Run maven project in Eclipse

Question

I just convert project from simple Java web app to Maven project. And try to run this project using goal mvn tomcat7:run and appropriate plugin

<plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <path>/</path>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

My project doesn't have standart Maven layout structure that's why I change my build settings in pom

<build>
        <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
        <resources>
            <resource>
                <directory>src</directory>
                <excludes>
                    <exclude>**/*.java</exclude>
                </excludes>
            </resource>
        </resources>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.7</source>
                    <target>1.7</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3</version>
                <configuration>
                    <warSourceDirectory>WebContent</warSourceDirectory>
                    <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <path>/</path>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

Every time when I try to run project I get next error

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Document base <path-to-app>\src\main\webapp does not exist or is not a readable directory
    at org.apache.naming.resources.FileDirContext.setDocBase(FileDirContext.java:138)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.resourcesStart(StandardContext.java:4912)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5092)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1559)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1549)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

Please, help me understand why I get this error (I even delete Server folder in Tomcat)

Answer 1

Maven is waiting specific directory layout to "understand" your project. For example, must commons are :

src/main/java

src/main/resources

src/test/java

I had the same issue as you do. I moved META-INF and WEB-INF into src/main/webapp and deleted the WebContent directory. I added source directories mentioned before too and it works.

You can see more about the standard directory layout for maven: here

Hope it helps you.