Install a Liberty feature to the Liberty profile V8.5.5

When we develop a Liberty feature using the WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools, create a Liberty feature project that packages the Liberty feature. We can use the workbench to install Liberty features to Liberty profile runtime environments and enable installed features using the server configuration editor. Changes to features already installed on Liberty profiles can be pushed to all respective runtime environments using the Update Feature menu option in the workbench.

Create a Liberty feature project.

Restriction: This topic is supported for WebSphere Application Server Liberty Profile V8.5.5. For versions 8.5 or earlier, see Manually installing a Liberty feature to the Liberty profile V8.5 or earlier topic.

To install a Liberty feature to the Liberty profile:

1. In the Enterprise Explorer view, right-click the Liberty feature project and select Install Feature.

2. In the Feature install wizard and under Target Runtimes, select the Liberty profile runtime environment to install the feature. Click Finish.

   If the feature is already installed on a Liberty profile, the Liberty profile entry is no longer an available option in the list of target runtimes. Instead, we should use the Update Features menu option (available when you right-click the Liberty feature project in the Enterprise Explorer view) to update any changes to a feature already installed on a Liberty profile.

3. Add the feature name to the list of configured features in the server configuration (server.xml file):

   1. In the Servers view, expand the Liberty profile, right-click the Server Configuration [server.xml] and select Open.

   2. In the Server Configuration editor, under the Configuration Structure, expand Server Configuration and select Feature Manager.

   3. Under the Feature Manager, select the Add button.

   4. In the Add Features wizard, search and select the feature with the prefix usr: followed by the name of the Liberty feature project, for example, usr:MyLibertyFeatureProject. Click OK.

   In the Source tab of the Server Configuration editor, server.xml displays the newly added feature entry under the featureManager node:

   <featureManager>
        <feature>usr:MyLibertyFeatureProject</feature>
   </featureManager>

Results

After installing the Liberty feature in the Liberty profile, we can find the following file structure in the ${wlp.user.dir}/extension directory:

/lib
   /features
      manifest files       .
      .
      .
   OSGi bundle JAR files    .
   .
   .

What to do next

To update changes to a feature already installed on the Liberty profile runtime environments, use the Update Features menu option (available when you right-click the Liberty feature project in the Enterprise Explorer view). A Progress Information window opens and the workbench takes a moment to perform this update action.

Parent topic: Create a Liberty feature using developer tools

Tasks:

Create a Liberty feature project
Add OSGi bundles to a Liberty feature project
Specify API and SPI packages for a Liberty feature project
Manually installing a Liberty feature to the Liberty profile V8.5 or earlier