Deploying and Configuring Applications

To this point, you've been working with applications without understanding how they can be built or deployed. Whenever you make a change to an application, WebLogic Workshop automatically synchronizes with the running instance of WebLogic Workshop.

Building Applications

Before an application can be run, it must be compiled. WebLogic Workshop can build application components automatically or on demand. In the Workshop environment, building an application is more then just compilation. Because applications contain annotations, these annotations must be reviewed, the components compiled, supporting classes created and configured, and more. WebLogic Workshop applications can be in development or production modes. In development mode, all components are compiled automatically as they change. In production mode, applications or components must be built using the command-line wlwbuild.cmd scripts or Workshop's Build, Application, Build, EAR or Build, Project, project name menus . You can change an application's or project's properties by selecting the application or project, right-clicking, and then choosing Properties. Figure 3.15 shows the Application Properties dialog box.

Figure 3.15. The Application Properties dialog box for the chapter3 application.

Mapping Applications and Projects to Directories

WebLogic Workshop maps directly to an EAR file. Figure 3.16 shows the directory structure of the chapter3 sample Workshop Web application. Table 3.1 maps WebLogic Workshop folders to the directories on disk.

Figure 3.16. Application directory structure.

Table 3.1. Directory to Application Mapping

DIRECTORY OR FILE	WORKSHOP APPLICATION EQUIVALENT AND CONTENTS
chapter3Webapp.work	Workshop application configuration file. Do not edit or delete this file.
.workshop	Files and classes generated by Workshop. Not displayed.
APP-INF\lib	Location for all project JARs. Maps to Application\lib . Any JAR files added to this directory are added to the application's class path . Schema and other projects that produce JAR files place them here.
chapter3Web	Actual application contents. Maps to chapter3\chapter3Web\ .
chapter3Web\WEB-INF	Maps to chapter3\chapter3web\WEB-INF . All tag libraries and Web application deployment descriptors are located here.
Schemas	Schema project. Maps to chapter3\Schemas .
META-INF	Maps to chapter3\modules . Contains all application-level deployment descriptors managed by WebLogic Workshop.