How to update repository-tier workflow files without restarting the tomcat server?

[marcollirite]

Hi all, I'm currently working on developing a custom workflow with many custom behaviors and scripts. I'm using the Alfresco Maven SDK to build and test my project as I develop it. This necessitates that I restart the repository-tier tomcat server every time I want to make a change/update my workflow files. I am getting quite frustrated with how long this takes each time, and it means that I'm wasting time while waiting for the server to restart, especially when I've made a small typo in one of my files.

I'm looking for a way (if it's possible) to update my files (in particular the bpmn process file) and apply these changes to my Alfresco instance without having to restart the tomcat servers each time. I've set <redeploy> to true in my service-context.xml, and I have also tried to redeploy the workflow from the admin-workflow-console, but my changes do not take place unless I manually restart the server.

I am using: Alfresco Community 5.2, Maven SDK 2.2

Any tips or suggestions would be very welcome! 

[jearles]

Marcus,

Are you referring to a situation like this, where there would perhaps be a listener to take in updates as you make them?

Just a couple thoughts before digging too deep:

If you're able to use the Modeler for any of that editing, that should allow you to update the flow and re-deploy for testing without any restarts. I've found a couple of threads discussing the options in Tomcat to handle updating a site without restarting the entire service - I've use some of their suggestions before.

Hope this helps - if not, we'll go deeper,
-JEarles

[marcollirite]

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for your answer. I had a look at both of those options but they both seem rather technically complicated. I'm very much a beginner with Java and Alfresco (I never did anything at all before this project, learning it all as I go), so I think the time I would spend setting up either of those solutions would outweigh the time I save once they are implemented! I was hoping there was a fairly simple solution to my problem but it looks like  I'll have to deal with the server restart time. Thank you anyway!