Editing deployment descriptors

A deployment descriptor is an extensible markup language (XML) file that describes how to deploy a module or application by specifying configuration and container options.

 

Before you begin

This article assumes that you have assembled code artifacts into a J2EE module that you want to deploy onto an application server.

 

Overview

When you create a module in an assembly tool such as the Application Server Toolkit (AST) or Rational Web Developer, the assembly tool creates deployment descriptor files for the module.

We can edit a deployment descriptor file manually. However, it is preferable to edit a deployment descriptor using an assembly tool deployment descriptor editor to ensure that the deployment descriptor has valid properties and that its references contain appropriate values.

Deployment descriptor editor Resources modified in the editor
Application deployment descriptor editor

    application.xml

    ibm-application-bnd.xmi

    ibm-application-ext.xmi

Web deployment descriptor editor

EJB deployment descriptor editor

    ejb-jar.xml

    ibm-ejb-jar-bnd.xmi

    ibm-ejb-jar-ext.xml

    ibm-ejb-access-bean.xml

Client deployment descriptor editor

    application-client.xml

    ibm-application-client-bnd.xmi

    ibm-application-client-ext.xmi

Web services editor

Resource adapter deployment descriptor editor

    ra.xml

    j2c_plugin.xml

This article describes how to edit a deployment descriptor using an assembly tool deployment descriptor editor.

 

Procedure

  1. Start an assembly tool.

  2. If you have not done so already, configure the assembly tool for work on J2EE modules.

  3. In a Project Explorer view (Window > Show View > Project Explorer), right-click the module with deployment descriptor values that you want to browse or edit, and click Open With > Deployment Descriptor Editor. A deployment descriptor editor for the module is displayed in a view. We can click tabs such as Overview, Module, Security, and Source at the bottom of the view to browse or edit specific deployment descriptor values. Clicking Source displays editable source code; it is preferable to edit values in fields on or accessible from the other tabs rather than edit the source code manually.

    If you selected the WAS v6.0 target server for a module, tabs and deployment descriptor panels for application assembly services such as the following are also available:

  4. Edit the deployment descriptor values as desired. For information on fields in the deployment descriptor editor, press F1 and click a topic. For deployment of your application onto a server supported by WAS, consider specifying bindings such as Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) names in the WebSphere Bindings section of module deployment descriptor editors. If you do not specify bindings during application assembly, one can specify them during installation of the application onto a server. If you do not specify bindings during assembly or installation, WAS can generate default bindings.

  5. Save your changes to the deployment descriptor.

    1. Close the deployment descriptor editor.

    2. When prompted, click Yes to indicate that you want to save changes to the deployment descriptor.

    You also can save changes to deployment descriptors at any time by pressing Ctrl+S.

 

Result

Files for the enterprise application are shown in the Project Explorer view.

 

What to do next

Verify the contents of the updated module and deploy the module to an application server.

 

See Also


Application bindings
Configurations
Assembly tools

 

Related Tasks


Developing Web services deployment descriptor templates for an EJB implementation
Developing Web services deployment descriptor templates for a JavaBeans implementation

 

See Also


web.xml file