0.34: What is application assembly?

Application assembly is the process of creating a Java archive (JAR) file that bundles all of the files belonging to an application, including .class files, HTML files, GIF files, and so on. A single JAR file can represent an application, or multiple JAR files can be further bundled into a higher-level JAR file if the application has many components. Each bundled entity is called a module. The assembly process consists of selecting all of the files to be included in the module, creating a deployment descriptor (XML file) for the module, and then packaging these files into a single archive file. The deployment descriptor lists the contents and characteristics of the module and contains instructions for how the module is to be deployed in the run-time environment.

The archive files used are in the standard JAR file format but are referred to as follows: