Name cactus.filterRedirectorName (For J2EE API 1.3 only)
Required No. Defaults to "FilterRedirector".
Description Name of the Cactus Filter Redirector as it is mapped on the server side in web.xml (see below). This property is needed only if your test classes are extending FilterTestCase (see the TestCase Howto tutorial).
Example cactus.filterRedirectorName = FilterRedirector

Server side configuration

On Cactus server side, you only need to properly configure your application web.xml file to include definitions for Cactus Redirectors (see How it works if you don't know what a Cactus Redirector is).

You need to register the Cactus Redirectors that you use, and you need to map them to the cactus.servletRedirectorName, cactus.jspRedirectorName and cactus.filterRedirectorName that you have configured on the client side (or simply make sure that you use the default names, i.e. ServletRedirector, JspRedirector and FilterRedirector respectively).

Here is a sample web.xml that defines the 3 Cactus Redirectors: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE web-app
    PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
    "http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-app_2_3.dtd">

<web-app>

    <filter>
        <filter-name>FilterRedirector</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.cactus.server.FilterTestRedirector</filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>FilterRedirector</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/FilterRedirector</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>ServletRedirector</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.cactus.server.ServletTestRedirector</servlet-class>
    </servlet>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>JspRedirector</servlet-name>
        <jsp-file>/jspRedirector.jsp</jsp-file>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>ServletRedirector</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/ServletRedirector</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>JspRedirector</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/JspRedirector</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>
If you are using the JSP Redirector (i.e. you have test classes that extend JspTestCase), you must copy the jspRedirector.jsp file (found in the sample/web directory where you unpacked your Cactus distribution) in a directory in your webapp and you need to put its relative path in the mapping defined above (here we have put it in the webapp root.

If you want to provide some initialisation parameters that will be available to the config implicit object available in your test case, simply use the standard <init-param> tags.

For example, for the Servlet Redirector (same principle applies to all other redirectors): 

[...]
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>ServletRedirector</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.cactus.server.ServletTestRedirector</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
          <param-name>param1</param-name>
          <param-value>value1 used for testing</param-value>
        </init-param>
    </servlet>
[...]
Within your testXXX() code, you can also call the config.setInitParameter() method (config being the implicit object of type ServletConfig) to simulate initialisation parameters as if they had been defined in your web.xml.

Last, if you need to unit test code that uses the Servlet Security API, please check the Security Howto.

Cactus logging configuration

Since Cactus 1.4, we have switched to using the Jakarta Commons Logging framework for Cactus internal logs (and any log you may wish to output as part of your test).

This allow Cactus to use any underlying logging framework such as: Log4J, LogKit, JDK 1.4 Logging or even a Simple Logger provided as part of Commons Logging (it outputs to the console).

Cactus is completely agnostic with regards to the logging framework configuration, so you will have to learn how to configure your favorite logging yourself. However here are some tips to help set up a Cactus logging configuration.

'cactus.logging.config' property

Cactus provides an optional cactus.logging.config configuration property. If set, Cactus will load the properties file pointed by this property and will set each property as a system property. This allowsw putting all logging-related properties into a single place, as demonstrated below.

If you're using the Ant <cactus> task, please refer to the documentation for that task to set up Cactus logging.

Sample logging configuration files

As Cactus is running in 2 JVMs (client side and server side), you'll need to provide 2 logging configuration if you wish to enable logging for both sides. Here are some sample configuration files.

Client side configuration sample

Notice that for JDK 1.4 logging and for Log4J logging you have to specify that path to this file as these 2 logging systems also use a configuration file to configure themselves. Alternatively you can put configuration data in other files. However, it's convenient to group everything in a single file. 
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Logging properties
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Disable logging by default when running the tests. If you wish to use a 
# logging subsystem, uncomment the line below. That will let Commons logging
# decide automatically of a suitable logging system for you. You can also force
# commons-logging to use a specific logging system. For more info, see
# http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/logging

# Disable logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.NoOpLog

# Force to use JDK 1.4 logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger

# Force to use Log4J logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger

# Force to use Simple logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SimpleLog

# ---- JDK 1.4 logging properties

# Following properties are useful if you're using the JDK 1.4 logging subsystem
# and wish to output logs to a file. Make sure to comment out the NoOpLog line 
# above.
java.util.logging.config.file = @target.dir@/logging_client.properties
handlers = java.util.logging.FileHandler
java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = @target.dir@/test_client.log
java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter

