Deploying war file on iplanet application server 6.5

Question

Hi ,
We are trying to deploy WebObjects application on Iplanet Application server server 6.5.
Steps we tried for deployment :
1) War file generated by WebObjects.
2) Started IPlanet Application server.
3) Opened the War file in the deployment tool.
4) Verified that the WAR file to be deployed using the verify option in the deployment tool(Verified successfully)
5) We tried to save the archive, then it throws an error saying "
"Invalid entry compressed size (expected 52 bytes but got 51 bytes)".
We ignored this message and proceeded further by clicking on OK.
6) Deployed the WAR file using the deploy option
7) In the deploy message box, it diplays that the application was deployed successfully.
Then we tried to access the application by trying the following url : " http://localhost/NASApp/<CONTEXT NAME>/WebObjects/<APPLICATION NAME>"
(eg : http://localhost/NASApp/SampleApplication/WebObjects/SampleApplication.woa>)
We are getting the error saying that " GXError". We are not sure whether the the above mentioned url is the correct way to access the application !
What we think the problem in deployment is
i) because of error while saving the WAR file (Invalid entry compressed size (expected 52 bytes but got 51 bytes)
ii) URL not appropriate
Other observations :
We tried to deploy to deploy sample application on Iplanet Application server. All these sample applications are deployed properly without the above mentioned error message. All these application are accessed by typing following url : " http:localhost/NASApp/<CONTEXT NAME>/<APPLICATION NAME>". IN all the sample application, url contains "NASApp" . We are not sure what this stand for and maps to. What we assumed is that it maps to the the iplanet app document root i.e "installedroot/ias6/ias/App"
The exception throw while saving the WAR file is " com.iplanet.ias.tools.buzz.util.ArchiveHandlerException"
Has any body who has tried this can help us?
Thanks,
Raju and Venkatesh

Answer 1

Hi,
First of all the application you are trying is from a WebObjects application server. I don't know how they package the modules and what is the format/file structure. I just went to their site, though they say that the WebObjects applications can be deploy on any J2EE Application server but still how they package and how they write the xml descriptors is not known.
Looking at your exception it seem that first it is something to do the war/jar archive file compression thing (as the deployment tool is not able to read the complete file) then comes the deployment descriptors.
I tried to get a few sample application from their site but I couldn't fine any, it will be great help if you can provide a WebObjects sample app to me (mail it to [email protected]).
Regarding the NASApp string in URL, it has nothing to do with document root of iAS and also installedroot/ias6/ias/APPS dir is not the document root of iPlanet app server, this is the place where it save/explodes all the archives (ear).
See iPlanet App server don't have any HTTP daemon to listen to the HTTP requests, so it needs a web server with a plugin (web connector) to forward the HTTP requests meant for iAS, and this NASApp string in the URL is the key to that.
All the URLs are first send to the iAS plugin (as configured in web server's obj.conf file) and plugin look for this NASApp string (configurable), if it is there in the URL then it converts the HTTP request and send it to iAS over a proprietary protocol (KCP), otherwise it gives the request as it is to web server to process it.
The NASApp string is a iAS registry parameter which you can change any time. And generally the context root part of the URL is the war file name (by default). So the typical URL for any web application (MyWeb.war) will be:
http://<host>:<port>/NASApp/MyWeb/<Servlet_name>.
I don't know why that extension "*.woa" is there. So if you send me a sample war file, I will be able to try it out.
Please feel free to ask further questions.
Sanjeev,
Developer Support, Sun ONE Application Server-India.