Configure DataSource without server.xml

1. in your web app, create "context.xml" in META-INF folder:

context.xml

1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2. <Context path="">
3.      <Resource name="jdbc/testDB" 
4.                auth="Container" 
5.                type="javax.sql.DataSource" 
6.                factory="org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.BasicDataSourceFactory"
7.                driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
8.                url="jdbc:mysql://XXX.XXX.XXX:3306/yourDB"
9.                username="XXX" 
10.                password="" 
11.                maxActive="20" 
12.      />
13. </Context>

2. Add following lines to web.xml

1.     <resource-ref>
2.         <res-ref-name>jdbc/testDB</res-ref-name>
3.         <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
4.         <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
5.     </resource-ref>

3. And then you can use the datasource in your web app like:

1. Context context = new InitialContext();
2. DataSource ds = (DataSource) context
3.         .lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/testDB");
4. Connection conn = ds.getConnection();
5. ......
6. conn.close();

Note: Above configuration is not fit for building block, it will throw following exception:
org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.SQLNestedException: Cannot create JDBC driver of class '' for connect URL 'null'