Accessing Local Media File to Play in FlowPLayer - apache

I want to access local media file say .mp4 file to play in FlowPLayer on Firefox browser..
My application is based on JSF and RF3.3 with JBoss server.
Problem is in my backing bean say I have written a file name as test.mp4 and the same is being present in WEB-INF folder..FlowPlayer will access this file using:-
http://IP/ContextPath/WEB-INF/test.mp4
But now say suppose I have a file placed in my D: drive on my system. The local server is running on my system.I want to access the file kept in D: drive and play it in flowplayer...
FlowPlayer always append http://IP/ to the file name and as such it won't play the media file..
Is there any way out to allow flow player to access local file on the system...
I figured that it can be done using Apache...But how/??...

The component accepts a URL that must be accessible from the client browser, thus a url like file:///C:/resources/foo.mp4 would not work. The resource file you are trying to reference must be accessible from a web context. That is not to say that you can't store the file resources on the D: of your machine, but you would need a web server like Apache to access that folder location as a web context folder. It can be configured to do this, but I will not go into the details of how to do this, if you have trouble with that then you should post a question to the ServerFault StackExchange site for help with this.
One thing to keep in mind is that your web application is likely configured that any resources within the WEB-INF folder of your project is likely set to be the context path of your application. Thus if you you were to place your MP4 file in your web app (i advice against it, those files are enormous), then it would be accessible from http://site:port/applicationcontext/resources/foo.mp4 but on disk it is WEB-INF/resources/foo.mp4.
The best way that I set this up is to set up an Apache front end that is listening for web traffic on the specific port, then using the mod_jk module you can have Apache forward requests for resources at http://site:port/applicationcontext/ to your application server on the AJP port. I like this setup because I can keep large static resources at the ROOT context of the web server, as well as protect my application server by keeping it completely behind a firewall and inaccessible from the outside. The application server can only be accessed through the Apache web server meaning increased security. For more information on this type of setup, see this example guide on how to setup Apache Web Connector with Tomcat. http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/webserver_howto/apache.html

Related

Virtual Directories not working in ColdFusion Builder 2016

I'm trying to set up virtual directories through the built-in Apache Tomcat 8 server using the ColdFusion Builder 2016 interface, however to my surprise this simply does not work, yet according to the documentation it should.
The only thing that I've modified was the web root directly in the server.xml file.
That said the website runs correctly, except when trying to reference a resource from a virtual directory which simply returns HTTP Status 404.
Web Structure
ColdFusion Builder Interface
The process when using the interface is as simple as:
Creating a virtual host;
Clicking the "Virtual Directory" button and setting up the directories; and
Applying the changes and restart the local server.
Ultimately this should allow me to navigate to the files (CSS, JS, Images) directly through the web browser.
Could I be missing a specific setting in a configuration file due to manually changing the web root? If not what am I missing?

Apache file upload (resource PUT DELETE) without CGI/PHP

Is it possible to configure Apache to support CRUD operations on file resources? GET works out of the box, how can you make PUT and DELETE work?
I would need to upload a file by HTML form and/or XMLHttpRequest2.
No PHP. No CGI. Just plain Apache by configuration.
Is this supported in other web servers? I'm trying to find a static REST interface for file resource management without CGI/PHP/Connector/Reverse Proxy/FTP server.

Integrating liferay tomcat with apache web server

I am trying to integrate the liferay tomcat with apache web server.I successfully integrate the liferay with web server.
Condition:
Life ray deployed on ip say : 10.10.10.70
Apache web server on ip say: 10.10.10.80
I provided all the requirement virtual host requirement in httpd.conf file..and provided the web.server.host in portal-ext.properties file.
Problem: When i run liferay portal i can open it on ip: 10.10.10.70
but when i click on any page link (let say /home)that is present in my portal it moved the request to
10.10.10.80:8080/home instead of 10.10.10.70:8080/home
I want to know how to handle this condition.
Because i dont have any page resource on web server doc folder only contain static css..
You might be a bit more precise what "all the required virtual host settings" are, e.g. what did you configure?
Note that by explicitly configuring hostnames/IP-addresses, you're explicitly overriding the autodetected settings from the request - no matter how you get to your portal, Liferay will generate URLs based on the explicitly configured hostname/port.
What's the point in having an Apache in front and then trying to reach tomcat through the non-apache IP/Port? Typically you might have static resources, rewrites, caches on Apache, so that you'll get different results when you alternatively access tomcat through both URLs.
If you configure Apache to "properly" handle the requests before tomcat sees them, you'll typically not need to configure Liferay at all, because Apache will make the actual hostname that it's requested under available to Tomcat. I'm typically using mod_jk for this and it beautifully handles all the configuration with almost no need to explicitly configure tomcat/liferay. If you don't like this, keep in mind that you're explicitly configuring Liferay for the virtual host setup - naturally this explicitly configured name is what Liferay uses. It would be weird if the explicit value would not be used, right?

