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Java EE application deployment packaging

EAR, WAR, and EJB JAR files contain a number of deployment descriptors that control how the artifacts of the application are to be deployed onto an application server. These deployment descriptors are mostly XML files and are standardized within the Java EE specification.

While working in RAD v7.5, some of the information in the deployment descriptor is stored in XML files. The deployment descriptor files also contain information in a format convenient for interactive testing and debugging. This is one of the reasons that it is so quick and easy to test Java EE applications in the integrated WebSphere Application Server v7 included with RAD v7.5.

The actual EAR being tested, and its supporting WAR, EJB, and client application JARs, are not actually created as a standalone file. Instead, a special EAR is used that simply points to the build contents of the various Java EE projects. Because these individual projects can be anywhere on the development machine, absolute path references are used.

When an enterprise application project is exported, a true standalone EAR is created, including all the module WARs, EJB JARs, JPAs and Java utility JARs it contains. Therefore, during the export operation, all absolute paths are changed into self-contained relative references within that EAR, and the internally optimized deployment descriptor information is merged and changed into a standard format. To create a Java EE-compliant WAR or EAR, we therefore have to use RAD's export function.

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