Edit the Liberty profile configuration using developer tools

We can modify the behavior of the Liberty profile by editing the configuration. For example, we can configure which HTTP ports to use, what features are enabled, and logging and tracing settings.

For a description of the underlying process of configuring a server, and detailed information about specific aspects of server configuration, see Administer the Liberty profile manually.

The server configuration editor consists of two views: the Source view and the Design view. The Design view is a structured view of the file whereas the Source view is a text view. But both of them are views of the same server configuration file. The Design view has many features that help with the construction of some of the more complex elements in the server configuration such as data sources.

The following steps are demonstrated in the Design view.

1. To open the Server Configuration editor, select any of the following options:

   • In the Servers view, right-click the server configuration and select Open.

   • In the Enterprise Explorer view, expand the server project and the server folder. Right-click server.xml and select Open.

   Here is a screen capture of the server configuration editor:

   

2. Under the Configuration Structure section, the elements in the configuration are displayed.

3. Under the Feature Manager section, the details for the currently selected element are displayed. The details can also be modified here.

4. To add new elements, select Server Configuration under the Configuration Structure section then click Add.

   

5. To add child elements, select the parent element under the Configuration Structure section and then click Add.

   

   Here is a screen capture of how the configuration structure looks after we add a child element:

   

6. We can remove or move elements by selecting the element and using the Remove, Up, and Down buttons.

What to do next

We can use the key combinations from Table 1 in both the Source view and the Design view.

Key combination	Function
Ctrl+Space	Content assistance. It displays variables that have the correct type for the current field (int, string, and other code) or ids of the correct type for a reference field.
F3	Hyperlink to variable references and id references.

Parent topic: Administer the Liberty profile using developer tools

Concepts:

Server configuration

Tasks:

Specify Liberty profile bootstrap properties

Administer the Liberty profile manually

Reference:

Configuration elements in server.xml

Logging and Trace

Developer Tools known restrictions