Create a Liberty application client manually

We can create a Liberty application client from the command line.

We enable the Java EE Application Client 7.0 or Java EE Application Client 8.0 feature in the client.xml file only. We create a Liberty application client manually using the javaeeClient-7.0 feature. These directions also apply to configurations that use the javaeeClient-8.0 feature.

  1. cd LIBERTY_HOME/wlp/bin

  2. Create a client.

      C:\wlp\bin> client create client_name

    If we do not specify a client name, defaultClient is used.

    Example: mo@machine01:~> client create client_name

      client create client_name

    If the client is created successfully, we receive the following message:

      Client client_name created.

    We can find the client.xml file in the wlp/usr/clients/client_name directory. The file contains the javaeeClient-7.0 feature. Attention: If a default client exists, you get an error. If a default client does not exist, defaultClient is created.

  3. Run your client application by preparing an application (.ear) file with a client module (.jar) in it. Specify a main class in the MANIFEST.MF of the client module, for example: 

      Manifest-Version: 1.0 
Main-Class: com.ibm.ws.addressbook.ContactServiceClient_XMLInject

  4. Place the EAR file under the wlp/usr/clients/client_name/apps directory.

  5. Update the client.xml file to configure the application, for example:

    If the specified client already exists, no client is created and we receive an exception message:

      CWWKE0005E: The runtime environment could not be launched. CWWKE0904E: It was not possible to create the client called client_name because the client directory C:\wlp\usr\clients\client_name already exists.


What to do next

We can enable security (SSL, CSIv2, JAAS) for the application client by adding the appSecurityClient-1.0 feature to your client.xml file: 

    <featureManager>
	<feature>javaeeClient-7.0</feature>
	<feature>appSecurityClient-1.0</feature>
</featureManager>

See information about configuring security on the application client.