[WAS_8.5_INFOCENTER] Creating WebSphere-enhanced EAR files

A WebSphere-enhanced EAR file is a regular Java EE EAR file but with additional configuration information for resources required by Java EE applications. This information is processed by WebSphere Application Server. Any other application server ignores this information. Although adding this extra configuration information at packaging time is not mandatory, it can simplify deployment of Java EE applications to multiple run times if the environments are similar.

When an Enhanced EAR is deployed to WebSphere Application Server, the resources specified in the Enhanced EAR are automatically configured. When an Enhanced EAR is uninstalled, the resources that are defined at the application level scope are removed as well. However, resources that are defined at a scope other than application level are not removed because they might be in use by other applications. Resources that are created at the application level scope are limited in visibility to only that application.

Table below shows the resources that are supported by the Enhanced EAR and the scope in which they are created:

You can modify the supplemental information in an Enhanced EAR using the WebSphere Application Server Deployment editor of IBM Assembly and Deploy Tools for WebSphere Administration.

Figure 3.3. Enhanced EAR configuring

The deployment information is contained in XML files in a folder called ibmconfig in the EAR file's META-INF folder:

Figure 3.4. META-INF/ibmconfig folder

If you are deploying an Enhanced EAR file, you specify in the Integrated Solution Console (ISC) whether to use the resource configuration information that is packaged in the Enhanced EAR file. The installation window pre-selects the Process embedded configuration option automatically if it detects Enhanced EAR.

Figure 3.5. Enhanced EAR deployment

If you do not want to use the resource configuration information that is packaged in the Enhanced EAR file, clear this option.

Persistence Unit configuring

An EAR application can use a relational database with the Java Persistence API to store information. To access this database, you need to define a data source with a JNDI name that matches the data source configuration in the JPA module persistence.xml file.

Figure below shows the persistence.xml file for the RAD8JPA project open in the Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software. As you can see, the JNDI name in this case is jdbc/itsobank.

Figure 3.6. persistence.xml file opened in an editor