Migrate Web application components from WebSphere Application Server V5.x

 

Overview

Supported open specification levels in WebSphere Application Server V6 are documented in article, Migrating.

Migration of Web applications deployed in WebSphere Application Server V5.x is not necessary; version 2.2 and 2.3 of the Java Servlet specification and version 1.2 and 1.4 of the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specification are still supported. However, where there are behavioral differences between the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.2 and J2EE 1.3 specifications, bear in mind that J2EE 1.3 specifications are implemented in WebSphere Application Server V5 and will override any J2EE 1.2 behaviors.

Servlet migration might be a concern if your application:

  • implements a WebSphere internal servlet to bypass a WebSphere Application Server V4.x single application path restriction.

  • extends a PageListServlet that relies on configuration information in the servlet configuration XML file.

  • uses a servlet to generate Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) output.

  • calls the response.sendRedirect method for a servlet using the encodeRedirectURL function or executing within a non-context root.

JSP migration might be a concern if your application references JSP page implementation classes in unnamed packages, or if you install WAS V4.x EAR files (deployed in V4.x with the JSP Precompile option), in V5. You need to recompile all JSP pages when migrating from WebSphere Application Server V5.x to v6.

Follow these steps if migration issues apply to your Web application:

 

Step for this task

Use WebSphere Application Server V5 package names for any WAS V4.x internal servlets, which are implemented in your application.

In WAS Version 4.x, Web modules with a context root setting of / are not supported. Accessing Web modules with this root context results in HTTP 404 - File not Found errrors.

To bypass the errors, and to enable the serving of static files from the root context, WAS Version 4.x users are advised to add the servlet class, com.ibm.servlet.engine.webapp.SimpleFileServlet, to their Web module.

The V4.x single path limitation does not exist in V5. However, users who choose to use the com.ibm.servlet.engine.webapp.SimpleFileServlet in V5 must do one of the following:

 

What to do next

See "Resources for learning" for links to the J2SE, JSP, and Servlet specification documentation.

 

Related Tasks


Migrating and coexisting
Hot deployment and dynamic reloading
Migrating Web application components from WebSphere Application Server V4.x

 

See Also


Web applications: Resources for learning
Configuring JVM sendRedirect calls to use context root