WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

868 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

Figure 23-37 Specify the options for application install

5. Use the defaults for the job schedule. The defaults execute the job one time. Click Next.

6. Review the summary, and click Finish. Monitor the status of the job and ensure it

completes successfully.

23.8 Deploying business-level applications

A business-level application (BLA) is a concept that aims to expand the notion of an

application beyond Java EE. Its administration model provides the entire definition of an

application because it makes sense to the business. In contrast with an enterprise application

(EAR file), a business-level application is only a logical WebSphere configuration artifact,

similar to a server or cluster, that is stored in the configuration repository.

In this section, we introduce business-level applications and show how you can deploy a Java

EE application by creating a business-level application and adding the Java EE application to

it as an asset.

Figure 23-38 on page 869 shows the concept of business-level applications.

Support for business-level applications: Business-level applications are supported only

on WebSphere Application Server V7 or later nodes.

Chapter 23. Packaging and deploying Java EE applications 869

Figure 23-38 Business-level application concept

Business-level applications can be used in several different ways. Often a business

application, such as an Order System, does not consist of only one enterprise application

(EAR). That system can have multiple applications that must all be running for the whole

business application to work.

One way of using business-level applications is to group the separate enterprise applications

that make up the business application into one manageable unit that can be started, stopped,

updated, and so on. However, a business-level application can reference Java EE

components and assets that are not part of the Java EE concept. An example of this concept

is CORBA (C++) executables that are hosted in a generic server or as files on the file system

that are not managed by WebSphere but that are required by the application.

A business-level application does not represent or contain application binary files. Instead, it

is a configuration that lists one or more composition units that represent the application binary

files. A business-level application uses the binary files to run the application business logic.

Administration of binary files is done using the normal methods for managing modules (for

example, web or EJB modules) and is separate from administration of the application

definition.

A business-level application does not introduce any new programming, run time, or packaging

models and the following concerns are mitigated:

 You do not need to change your application business logic. The business-level application

function does not introduce new application programming interfaces (APIs).

 You do not need to change your application runtime settings. WebSphere supports all of

the runtime characteristics, such as security, class loading, and isolation, required by

individual programming models to which business components are written.

 You do not need to change your application packaging. There is no specific unique

packaging model that provides a business-level application definition.

EJB

module

Business logic

JAR

WAR

Axis2 PAR EAR

Web

module

JAX-WS

Web Service

module

J2EE

Enterprise

App

Portlet

module

BLA1

BLA3

BLA2

Configuration

Composition

870 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

The terminology for business-level applications introduces the following two new terms:

 An

asset represents one or more application binary files that are stored in an asset

repository. Typical assets include application business logic, such as EAR files, EJB

modules, web modules, service component architecture (SCA) modules, shared library

files, static content, and other resource files. The asset repository is managed by

WebSphere Application Server and does not require any third-party software.

You must register files as assets before you can add them to one or more business-level

applications. At the time of asset registration, you can import the physical application files

into WebSphere’s configuration repository, or you can specify an external location where

the asset resides.

 A

composition unit represents a configured asset in a business-level application.

Configured in this context means installed, so a configured web module means a web

module that is installed.

WebSphere Application Server handles the following types of composition units:

 Asset composition units

Composition units created from assets by configuring each deployable unit of the asset to

run on deployment targets.

 Shared library composition units

Composition units created from JAR-based assets by ignoring all the deployable objects

from the asset and treating the asset JAR file as a library of classes.

 Business-level application composition units

Composition units created from business-level applications that are added to existing

business-level applications.

Figure 23-39 on page 871 shows the relationship between assets, composition units, and

business-level applications.