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6.3: Assembling applications and generating deployment code

6.3: Assembling applications and generating deployment code

The Application Assembly Tool is a graphical user interface for assembling enterprise (J2EE) applications. Use this set of articles to become familiar with the steps needed to assemble an application. Then use the related tasks to create the application's modules, generate code for deployment, and verify the application's archive files.

Application assembly is the process of creating an archive file that groups all files related to an application (the archive file can include other archive files as well as individual class files, HTML files, GIF files, and so on). A single archive file can represent an application. Multiple archive files can be further bundled into a higher-level archive 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 the files into a single archive file. The archive file lists all files in the module. The deployment descriptor lists the characteristics of the module and contains instructions for how the module is to be deployed.

Assembling an application consists of the following steps:

  1. Launch the Application Assembly Tool.

  2. Create modules.

    • Specify the location of files that make up the application.

    • Enter or edit properties used to generate the deployment descriptor file.

    • Optionally, add JNDI binding information for and resolve references to the application's external resources.

  3. Save the archive file. This automatically generates the XML deployment descriptor files for the application.

  4. Verify the archive file and, optionally, view the content of the XML files.

  5. If the application contains EJB modules, or is a stand-alone EJB module, generate deployment code for the application.

The Application Assembly Tool invokes the Deployment Tool for Enterprise JavaBeans (ejbdeploy) for generating code and validating archives. For CMP entity beans, the tool can also generate a map and schema document, and DDL file containing SQL code for creating a database table.

After an application is assembled, it can be installed in an application server by using the administrative console. At installation time, the console is used to carry out the security instructions defined in the deployment descriptor and to locate the required external resources that it will use, such as enterprise beans and databases. In the console, additional configuration properties can be added and binding properties defined in the Application Assembly Tool can be redefined.

After the application is deployed, you can use the Application Assembly Tool to modify the application by adding or removing modules, editing deployment descriptor properties, and regenerating code for deployment.

Note: If you are using the Application Assembly Tool to create application client modules, you must also use the Application Client Resource Configuration Tool. This tool allows you to define references to resources (other than enterprise beans) on the machine where the application client resides.

Go to previous article: The default resources Go to next article: Assembling modules

 

 
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