Is it possible to not integrate Tomcat with apache http server AND have an #Injectable make request to the servlet deployed in Tomcat? - apache

Question

I've been researching how to connect Tomcat and apache http server because I will have my web application written in angular deployed in apache http server 2.2 (currently succesfully tested on my own computer, local), and my REST service written in java deployed in Tomcat v6,
and what I want now is that when some component is clicked, to make a http request (like this http://localhost:8080/rest/getCars/20130505) that connects with the servlet and use the json provided to use the information provided in another component.
So I have created my own url/json to test the web application on itself, but as I said, it is possible to make the same thing but with a real http URI like it can be seen here: https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/guide/server-communication.html#!#cors
They use:
let wikiUrl = 'http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php';
And I use, as of right now:
private datesUrl = 'src/example.json'; // URL to web API
#Injectable()
getDates(): Observable<Date[]> {
return this.http.get(this.datesUrl)
.map(this.extractData)
.catch(this.handleError);
}
So I believe my next step would be to change that datesUrl and write the http written above: http://localhost:8080/rest/getCars/20130505, so that it connects to Tomcat.
But my problem is that I don't know if this is going to work without any connection done between apache http server and tomcat. I've seen there are connectors, like mod_jk and mod_proxy http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass
and so on. I would like to know if, in my case, if I need to use this modules for apache http server or it's not necessary, since I have never seen any of this and install the modules is proving to be a challenge. The end game objective I have is to go from local to a real server, but as far as I know there is no need for anyone from the outside to use the webpage, it's only for the business itself, so with access to the server/machine I could still access localhost, same as I do when I test it locally.

Answer 1

You don't need any special connection between the PHP server and the Tomcat server: it's a plain-old HTTP request. Tomcat doesn't care if your PHP script made that request, or if it came from the open internet.
In the case of the PHP script making the request, it's making its standard HTTP call, and doesn't care that you are running a Tomcat server locally or whatever. Just go ahead and do it. If Tomcat is already responding to HTTP requests on that URL, then calling it from PHP requires no further configuration.