Deploy given EAR file having application.xml and change context-root

Question

hi
Please consider deploying a given EAR file on WebLogic Server 10.3.5 (part of JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0) and changing the context-root for its web-module.
For example an EAR file with only a web-module (ReviewContextRootFirstApp.ear [1]) or an EAR file with a web-module and an ejb-module (ReviewContextRootSecondApp.ear [2]).
Given documentation appendix B section "context-root" [3] saying
"... A context-root setting in application.xml takes precedence over context-root setting in weblogic.xml. ..."
and documentation section "Typical Deployment Configuration Workflows" [4] saying
"Oracle does not support using a deployment plan to change the context-root in an application.xml file. However, if an application is deployed as a library, you can either change the context-root through an weblogic-application.xml file or use the deployment plan to change the context-root in an weblogic-application.xml file. "
Some observed behaviour:
- scenario (sc1) : deploy ReviewContextRootFirstApp.ear without deployment plan, results in context-root "/rcrfaweb" (as in application.xml)
- scenario (sc2) : deploy ReviewContextRootFirstApp.ear with deployment plan fa-plan.xml (tries to configure "/rcrfaweb11"), results in context-root "/rcrfaweb" (as in application.xml)
- scenario (sc3) : deploy ReviewContextRootSecondApp.ear without deployment plan, results in context-root "/rcrsaweb" (as in application.xml)
- scenario (sc4) : deploy ReviewContextRootSecondApp.ear with deployment plan sa-plan.xml (tries to configure "/rcrsaweb21"), results in context-root "/rcrsaweb" (as in application.xml)
The blog post "Defining the context root of a web application in Oracle WebLogic server" [5] by Silviu Leahu in its section "Defining the context root in deployment plan" suggests to
"Remove the META-INF/application.xml DD from the EAR"
- scenario (sc5) : remove application.xml from ReviewContextRootFirstApp.ear (e.g. using Ant target "remove.application.xml.from.ear") and deploy with deployment plan fa-plan.xml, results in context-root "/rcrfaweb11" (as in fa-plan.xml)
- scenario (sc6) : remove application.xml from ReviewContextRootSecondApp.ear (e.g. using Ant target "remove.application.xml.from.ear") and deploy with deployment plan sa-plan.xml, results in context-root "/rcrsaweb21" (as in sa-plan.xml)
One could expect that using a deployment plan (like in scenario's (sc2) and (sc4)) would allow to configure/change the context-root, whithout having to make changes to the EAR file to make this possible. (Somewhat like "Figure 4-2 Single Deployment Plan Workflow")
Only in scenario's (sc5) and (sc6) I see something close to what I would like to achieve, but there the application.xml file has been removed from the EAR file.
So ...
- (q1) Is it impossible to change the context-root at deploy-time for a web-module in a given EAR file that includes an application.xml file, without changing the EAR file?
- (q2) Is working with EAR files that don't have an application.xml file a supported approach (to change the context-root at deploy-time)?
Seems like a simple goal, but I must be missing something that is required to achieve it.
- [1] ReviewContextRootFirstApp/deploy/ReviewContextRootFirstApp.ear in the ZIP file
at http://www.consideringred.com/files/oracle/2012/ReviewContextRootApps-v0.01.zip
- [2] ReviewContextRootSecondApp/deploy/ReviewContextRootSecondApp.ear in the (same) ZIP file
at http://www.consideringred.com/files/oracle/2012/ReviewContextRootApps-v0.01.zip
- [3] http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E21764_01/web.1111/e13712/weblogic_xml.htm#WBAPP623
- [4] http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E21764_01/web.1111/e13702/config.htm#DEPGD172
- [5] http://blog.leahu.net/it/2011/01/04/defining-the-context-root-of-a-web-application-in-oracle-weblogic-server/
many thanks
Jan Vervecken

Answer 1

Thanks for your reply René van Wijk.
René van Wijk wrote:
You can use deployment plans in order to change the context-root ...That is what I tried and describe in scenario's (sc2), (sc4), (sc5) and (sc6) in this forum thread.
Because the application.xml file (in the "given EAR file"), added by JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0 when deploying to an EAR file, doesn't have id attributes on its application/module elements, I first tried a different XPath expression:
"/application/module/web[web-uri/text()="WebProject.war"]/context-root"
But, that didn't work.
Although the "given EAR file" does not have the suggested id attributes, I tried adding a deployment descriptor application.xml file that does have such id attributes [2], allowing an XPath expression like the one suggested:
"/application/module[id="WebProject"]/web/context-root"
- scenario (sc7) : deploy ReviewContextRootFirstApp.ear (in ReviewContextRootApps-v0.02.zip) with deployment plan fa-plan-application-xml-with-id.xml (tries to configure "/rcrfaweb14"), results in context-root "/rcrfaweb" (as in application.xml)
- scenario (sc8) : deploy ReviewContextRootSecondApp.ear (in ReviewContextRootApps-v0.02.zip) with deployment plan sa-plan-application-xml-with-id.xml (tries to configure "/rcrsaweb24"), results in context-root "/rcrsaweb" (as in application.xml)
So, it does not seem to work.
... you have to use a variable assignment in the right part of the deployment plan (in this case the application.xml) ...My observations I describe above (that it does not seem to work) seem to confirm the Oracle documentation [1] I referred to in this forum thread before:
"Oracle does not support using a deployment plan to change the context-root in an application.xml file. ... "
... By using an xpath expression, you can define which part of the xml has to be changed. ...The values for the deployment-plan xpath elements seem to be "peculiar".
Although it should not be a problem in an XPath expression, using single quotes (like module[id='WebProject'] ) instead of double quotes (like module[id="WebProject"] ) results in:
"java.lang.AssertionError: Attributes must be defined as name value pairs, eg, name="value" -- [id='WebProject']"
Because an XPath predicate expression would use an "@" to refer to an attribute, I also tried to replace what you suggested module[id="Web"] with something like module[@id="Web"] but that also did not make a difference.
- [1] http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E21764_01/web.1111/e13702/config.htm#DEPGD172
- [2] http://www.consideringred.com/files/oracle/2012/ReviewContextRootApps-v0.02.zip
regards
Jan Vervecken