Before integrating Tomcat with Eclipse, you need to download and install Tomcat. There are several ways to get Tomcat up and running. On one end of the spectrum, it is possible to download Tomcat's source code and build and test it. On the other end, you can simply download a binary version of it. Here, we are taking the arguably easiest path to installing Tomcat: downloading, configuring, and running the compiled binary. Throughout this chapter, we assume you are using the most recent release of Tomcat. As of the time of this writing, the latest version is 7.0.
Tip
It is also possible to install Tomcat by getting Eclipse to download it for you. Provided that you already have WTP installed (how to install this plugin is described later on), when you create a new server under Eclipse and set its type as Apache Tomcat, you can use the Download and Install button on the server definition wizard to install Tomcat. You can even select in which folder you want to install the server...