Question

I want to restart a servlet (declared in web.xml, when JBoss is running) simply because its init-param points to a file which content has changed (i.e. providers.fac below has been modified).

If there is a way to reload the init-param without restarting the servlet, it will be good too.

I suppose I can modify the servlet to add a request param and function to restart itself ?
Is there any other option?

 <servlet>
    <servlet-name>coverage</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>coverageServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>ConfigUrl</param-name>
        <param-value>file:///C:/coverage/providers.fac</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>CacheDir</param-name>
        <param-value>coverage</param-value>
    </init-param>         
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

Environment:
Servlet Api 2.4
JBoss 4.2
Spring Framework 2.5

Answer 1

2 options:

1. Add an extra check on doGet() or doPost() which reloads the file when a certain request parameter is been set while an admin user is logged in and provide an admin screen which invokes that request.

2. Rewrite the servlet (or refactor the part to ServletContextListener) to store it in ServletContext instead of as an instance variable of the servlet and have some admin screen which reloads the file in ServletContext.