Publishing projects on an Express server

Before you can publish on WebSphere Application Server - Express, you need to specify server information for your server. When you select Run on server for a project or resource, the server tools automatically perform the following things:

• Validates the server configuration to ensure that the projects that are defined in the server configuration are consistent with the projects in the workbench

• Tries to connect to the server

• Updates the server configuration with the remote configuration information that is defined in the server

• Provided that the Automatically publish before starting servers check box is selected in the Server preferences page ( Window > Preferences > Server), the following things are done:
  • Publishes the server configuration to the server using the remote file transfer mechanism defined in the server.

  • Publishes the application to the machine where WebSphere Application Server - Express is installed.

To publish your project on WebSphere Application Server- Express, follow these steps:

1. Install the WebSphere Application Server-Express AppServer feature either locally or on a remote machine. This will install the Application Server and the Agent Controller service that is used to communicate with the development environment.

2. Install the WebSphere Application Server-Express Site Developer feature on your local machine if not already installed.

3. Start WebSphere Application Server-Express Site Developer on the local machine.

4. In the Web perspective, select the Server Configuration view.

5. Right-click Servers and select New > Server and Server Configuration. The Create a New Server and Server Configuration wizard opens. This wizard creates a new server and configuration at the same time.

6. In the Server name field, type a server name, for example, Remote Express V5.

7. In the Server type list, select Express Server and click Next.

8. In the Host address field, type the fully qualified DNS name or the IP address of the remote machine that WebSphere Application Server - Express is running on. ClickNext.

9. If the server is found and communication is established with Agent Controller, then the WebSphere installation directory field should be already filled in. If not, then either Agent Controller is not running properly, or there may be a problem getting to the IP address. To diagnose any Agent Controller problems, look at the Agent Controller log found in theWS_AppServer_installdir\RAC\config\servicelog.log, where WS_AppServer_installdir is the directory where you have installed the WebSphere Application Server-Express AppServer feature on the remote machine.

10. Click Next to display the Create or Select a Remote File Transfer page of the wizard. A remote file transfer contains information for transferring Web applications and server configurations to the Express server during publishing.

11. If you have installed the AppServer feature on a remote machine, you can map a network drive to the drive on the remote machine where you have the application server installed. Alternatively you can set up an FTP server on the remote machine. .If you use the mapped drive, then click Next and set the Remote target directory to the directory that the application server is installed in. If you installed the application server on C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Express\AppServer on the remote machine and you have mapped drive H: to the C: drive of the remote machine, then you can specify H:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Express\AppServer for the Remote target directory.

12. Click Finish to create a remote file transfer and an Express server. The servers appear in the Server Configuration view and the Servers view.

13. (Optional) In the Server Configuration view, double-click on the server you created above. The server editor opens. The server editor has several pages allowing configuration of general server parameters, paths, environment variables, Web options, data sources, ports, trace, security, and applications. Make sure to save the file after any changes and restart the server to have the changes take effect.

14. Deployment server-related parameters are set through the Web Deployment Descriptor (web.xml) editor and the EAR Deployment Descriptor (application.xml) editor.

15. In the Navigator view, right-click on the project, select Run on Server, and then select the server you created. The server tools publish the files to the server. The application server starts and the output is displayed in the Console view.

16. To see the status of the servers that you have defined, click on the Servers tab below the editor area. An entry for each server is displayed with status information, for example, if the server is running or if it is stopped.