Deployment and .ear files

Question

I have two questions; one may relate to the other.
First, I would like to know the best way to deploy Session beans which have dependencies on other EJBs, be they Entity Beans or other Session Beans. The dependency is limited to the implementation class, not the interfaces. I have tried just putting all my EJBs in the classpath in startWebLogic.sh, but I get the "bean cannot be redeployed while the server is running" warning. Is there another way?
Second, I have read of .ear files, which seem to be a good way of dealing with many EJBs/JSPs en masse(I'm working with ~100 EJBs and ~2000 JSPs). However, I haven't found anything on exactly what they are, how to use them, or how to generate them.
If anyone has these answers, or can point me to a good site on the matter, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks, --Tom Seufert

Answer 1

Hi Tom,
The "best" way to generate EAR files is to use an IDE that has built-in
tools to do it -OR- to use ANT (kind of an xml-based gnu-make-like utility
for Java).
Most dev groups that I've seen start by using .sh/.cmd (i.e. batch) files to
generate the JAR/WAR/EAR files. ANT allows you to do things like
dependency-based builds, to avoid re-generating parts that are not
necessary. That was very handy with WL 5.1 when EJBC could take several
minutes (even running locally with a fast compiler like JIKES). (I have
only used ANT a tiny bit, but Jesse Tilly who frequents this newsgroup is an
expert with it.)
The EAR is just a means to bundle different parts of your application
together. For example, your EJBs will be bundled into a JAR, and your JSPs
will be bundled into a WAR, and you can put both into an EAR. WL6.0 will
accept an EAR file for deployment, will auto-deploy, and will even re-deploy
it if the EAR changes!
The easiest way to build a JAR or WAR or EAR file within a batch or build
file is to use the JAR command. If you have a directory structure that is
exactly how the JAR file will be layed out, then I believe the command is
"jar -cfm0 my.jar *" or "jar -cfm0 my.jar .".
Peace,
Cameron Purdy
Tangosol, Inc.
http://www.tangosol.com
+1.617.623.5782
WebLogic Consulting Available
"Tom Seufert" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
I have two questions; one may relate to the other.
First, I would like to know the best way to deploy Session beans whichhave dependencies on other EJBs, be they Entity Beans or other Session
Beans. The dependency is limited to the implementation class, not the
interfaces. I have tried just putting all my EJBs in the classpath in
startWebLogic.sh, but I get the "bean cannot be redeployed while the server
is running" warning. Is there another way?
>
Second, I have read of .ear files, which seem to be a good way of dealingwith many EJBs/JSPs en masse(I'm working with ~100 EJBs and ~2000 JSPs).
However, I haven't found anything on exactly what they are, how to use them,
or how to generate them.
>
If anyone has these answers, or can point me to a good site on the matter,I'd appreciate it.
>
Thanks, --Tom Seufert