How to include custom application.xml in JDev9i project

Question

Can anybody explain to me how to include a custom application.xml file when deploying to an .ear file? I need to include application wide security roles, and I can't see where in Jev9i how to do this.
After searching this forum, I see that jdev9i can't include the orion-application.xml, but I want to include just the standard J2EE application.xml. Is this possible?
Thanks,
matt

Answer 1

The standard application.xml file unfortunately can't be customized in JDev 9.0.2. The reasons why this capability was left out of JDev 9.0.2 are same reasons why the other EAR-level XML files were excluded. The OTN thread
Re: Regarding 11i and E-business suite
has a summary of those reasons, which you've probably seen. We know this is an area in need of improvement and will be adding this functionality in the JDev 9.0.3 release. Until then, you'll have to go with a work-around like an Ant build file, batch file, Java application, or some other kind of script.
Below is a sample Java application which can be used to insert <security-role> elements into an EAR file's application.xml. Modify the main() method to customize for your purposes, and put xmlparserv2.jar on the classpath (in a JDev project, add the "Oracle XML Parser v2" library):
package mypackage4;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.util.zip.*;
import oracle.xml.parser.v2.*;
import org.w3c.dom.*;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
public class PostProcessEAR
public static void main( String[] args ) throws IOException
final String earFile = "C:\\temp\\myapp.ear";
final PostProcessEAR postProcess = new PostProcessEAR( earFile );
postProcess.addSecurityRole( null, "first_role" );
postProcess.addSecurityRole( "Description for the second role", "second_role" );
postProcess.commit();
System.out.println( "Done." );
private final File _earFile;
private final ArrayList _securityRoles = new ArrayList();
public PostProcessEAR( String earFile )
_earFile = new File( earFile );
public void addSecurityRole( String description, String roleName )
if ( roleName == null )
throw new IllegalArgumentException();
_securityRoles.add( description );
_securityRoles.add( roleName );
* Write out modified EAR file.
public void commit() throws IOException
if ( _securityRoles.size() == 0 )
return;
final ZipFile zipFile = new ZipFile( _earFile );
final Enumeration entries = zipFile.entries();
final File outFile = new File( _earFile.getAbsolutePath() + ".out" );
final ZipOutputStream out = new ZipOutputStream( new BufferedOutputStream( new FileOutputStream( outFile ) ) );
while ( entries.hasMoreElements() )
final ZipEntry entry = (ZipEntry) entries.nextElement();
final InputStream in = zipFile.getInputStream( entry );
if ( "META-INF/application.xml".equals( entry.getName() ) )
final XMLDocument modifiedApplicationXml = insertSecurityRoles( in );
final ByteArrayOutputStream byteOutput = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
modifiedApplicationXml.print( byteOutput );
final int numBytes = byteOutput.size();
entry.setSize( numBytes );
if ( entry.getMethod() == ZipEntry.STORED )
entry.setCompressedSize( numBytes );
final CRC32 crc32 = new CRC32();
crc32.update( byteOutput.toByteArray() );
entry.setCrc( crc32.getValue() );
out.putNextEntry( entry );
byteOutput.writeTo( out );
else
// Copy all other zip entries as they are.
out.putNextEntry( entry );
copy( in, out );
in.close();
out.close();
private XMLDocument insertSecurityRoles( InputStream in ) throws IOException
final DOMParser domParser = new DOMParser();
domParser.setAttribute( DOMParser.STANDALONE, Boolean.TRUE );
try
domParser.parse( in );
final XMLDocument doc = domParser.getDocument();
final Element docElem = doc.getDocumentElement();
final Iterator iter = _securityRoles.iterator();
while ( iter.hasNext() )
final String desc = (String) iter.next(); // might be null
final String roleName = iter.next().toString(); // must not be null
final Element securityRoleElem = doc.createElement( "security-role" );
if ( desc != null )
securityRoleElem.appendChild( createPcdata( doc, "description", desc ) );
securityRoleElem.appendChild( createPcdata( doc, "role-name", roleName ) );
docElem.appendChild( securityRoleElem );
return doc;
catch ( SAXException e )
e.printStackTrace();
return null;
private Element createPcdata( XMLDocument doc, String elemName, String pcdata )
final Element elem = doc.createElement( elemName );
elem.appendChild( doc.createTextNode( pcdata ) );
return elem;
private final byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
private void copy( InputStream in, OutputStream out ) throws IOException
while ( true )
final int bytesRead = in.read( buffer );
if ( bytesRead < 0 )
break;
out.write( buffer, 0, bytesRead );