Jar dependencies

Question

I have a jar which I would like to use in several webapps (packaged as war files).
Problem is, the classes in the jar need to be configured by properties files
in the webapp so the jar must be loaded by or below the webapp classloader. It
appears that Weblogic Server 6.1 does not support specifying external jars in
the manifest.mf file of a war. Are there any other ways to achieve what i'm trying
to do?

Answer 1

We are working on producing a cut down standalone client library set for the 10.1.3 release. We may not be able to get to one single oc4j-client.jar, but hopefully, it will be far simpler than what you need to do today.
As Java loads classes dynamically, I'd start with just the oc4jclient.jar, then add the JAR files you find you need until you achieve a transitive for your application.
The JVM will show you the classes it can't find as it needs them, so you should be able to locate them from the list in the Manifest and selectively add them as you find they are needed.
Another possibility (which I've not tried but would if I needed to ...) is to use JDeveloper (or some other form of IDE) which will help identify which libraries are required as part of the packaging process for an application. If the libs to build the app are shown, then hopefully the dependency analyzer in the tool can identify which of them are required wheb it builds a JAR file.
Running the JVM with the -verbose:class command may provide some extra data for you on what gets loaded and when. You could run your app with this tag using the oc4jclient.jar from a full OC4J installation and observe which classes get loaded, then make sure you take those classes with you when you build your client side distribution.
good luck!
-steve-