# If you want to provide finer grained logging, restrict the level for the 
# specific package name. 
# For example: 
# org.apache.cactus.server.level = ALL
# org.apache.commons.httpclient.level = ALL
# .level = ALL
org.apache.cactus.level = ALL

# ---- Log4J logging properties

# Following properties are useful if you're using the Log4J logging subsystem
# and wish to output logs to a file. Make sure to comment out the NoOpLog line 
# above.
log4j.configuration = file:/@target.dir@/logging_client.properties

log4j.appender.cactus = org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.cactus.File = @target.dir@/test_client.log
log4j.appender.cactus.Append = false
log4j.appender.cactus.layout = org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.cactus.layout.ConversionPattern = %d{ABSOLUTE} [%t] %-5p %-30.30c{2} %x - %m %n

# Any application log which uses Log4J will be logged to the Cactus log file
log4j.rootCategory=DEBUG, cactus

# Debug logs for Cactus
log4j.category.org.apache.cactus = DEBUG, cactus
log4j.additivity.org.apache.cactus = false

# Debug logs for HttpClient
log4j.category.org.apache.commons.httpclient = DEBUG, cactus
log4j.additivity.org.apache.commons.httpclient = false
log4j.category.httpclient = WARN, cactus
log4j.additivity.httpclient = false

# ---- SimpleLog logging properties

org.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.showlogname = true
org.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.log.org.apache.cactus = trace
org.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.log.org.apache.commons.httpclient = trace

Server side configuration sample

Notice that for JDK 1.4 logging and for Log4J logging you have to specify that path to this file as these 2 logging systems also use a configuration file to configure themselves. Alternatively you can put configuration data in other files. However, it's convenient to group everything in a single file. 
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Logging properties
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Disable logging by default when running the tests. If you wish to use a 
# logging subsystem, uncomment the line below. That will let Commons logging
# decide automatically of a suitable logging system for you. You can also force
# commons-logging to use a specific logging system. For more info, see
# http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/logging

# Disable logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.NoOpLog

# Force to use JDK 1.4 logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger

# Force to use Log4J logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger

# Force to use Simple logging
#org.apache.commons.logging.Log = org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SimpleLog

# ---- JDK 1.4 logging properties

# Following properties are useful if you're using the JDK 1.4 logging subsystem
# and wish to output logs to a file. Make sure to comment out the NoOpLog line 
# above.
java.util.logging.config.file = @target.dir@/logging_server.properties
handlers = java.util.logging.FileHandler
java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = @target.dir@/test_server.log
java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter

# If you want to provide finer grained logging, restrict the level for the 
# specific package name. 
# For example: org.apache.cactus.server.level = ALL
org.apache.cactus.level = ALL

# ---- Log4J logging properties

# Following properties are useful if you're using the Log4J logging subsystem
# and wish to output logs to a file. Make sure to comment out the NoOpLog line 
# above.
log4j.configuration = file:/@target.dir@/logging_server.properties

log4j.appender.cactus = org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.cactus.File = @target.dir@/test_server.log
log4j.appender.cactus.Append = false
log4j.appender.cactus.layout = org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.cactus.layout.ConversionPattern = %d{ABSOLUTE} [%t] %-5p %-30.30c{2} %x - %m %n

# Any application log which uses Log4J will be logged to the Cactus log file
log4j.rootCategory=DEBUG, cactus

# Debug logs for Cactus
log4j.category.org.apache.cactus = DEBUG, cactus
log4j.additivity.org.apache.cactus = false

# Debug logs for HttpClient
log4j.category.org.apache.commons.httpclient = DEBUG, cactus
log4j.additivity.org.apache.commons.httpclient = false
log4j.category.httpclient = WARN, cactus
log4j.additivity.httpclient = false

# ---- SimpleLog logging properties

org.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.showlogname = true
org.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.log.org.apache.cactus = trace
org.apache.commons.logging.simplelog.log.org.apache.commons.httpclient = trace

Tips

JUnit uses a different classloader to load each test of a TestCase class. Thus, Log4j will reinitialise for each test, which may lead to overwriting the test_client.log file each time (this is because we have set log4j.appender.cactus.Append to false. You can set it to true if you wish to keep all the logs but the file size will grow quickly. In addition logs are really only useful when there is a failure and thus not appending is usually a good choice.