Web Applications

 

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Overview

A Web Application is a J2EE deployment unit that defines a collection of Web resources such as JSPs, servlets, and HTML pages. Web Applications can also define references to external resources such as EJBs.

These procedures describe how to use the Administration Console to deploy and configure Web Applications.

Note: A Web service is a special kind of Web Application. Web services are Web applications that have an additional deployment descriptor called web-services.xml. If you package a Web service as a .war file or an exploded .war directory, you can deploy the Web service in the same manner as you would a Web application.

For more information about configuring Web Applications, please see Developing Web Applications for WebLogic Server. For more information about J2EE applications in the Administration Console, see Applications.

 

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Tasks

Configuring a Default Web Application

The default Web Application is presented to clients who do not specify a URI (or specify "/" as the URI). To configure a Web Application as a default Web Application, set the value of the context-root element to "/" in its deployment descriptor.

You can specify the context-root element in the web.xml deployment descriptor for Web Applications that are packaged as a .war archive or exploded .war directory. If you package the Web Application as part of an Enterprise Application (.ear archive or exploded .ear), specify the context-root in application.xml. Note that the application.xml context-root takes precedent over the weblogic.xml value.

Deploy the application using the instructions in Deploying a New Web Application.

Deploying a New Web Application

To deploy a new Web application using the WebLogic Server Administration Console:

1. Start the WebLogic Server Administration Console, and select the Domain in which you will be working.
2. In the left pane of the Console, open the Deployments folder.
3. In the left pane of the Console, right-click Web Application Modules, and select Deploy a New WebAppComponent. This initiates the Web Application Deployment Assistant in the right panel.
4. Locate the .war file or exploded .war you would like to deploy using links in the Location field. If the files do not reside on the Administration Server, use the upload link to upload them to the Administration Server machine.
5. When you have located the .war file or directory to deploy, click Target Module. If your domain contains multiple WebLogic Server instances, the Deployment Assistant displays a list of server to which you can deploy the Web Application. Otherwise, skip to step 7.
6. Select the individual servers to which you will deploy the new application. If you want to deploy to all server instances in a cluster, select the name of the cluster and ensure that the All servers in the cluster option is chosen. Click Continue when you have selected all servers and clusters.
7. Review the selected deployment targets for the Web Application. If you need to change a target server, use your browser's Back button.
8. Choose one of the available options from the Source accessibility header:
   • Copy this application onto every target for me—This option is selected by default if you targeted the application to a cluster or to multiple server instances. This corresponds to "Stage" mode where the Administration Server copies the application files to each targeted server; and the target servers then deploy the application using their copy of the files.
   • I will make the application accessible from the following location—This option is selected by default if you targeted the application to a single server instance. This corresponds to the "Nostage" mode where the server deploys an application from a single directory; all targeted servers must be able to access the directory to deploy the application.
9. Enter a unique name for the Web Application in the Name field.
10. Click Deploy. The Console will display the Deploy panel, which lists deployment status and deployment activities for the Web Application.
11. Use the other available tabs to enter the following information:
    • Configuration—Define the load order and general configuration attributes for this Web application module.
    • Targets—Select additional independent servers, clusters, or virtual hosts on which you would like to deploy the Web application module at server startup time.
    • Deploy—View the deployment status of this Web application module, and stop, deploy, or redeploy the Web application module.
    • Monitoring—Use this page to monitor the Web Applications that are currently active.
    • Testing—
    • Notes—Include any additional information that describes the configuration of this Web application module.

Testing the Deployment

To test the deployment of a Web Application in the Administration Console:

1. In the Console, click Deployments.
2. Click the Web Applications Modules option.
3. Click a Web Application Module in the list of deployed Web Applications in the table displayed in the right side of the Console.
4. Select the Testing tab.
5. Click the Web Application Module to ensure that it has been properly deployed.

Viewing Deployed Web Applications

To view a deployed Web Application in the Administration Console:

1. In the Console, click Deployments.
2. Click the Web Applications Modules option.
3. View a list of deployed Web Applications in the table displayed in the right side of the Console.

Stopping Deployed Web Applications

To stop a deployed Web Application from the WebLogic Server Administration Console:

1. In the Console, click Deployments.
2. Click the Web Applications option.
3. In the displayed table, click the name of the Web Application you wish to stop.
4. Select the Deploy tab, and click Stop or Stop All buttons to stop the application.

Adding or Editing Web Application Deployment Notes

1. In the left pane of the Console, open the Deployments folder.
2. Under the Deployments folder, click the Web Application Modules folder. A table is displayed in the right pane of the Console showing all the deployed Web Applications.
3. Locate the .war file for which you will add notes. The Web Application Deployment page displays in the right pane.
4. Click the Notes tab.
5. Add or edit the optional information in the Notes scroll box.
6. Click Apply.

Deleting a Web Application

To delete a Web Application, proceed as follows:

1. In the left pane of the Console, open the Deployments folder.
2. Under the Deployments folder, click the Web Applications Modules folder. A table is displayed in the right pane of the Console showing all the deployed Web Applications.
3. In this table, locate the .war file you want to delete.
4. Click the Garbage Can icon to the right of the file.
5. You are asked to confirm your decision. Click Yes.
6. Click Continue to return to the previous screen.

Monitoring Web Applications and Servlets

To monitor active Web Applications and Servlets in the Console, proceed as follows:

1. In the left pane of the Console, open the Deployments folder.
2. Under the Deployments folder, click the Web Applications Modules folder.
3. In the right pane, select the Monitoring tab.
4. Use the Select Servers pull-down to select the server for which you wish to monitor active Web Applications or Servlets.
5. To monitor Web Applications, select the Web Applications sub-tab.
6. To monitor Servlets, select the Servlets sub-tab.
7. To enable Session Monitoring, select the Session sub-tab and select the Session Monitoring Enabled checkbox. Then, click Apply.
8. On the Web Applications or Servlets sub-tab, you can select Customize This View to customize the available monitoring features. You can choose which items to monitor, determine how to sort these options, and set this view as your default view. Click Apply to save your settings.

Viewing and Editing Descriptors

To view the web.xml and weblogic.xml deployment descriptors, proceed as follows:

1. In the left pane of the Console, open the Deployments folder.
2. Under the Deployments folder, click the Web Applications Modules folder.
3. In the right pane, select the Configuration tab.
4. Under the Configuration tab, select the Descriptor tab.
5. Under the View Descriptors section in the right pane, click the descriptor you wish to view.

To edit descriptor information in the Console, proceed as follows:

1. In the left pane of the Console, open the Deployments folder.
2. Under the Deployments folder, click the Web Applications Modules folder.
3. In the right pane, select the Configuration tab.
4. Under the Configuration tab, select the Descriptor tab.
5. Define the configuration of the application deployment descriptor file that is associated with this Web application module by changing the provided attribute values as needed.
6. Click Apply to save your changes.