WebLogic: The Definitive Guide

Packaging

The J2EE specification defines how a J2EE application and its components ought to be packaged. It also describes the structure and format of the different component types: web applications, EJB modules, enterprise applications, client applications, and resource adapters. For each component type, the specification describes the files needed and their locations within the directory structure. WebLogic requires that you adhere to the J2EE standard when packaging J2EE applications and modules.

A typical J2EE application includes the Java classes for the servlets and EJBs, their XML deployment descriptors, static web content (HTML files, images, etc.), and third-party utility libraries. Components that need to be deployed to WebLogic also may require WebLogic-specific XML descriptor files, and even container classes for any JSP pages, EJBs, and RMI objects. Except for connector modules, all J2EE modules also can be deployed in an exploded format. This means that although the deployment descriptors are still necessary, the module need not be bundled into a JAR. This is handy particularly during development, when you want to be able to easily change the contents of a module and its descriptor files.

The rest of this section outlines the traditional way of packaging and deploying J2EE applications. See the Section 12.6 later in this chapter to learn about WebLogic’s innovative directory structure, which eases the task of building and deploying J2EE applications during development. ...