Devcat Server supports fast startup times, auto-login and unlimited hotswap Java class reloading to speed up edit, compile, test turnaround cycles.

Devcat comes with the following features:

• Fast server startup times, including parallel webapp starting or individual startup for author or public instances only;
• Hotswap-agent support for Java unlimited runtime class redefinition, bringing the ease of Magnolia light-development also to Java;
• Auto-login, no more typing “superuser” / “superuser” as login;
• Server-port selection via command line, to easily start multiple server instances in parallel;
• Colorized log-output for improved log readability.

Usage

The Devcat Server is started via console and supports a couple of command line parameters. 

Most commonly the command line would use the –tomcat-dir (-t), –source-dir (-s) and the –login (-l) options, for example: devcat.sh -t ./apache-tomcat/ -s ./<my-magnolia-modules-dir>/ -l

Supposing that you installed apache-tomcat using the Magnolia jumpstart and your Magnolia Maven modules are inside <my-magnolia-modules-dir>.

In conjunction with –tomcat-dir option, you can use –author-only (-a) or –public-only (-u) to only start one webapp and thus cut server startup time to half.