If you want to deploy a new app using the Tomcat manager, but you don't have a war file, here's how to deploy the directory.

In the middle of the Tomcat manager page you'll see the "Deploy" section, the first portion is titled "Deploy directory or WAR file located on server" and has three text fields to fill out. You'll need to fill out all three (Context Path is not optional, apparently). For example, when we deployed the ColDesp application the fields looked like this:

Context Path (optional): /coldesp
XML Configuration file URL: /coldesp/WEB-INF/web.xml
WAR or Directory URL: /coldesp

Tomcat grinds away for a minute or more and when it's done you have you're app available at <site-root>/<name-in-Context-Path>, in our case, http://lettuce.tapor.uvic.ca:8080/coldesp