Deploying Enterprise JavaBeans

This section provides an introductory overview of Together's EJB deployment support features. Note that deployment support is not available in all Together products. Please visit www.togethersoft.com for product information.

Overview

In Together products that come with EJB deployment support, you can use Together both to develop EJBs, and also to deploy them to a supported application server. Together compiles your EJBs, generates XML deployment descriptors (including manifest), generates container classes, packages the EJB into a JAR file, and deploys the result to a location you specify. On server platforms that support it, you can direct Together to "hot" deploy directly to the app server. Also, for some servers, you can optionally generate a simple JSP (Java Server Pages) client which you can use to test the deployed EJB running on the application server.

Supported application servers and proxies

TogetherSoft directly develops deployment support for major application servers, and is working with vendors to rapidly develop deployment support for more and more server platforms all the time.

To see a list of the currently supported servers:

Open a project.
On the Main menu, choose Tools | EJB Deployment Expert.
Activate the drop-down list of application servers to see the server platforms currently integrated.

Building Block Proxies

Some of the listed app servers may be proxies... that is, deployment support is availabe for the listed server, but the vendor's Building Blocks for Together deployment support do not ship with Together, and are not installed.

When you choose one of these proxy items in the server list, Together activates your Web browser and takes you to the URL on the server vendor's website to download and install the vendor's deployment support Building Block(s) for Together.

Generic server options

You can also choose the 'Generic" server options. Use these if you just want to generate generic EJB 1.0 and 1.1 compatible deployment descriptors.

Assembly diagrams

You can create EJB Assembly diagrams in Together to map the assembly of various EJB components into a distributed application. Assembler information is always in-sync with provider information - no redesigning of Assembler deployment descriptors when EJB's are changed. For more information, see EJB Assembly Diagrams.

Requirements for deployment

In order to deploy your EJBs directly from Together, you need the following:

An installation of Together with full EJB development and deployment support.
An accessible installation of the target application server with appropriate access rights
An accessible installation of Java Enterprise Edition 1.2 or higher for compiling EJB classes and interfaces
An accessible installation of Java 2 SDK (JDK 1.2 or higher) for generating JAR file
An accessible temp directory and sufficient disk space for temporary files generated by the EJB Deployment Expert.
An http-accessible location on the server for the generated JSPs (if generating a JSP test client).

Using the EJB Deployment Expert

Together provides the EJB Deployment Expert... a convenient GUI that greatly simplifies the EJB deployment process. In this "wizard" style dialog, you can specify:

the target application server platform,
what deployment-related actions you want to take place (compile, etc.),
paths to the server, server tools, and the deployment output
connection parameters for the app server
optional generation of a simple JSP client for live-testing deployed EJB.

According to your option selections, Together can handle interaction with the compiler to compile EJB classes, generate the XML deployment descriptors (including manifest) for the target server, update the Bean's EJB specification conformity, generate container classes, then package everything into a JAR file, and deploy the JAR to a location you specify. On server platforms that support it, you can specify "hot" deployment directly to the app server.

There are two scenarios for using the EJB Deployment Expert:

For "fast track" deployment with default values for security and permissions, or for deployment prototyping, run the Expert from an appropriate Class diagram.
If you need "full featured" assembly information with control over security and permissions, run the Expert from an EJB Assembly diagram. For information on creating these diagrams see EJB Assembly diagrams.

To run the EJB Deployment Expert:

Open the project and the diagram containing the EJB(s) to be deployed (either a Class diagram or EJB Assembly diagram).
On the Main menu, choose Tools | EJB Deployment Expert to launch the expert dialog.
Choose the target server platform and set the other options as desired. For example, if the classes need to be compiled, check the Compile Classes option (if they are already compiled, clear this option).
If desired, check the option to generate a JSP client. (Note that this checkbox does not appear for all servers. For more information, see Server-specific information below.)
Click Next to advance through the page sequence of the Expert.

Note that the number of pages and content varies according to the selected server platform. During the process you will specify shuch things as:

the paths to the server, various server tools, and a temp directory.
server host name, port number, and password (if you are going to "hot deploy" to the server).
output location and base URL for JSPs (if generating a JSP test client)

Server-specific information and examples

The above procedure is intended as a basic guideline for running the expert. In order for the expert to succeed, there are some things you need to set up in your project and/or your environment. These are dependent upon the target application server. You can find some examples under Sample procedures for EJB Deployment support: