--- a/pom.xml	Wed Feb 20 10:24:38 2013 +0100
+++ b/pom.xml	Mon Feb 11 17:45:57 2013 +0100
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
     <thermostat.build.directory>target</thermostat.build.directory>
     <thermostat.java.version>1.7</thermostat.java.version>
     <thermostat.home>${project.build.directory}</thermostat.home>
+    <thermostat.web.deploy.dir>${thermostat.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}</thermostat.web.deploy.dir>
     <java.dir>/usr/share/java</java.dir>
 
     <junit.version>4.10</junit.version>

--- a/web/server/src/main/java/com/redhat/thermostat/web/server/WebStorageEndPoint.java	Wed Feb 20 10:24:38 2013 +0100
+++ b/web/server/src/main/java/com/redhat/thermostat/web/server/WebStorageEndPoint.java	Mon Feb 11 17:45:57 2013 +0100
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 
 package com.redhat.thermostat.web.server;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
@@ -113,15 +114,20 @@
     @Override
     public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException {
         super.init(config);
+        logger.log(Level.INFO, "Initializing web service");
         if (!isThermostatHomeSet()) {
             // This is the webapp and our entry point into thermostat's web
             // service. The launcher did not run and hence THERMOSTAT_HOME is
             // not set and we need to do this ourselves.
-            // In this case THERMOSTAT_HOME is in the WEB-INF/thermostat folder
-            // in order to make it inaccessible via HTTP. This is not a "real"
-            // THERMOSTAT_HOME. For now it only contains an ssl.properties file.
-            String thermostatHome = config.getServletContext().getRealPath(
-                    "/WEB-INF/thermostat");
+            String thermostatHome = config.getInitParameter("THERMOSTAT_HOME");
+            File thermostatHomeFile = new File(thermostatHome);
+            if (!thermostatHomeFile.canRead()) {
+                // This is bad news. If we can't at least read THERMOSTAT_HOME
+                // we are bound to fail in some weird ways at some later point.
+                throw new RuntimeException("THERMOSTAT_HOME = "
+                        + thermostatHome
+                        + " is not readable or does not exist!");
+            }
             logger.log(Level.INFO, "Setting THERMOSTAT_HOME for webapp to "
                     + thermostatHome);
             System.setProperty("THERMOSTAT_HOME", thermostatHome);

--- a/web/server/src/test/java/com/redhat/thermostat/web/server/WebStorageEndpointTest.java	Wed Feb 20 10:24:38 2013 +0100
+++ b/web/server/src/test/java/com/redhat/thermostat/web/server/WebStorageEndpointTest.java	Mon Feb 11 17:45:57 2013 +0100
@@ -153,6 +153,10 @@
     @Before
     public void setUp() throws Exception {
 
+        // Set thermostat home to something so we don't set
+        // it in WebStorageEndPoint.init()
+        System.setProperty("THERMOSTAT_HOME", "does not matter");
+        
         mockStorage = mock(Storage.class);
         StorageWrapper.setStorage(mockStorage);
 

--- a/web/war/pom.xml	Wed Feb 20 10:24:38 2013 +0100
+++ b/web/war/pom.xml	Mon Feb 11 17:45:57 2013 +0100
@@ -88,28 +88,59 @@
           <skip>true</skip>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
+
+      <!--
+	   Package the web archive (WAR) as an exploded WAR *and WAR. Downstream
+           distributions can build and deploy the war via a maven build call similar to
+           the following (from the top level dir):
+           $ mvn -Dthermostat.web.deploy.dir=<path-to-tomcat>/webapps/thermostat clean package
+       -->
       <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.5</version>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.3</version>
         <executions>
           <execution>
-            <id>copy-logging-properties</id>
-            <phase>prepare-package</phase>
+            <id>exploded-war</id>
+            <phase>package</phase>
             <goals>
-              <goal>copy-resources</goal>
+              <goal>exploded</goal>
             </goals>
             <configuration>
-              <outputDirectory>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/thermostat</outputDirectory>
-              <resources>
+              <!-- web.xml contains properties, which we'd like to have interpolated -->
+              <webResources>
                 <resource>
-                  <directory>src/../../../distribution/config</directory>
-                  <targetPath>etc</targetPath>
                   <filtering>true</filtering>
+                  <directory>src/main/webapp</directory>
                   <includes>
-                    <include>ssl.properties</include>
+                    <include>**/web.xml</include>
                   </includes>
                 </resource>
-              </resources>
+              </webResources>
+              <warSourceDirectory>src/main/webapp</warSourceDirectory>
+              <webXml>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml</webXml>
+              <webappDirectory>${thermostat.web.deploy.dir}</webappDirectory>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+          <execution>
+            <id>war</id>
+            <phase>package</phase>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>war</goal>
+            </goals>
+            <configuration>
+              <!-- web.xml contains properties, which we'd like to have interpolated -->
+              <webResources>
+                <resource>
+                  <filtering>true</filtering>
+                  <directory>src/main/webapp</directory>
+                  <includes>
+                    <include>**/web.xml</include>
+                  </includes>
+                </resource>
+              </webResources>
+              <warSourceDirectory>src/main/webapp</warSourceDirectory>
+              <webXml>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml</webXml>
             </configuration>
           </execution>
         </executions>

--- a/web/war/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml	Wed Feb 20 10:24:38 2013 +0100
+++ b/web/war/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml	Mon Feb 11 17:45:57 2013 +0100
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@
       <param-value>com.redhat.thermostat.storage.mongodb.MongoStorageProvider</param-value>
     </init-param>
     <init-param>
+      <!-- Absolute path to THERMOSTAT_HOME -->
+      <param-name>THERMOSTAT_HOME</param-name>
+      <param-value>${project.build.directory}/../../../distribution/target/</param-value>
+    </init-param>
+    <init-param>
       <param-name>storage.endpoint</param-name>
       <param-value>mongodb://127.0.0.1:27518</param-value>
     </init-param>