How do I change the context-root of a web app with a deployment plan?

Question

I've been trying to figure this out for several hours.
I'm deploying a .ear file which sets the context root for the single web application it deploys in its application.xml deployment descriptor:
<application>
<display-name>MyApp</display-name>
<module>
<web>
<web-uri>MyAppViewControler.war</web-uri>
<context-root>MyApp</context-root>
</web>
</module>
</application>
I want to change the context-root from /MyApp to something else when deploying the ear file. It seemed to me that using a deployment plan was the way to do this. But when I use this plan:
<deployment-plan>
<application-name>MyApp<application-name>
<variable-definition>
<variable>
<name>NEWCONTEXTROOT</name>
<value>foobar</value>
</variable>
</variable-definition>
<module-override>
<module-name>MyApp</module-name>
<module-type>ear</module-type>
<module-descriptor external="false">
<root-element>application</root-element>
<uri>META-INF/application.xml</uri>
<variable-assignment>
<name>NEWCONTEXTROOT</name>
<xpath>/application/module/web/context-root</xpath>
</variable-assignment>
</module-descriptor>
</module-override>
</deployment-plan>
I get an error:
weblogic.descriptor.DescriptorException: VALIDATION PROBLEMS WERE FOUND
/bea/user_projects/domains/devod1/nullplan.xml:0: problem: cvc-complex-type.2.4a: Expected element 'web-uri@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee' instead of 'context-root@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee' here in element web@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee:<nullplan.xml>
I looked at http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs103/pdf/deployment.pdf which says:
"You cannot use 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."
I don't understand what this means. I'm not deploying my application as a library.
Does anyone know how to change the context-root for an application?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi James,
I am quite new to Welogic if i am wrong please correct me.I have re-deployed my application (.war) with this Plan.xml
&lt;?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?&gt;
&lt;deployment-plan xmlns="http://www.bea.com/ns/weblogic/deployment-plan" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.bea.com/ns/weblogic/deployment-plan http://www.bea.com/ns/weblogic/deployment-plan/1.0/deployment-plan.xsd" global-variables="false"&gt;
&lt;application-name&gt;BrowserR08.003&lt;/application-name&gt;
*&lt;variable-definition&gt;*
* &lt;variable&gt;*
* &lt;name&gt;CONTEXTROOT&lt;/name&gt;*
* &lt;value&gt;BrowserWeb/servlet/BrowserServlet&lt;/value&gt;*
* &lt;/variable&gt;*
* &lt;/variable-definition&gt;*
&lt;module-override&gt;
&lt;module-name&gt;BrowserWeb.war&lt;/module-name&gt;
&lt;module-type&gt;war&lt;/module-type&gt;
&lt;module-descriptor external="true"&gt;
&lt;root-element&gt;weblogic-web-app&lt;/root-element&gt;
&lt;uri&gt;WEB-INF/weblogic.xml&lt;/uri&gt;
&lt;hash-code&gt;1231953167814&lt;/hash-code&gt;
*&lt;variable-assignment&gt;*
* &lt;name&gt;CONTEXTROOT&lt;/name&gt;*
* &lt;xpath&gt;/weblogic-web-app/context-root&lt;/xpath&gt;*
* &lt;operation&gt;add&lt;/operation&gt;*
* &lt;/variable-assignment&gt;*
&lt;/module-descriptor&gt;
&lt;module-descriptor external="false"&gt;
&lt;root-element&gt;web-app&lt;/root-element&gt;
&lt;uri&gt;WEB-INF/web.xml&lt;/uri&gt;
&lt;/module-descriptor&gt;
&lt;module-descriptor external="true"&gt;
&lt;root-element&gt;wldf-resource&lt;/root-element&gt;
&lt;uri&gt;META-INF/weblogic-diagnostics.xml&lt;/uri&gt;
&lt;/module-descriptor&gt;
&lt;/module-override&gt;
&lt;config-root&gt;/export/home1/tecapp/BrowserR08.003/plan&lt;/config-root&gt;
&lt;/deployment-plan&gt;
I do not know wether i will require the other module descriptor definition in this Plzn.xml. Now when I go to following link.
Deployments --&gt; MyApp --&gt; Testing
It gives me following url as a test page:
http://localhost:7001/BrowserWeb/servlet/BrowserServlet
as soon as i click on to the above link it redirects me to following.
http://localhost:7001/BrowserWeb/servlet/BrowserServlet/servlet/BrowserServlet
Same if i remove these context-root part my normal Testing menu shows me following link as my webapp access path
http://localhost:7001/BrowserWeb &lt;-- My war file name is BrowserWeb.war so it is default name of my deployed application if i am not wrong
and as soon as i click on above link it redirects me to the following one.
http://localhost:7001/BrowserWeb/servlet/BrowserServlet
It means application server know that my full web access page is with '*servlet/BrowserServlet*' because its adding it in both the cases.
What I want is a constant URL whcih does not change?
Hope this helps :)