Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Deploying J2EE Applications

Once all of the J2EE modules have been packaged into their respective jar files, each with a deployment descriptor, and an application archive has been created with its own deployment descriptor, you still need to actually deploy the application to a J2EE application server. The deployment of an application (or even a single module) typically involves the steps described in the remainder of this section. In each case, we’ll demonstrate the task using a JBoss application server and discuss how these tasks might be done in different ways in different application servers.

Adjust Deployment Descriptors

When you develop and package a set of components, you might imagine that the module should remain unchanged when it’s deployed as part of an application. But there can be local environmental issues that force an application deployer to adjust the deployment descriptors . Some configuration parameters placed in environment entries may need to be adjusted, for example. A shopping cart web component might be delivered as part of an application with a JNDI environment entry that specifies the maximum number of line items the cart allows, with a default setting. This default value may need to be changed at deployment time to meet the needs of a particular user population (e.g., the application is being deployed for departmental administrators who require a much larger number of line items on average when ordering).

In addition to these configuration values, you may ...