Need to access remote files from Apache server

I am new to Apache.
I am running apache tomcat in windows and using JSP as the server side language.
I have a page containing links to the files (different machine) as below:
TheButterflyEffec(2004).avi
Superbad.avi
Why OnClick, saveAs is not working?
It is working if i save the page locally.
Do I need to configure anything in server.xml?
If the files are loaded on the machine running the apache then you need to look of two thinghs...
Put the files in a directory inside the apache root directory
In the <a href specify the file location with the ip address of it
(i.e. if your apache is on a machine with IP 192.XXX.XXX.XX then give the a href as follows
<
a
href='http://192.XXX.XXX.XX/folderWherefilesare/filename'>
filename < / a>
It's not working because the browser look for those files on the local visitor machine, not on the server.
You have to build "proxy" code with server side language like PHP that will get file name as parameter, e.g. Download.php?file=TheButterflyEffec(2004).avi then read the file from the server disk and send the file contents to the browser.
If you're using PHP indeed, here is an article describing what you can do:
http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/forcedownload.html
Otherwise let us know what server side language you can use and retag your question according to this.

How do you create "Aliases" in Apache Tomcat?

I am working on a web application that allows users to upload attachments. These attachments are stored on a different drive than that of the web application. How can I create an alias (equivalent to Apache HTTP server's aliases) to this drive so that users can download these attachments?
Currently I am creating a context file and dumping it in CATALINA_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost, but it gets randomly deleted every so often. The context file is named attachments.xml and the contents are shown below. I have also read about virtual hosts, but if I understand correctly, then a virtual host is not what I am looking for. I am using version 6.0.18 of Apache Tomcat.
attachments.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context docBase = "e:\uploads\attachments"
reloadable = "true"
crossContext = "true">
</Context>
I spent a lot more time researching this and found a solution that solves the random deletion of the context files. I found this excerpt on Apache's website under the host configuration section:
You can nest one or more Context
elements inside this Host element,
each representing a different web
application associated with this
virtual host.
The virtual hosts are stored in the server.xml file located at CATALINA_HOME\conf. Tomcat comes configured with localhost as the default host. So, if we add the contents of attachments.xml from the first post, we get the following:
<Host name="localhost" appBase="webapps"
unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true"
xmlValidation="false" xmlNamespaceAware="false">
<Context path="/attachments"
docBase="e:\uploads\attachments"
reloadable="true"
crossContext="true" />
</Host>
This is as close as one can get to defining aliases similar to Apache's HTTP server, I think.
There are multiple options.
Use Apache as frontend, delegating to tomcat by mod_jk or mod_proxy
Provide a download servlet in your own application, serving the requested file
Make the directory that you want tomcat to deliver a web application
each has some drawbacks and some advantages. I strongly prefer the first solution for multiple reasons:
My main reasons apply to unixoid systems, which you are obviously not talking about: Only root can bind ports lower than 1024, e.g. 80. Therefor tomcat would need to run as root (I know that there are mechanics to allow users to bind to low ports, but I've never gotten to use them). Apache is usually started as root but drops these privileges as soon as port 80 is bound.
Apache is said to be a lot better in serving static resources than tomcat (I've never measured it, but find it hard to believe the contrary)
You obviously know how to create aliases in apache - it would be trivial to do so.
About the download servlet:
This way you'd have a servlet serving your static resources, which you might bind to the urls "/download/*" (e.g. in the application that also handles file uploads) You'd gain:
You need to configure the directory where your files are stored only once
If you need you might easily implement permission checks (e.g. login required for downloading)
You need to deploy only one completely selfcontained application.
The download servlet is trivial - find the file, set it's name and filetype in the output stream and stream it byte by byte, then close the output stream (be sure to handle attacking file names like "/download/../../../../etc/passwd" or "/download/C:/WINDOWS/someimportantfile.xxx"), e.g. by using the java.io.File constructor that gets the base directory as a separate parameter.
The third option has some severe drawbacks and opens you for attacks if you don't take special care of them:
Tomcat does not serve directories, but webapps. Therefor "E:/upload/attachments" would need at least a directory named "WEB-INF", containing "web.xml". Take care to not provide write access to this directory and file from the uploading web application. With this provision you might let tomcat serve the directory.
However: Configure the contained web.xml to not serve "*.jsp" as a jsp, otherwise tomcat would not just deliver jsp files but execute them. Imagine someone uploading "index.jsp" with <% System.exit(0); %> or more malicious content.
One additional thought: You don't need the extra crosscontext="true". This would imply that the webapplication that you deploy just to serve your files has access to other webapplications, e.g. is able to manage them or access their private data. Usually you don't need that at all, in the case of your question you definitely don't want that.
See the initial part of my newer question for ways to do this by editing the context.xml file
How do I add aliases to a Servlet Context in java?.
According to several people now, it is no longer necessary (2012: Tomcat 6 or 7) to use Apache for performance reasons over Tomcat for serving static content.