Apache Tomcat is the reference implementation of Sun's servlet specification. It is a free, open-source Java application server that can be used both for development and production purposes. It may be downloaded free of charge from http://tomcat.apache.org. Follow the instructions on the Tomcat web site to install it on your platform. If you are developing on Windows, an installation program is available to help get it installed.

To get SoftSlate Commerce up and running under Tomcat, simply place the extracted .tar.gz or .zip file, or the unextracted .war file in the webapps directory under the Tomcat installation, and restart Tomcat. The application should then be available by browsing to http://localhost:8080/<installation-directory> . If necessary, you can refer to the installation instructions outlined in the chapter on Installing SoftSlate Commerce.

While developing any Java application that employs Hibernate, as SoftSlate Commerce does, a common problem you might experience is java.lang.OutOfMemory errors when "reloading" the application using Tomcat's manager application. Because of this issue we recommend you restart Tomcat after each code change to test it, rather than reload the application within Tomcat. This will prevent the java.lang.OutOfMemory errors from occuring and may save you a lot of grief. If you installed Apache Tomcat on Windows, you have the option of adding it as a service to the Windows Services menu. This can make it more convenient to trigger a restart. Otherwise, Apache Tomcat comes with start/stop scripts in the bin directory that you can also use.