Tools Guide

Chapter 11 Deployment Plan Editor

The Deployment Plan Editor provides a quick and easy way to construct and populate deployment plans needed for deploying J2EE modules and applications to a SilverStream eXtend Application Server. This chapter describes how to use the Deployment Plan Editor and includes these topics:

About Deployment Plans

A SilverStream deployment plan is an XML document that describes how a J2EE module (such as a WAR or an EJB JAR) or application (such as an EAR) should run in theSilverStream eXtend Application Server environment.

A SilverStream deployment plan allows you to map declarative data from the deployment descriptor to the appropriate resource in the target server environment. For example, you can map resource references to actual data sources or map roles to actual users or groups.

SilverStream has defined the contents and structure for a deployment plan for each J2EE component. For more information, see SilverStream Deployment Plan DTDs in the online Reference.

NOTE Other application servers will require different types of information (possibly in different formats) for deployment. To deploy J2EE components on another J2EE application server, see the application server vendor's documentation.

Using the Deployment Plan Editor

This section describes how to use the deployment plan editor to perform these tasks:

Create a deployment plan
Modify a plan
Associate a deployment plan with a project
Validate a deployment plan

To create a deployment plan:

Make sure you have built the archive and added appropriate items to the deployment descriptor.
Open the project for which you want to create the deployment plan.
Choose File>New.
Choose the J2EE tab.
Choose SilverStream Deployment Plan and click OK.

The Select Project For Deployment Plan dialog displays.
Choose a project from the Select project dropdown.
NOTE When the project is an EAR, you see multiple files in the dropdown.
Choose the destination server type from the server type dropdown and click OK.
NOTE The server type listed when the dialog opens is the one specified as the default in Deployment preferences (Edit>Preferences). For more information, see "Deployment preferences" on page 17.

The Deployment Plan Editor constructs a deployment plan based on the project type. The editor uses the project's compiled code and the deployment descriptor to determine the deployment plan entries for a specified project. The deployment plan elements are displayed in a tree structure.

Whenever you change the deployment descriptor, Workbench updates the deployment plan to match the changes when you next edit the deployment plan.

Here is a sample deployment plan for an EAR. It contains three EJB modules and a WAR:

TIP You can view or edit the deployment plan in raw XML by choosing the XML tab. The Deployment Plan Editor opens in the mode (raw XML or tree view) in use when it was last saved.
Choose File>Save (or click the Save icon).

If there are other SilverStream deployment plans associated with this project, you will be asked whether you want to make the new deployment plan the current one.
Click Yes to make it the current deployment plan.

To modify an existing deployment plan:

Open the project whose deployment plan you want to modify.
Highlight the project file (the SPF), right-click, and select Open Deployment Plan from the popup menu.
If your project has more than one deployment plan, choose the deployment plan from the dropdown and click OK.

Workbench displays the deployment plan in the Edit Pane.
Highlight a deployment plan element, then right-click and select Properties from the popup menu.

Use the Property Inspector to modify values for different elements. In some cases, you can double-click an element to open a dialog that lets you enter data more quickly than through the Property Inspector.

To associate a deployment plan with a project:

NOTE If you created a deployment plan outside the Workbench environment, you can still use it with a Workbench project by following these steps.

Open the Workbench project you want to associate the deployment plan with.
Choose the Directory Pane.
Double-click the deployment plan you want.

You are prompted to associate the plan with the current project, a different project (which you can choose), or to edit the deployment plan in XML mode.
Choose the option to associate the plan with the current project, then choose OK.

Workbench opens the deployment plan in the Deployment Plan Editor.
Save the deployment plan to complete the association.
Choose Yes when prompted to mark the deployment plan as current.

Validating a deployment plan

The Deployment Plan Editor automatically checks your work as follows:

When you	The Deployment Plan Editor
Switch mode (choose the Descriptor or the XML tab)	Checks the syntax of the deployment plan
Save the deployment plan	Validates the deployment plan against the DTD

But you can force validation anytime.

To force validation of a deployment plan:

Choose Validate Archive from the Project menu.

This validates both the deployment plan and the archive.

Tools Guide