Deploying multiple beans & support classes, related questions

Question

I have an application that I'm trying to deploy to the latest JServer with Oracle 8i 8.1.6 on Windows 2000. We used JDeveloper to write the code and to deploy the EJBs. I have some questions and it'd be great if someone can answer them.
All documentation seem to indicate that beans must be deployed one at a time. Is this the case? If not, how?
If so, what is the "correct" way to deploy helper classes which are used by more than one bean?
Is there always only one instance of a class in the database, even though I might deploy the same helper class with different beans? If not, is there any mechanism to ensure consistency?
Can I just update a helper class in the database?
How do I see what classes are in the database? How do I manipulate them (e.g. delete, change, add, view size) ?
Is there an easy way to "clean out" the database of all classes, so as to start anew?
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Answer 1

The Java-related documentation was that I was reading. I have a followup question. Is it possible for me to simply deploy some beans without regard for all the helper classes, then at a later point do a load java on all classes that I expect to use, and have it all work?
Thanks. You've been great help.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JDev Team (Laura):
Hi Gerald,
I will take a stab at answering your questions:
1. Are you talking about the JDeveloper doc, or the Oracle8i EJB doc?
2. When you create the Deployment Profile in JDeveloper using the Deployment Profile wizard, any classes your EJB depends on should get included in the deployment archive by the dependency analyzer. You can see the contents of what will be deployed by selecting the Preview button on the Sources page of the wizard.
If you want to explictly EXCLUDE a helper class because it has already been deployed with another bean, you can choose the Advanced button. Select one of the Library, archive, class pages on the Advanced dialog, and add the class to the Exclude list. Select OK, then check the Preview button again to make sure it was excluded.
If you are deploying a number of beans that user the same helper classes, the helper classes will get deployed with the first bean, and on subsequent deployments, the process will detect that the helper class has already been deployed and will check to see if it has changed since the last deployment. I believe it uses a timestamp comparison for this, but I'm not positive. If it detects the source and target are the same, it won't redeploy the class.
If you just want to update a helper class for the EJB, you can use the Java Stored Procedure deployment in the Deployment Profile Wizard, include the helper class in the deployment archive, and do not publish anything.
You can use the Database Browser in JDeveloper to see what deployed Java Classes, and EJBs are stored in your database. Double-click on the IIOP connection you used to deploy the EJBs (under the Connections node in the Navigator). This will display the Database Browser. Expand the appropriate nodes to view the deployed objects.
To see deployed Java Classes, double-click on a JDBC connection and expand the Schema node and then the Deployed Java Classes node.
Many operations are available from the context menus in the Database Browser, including Drop. Others you will have to perform from SQL*Plus or the command line. See the Oracle8i Java Developer's Guide for more information on SQL commands and command line syntax for altering Java objects in the database. This doc, and the EJB and CORBA Developer's Guide are available online from OTN on the Doc pages.
You can use dropjava to drop all classes that were deployed in a given deployment archive by specifying the name of the jar file used during deployment. Again, see the Java Developer's Guide for the syntax.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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