Overview

This document describes the procedures required to upgrade your application environment from WebLogic Integration 8.1.x, 8.5 x, 9.x, or 10.x to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1). An application environment includes applications, the WebLogic domains in which they are deployed, and any application data associated with the domain, and may include external resources, such as database servers, firewalls, load balancers, and LDAP servers.

The WLI Environment

WLI domain: Is a WebLogic domain that consists of a group of one or more WebLogic servers, known as Managed Servers. Managed servers are administered by a single Administration Server. The Administration Server hosts the Administration Console. WLI applications can run on both Administration and Managed servers. A domain provides a set of configurable attributes that can be viewed and modified using the Administration Console. These attributes are stored in the config.xml file available at the location: BEA_HOME\user project\domains\domain_name\config. Note that this location is the default location of the configuration file. The actual path is based on your domain path. You can configure some attributes related to security, clustering, transaction, and logging.
WLI applications: These are Business Processes (Java Process Definitions) and control-based WLI applications that run on both Administration and Managed Servers.
Components such as custom security providers and node managers. A WLI application uses default security providers provided by Oracle WebLogic Server. However, your application may use a custom security provider that you have plugged into the Oracle WebLogic Server security API. The Node Manager provides high availability to the Managed Servers in your cluster. Your application may or may not use a custom Node Manager.
External resources such as databases, firewalls, load balancers, and LDAP servers. You may need to upgrade these resources in order to remain complaint with Oracle supported platforms.

What is the WLI Upgrade Process

Before you actually begin the upgrade it is useful to identify all the elements of the WLI environment that require updates. You also need to identify the tools, scripts, templates, and source code that is required to automate the tasks used to create the application environment.

Upgrade Custom Security Providers in all the machines in the domain.
Upgrade Node Managers in all the machines in the domain.
Upgrade External resources such as Firewalls, Load Balancers, Databases, and LDAP servers. For example, Apache 1.3 should be upgraded to 2.0 and Oracle 8.1.7 should be upgraded to Oracle 9i to function with Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1).
Ensure that the configurations are upgraded to match version Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1) specifications.
Upgrade the domain on the machine that hosts the Administration Server. WLI provides tools to upgrade the WLI environment with minimal manual effort. The Domain Upgrade Wizard helps you upgrade the domain to 10g Release 3 (10.3.1).
Upgrade Managed Servers on all the machines in the domain.
Upgrade the Application Project and Source. Oracle WebLogic Integration allows you to upgrade your application project and sources.

If upgrading from 8.x to 10g Release 3 (10.3.1):

Use the Application Upgrade Wizard available in Oracle Workshop for WebLogic to import the 8.1.x or 8.5 x applications into the Eclipse workspace, which starts the upgrade process to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1).
You can alternatively upgrade 8.1.x and 8.5 x applications from the command line using an Ant task. In this method you use an 8.1.x and 8.5 x work file as the source parameter and the Eclipse workspace as the destination parameter.

During the upgrade the following components are also updated:

WebLogic Integration 8.1.x and 8.5 x artifacts such as JPD, DTF/XQuery, JCX Controls and JCS files to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1) standards. All file extensions such as .jpd, .jpf, .app, .jcs, .jcx, and .jws are changed to .java. All the JPD, DTF, JCX, and JCS Annotations are also updated to the JSR 175 based Annotation model.
(Optional) Upgrade of XQuery 2002 files to XQuery 2004. You may require to update these files manually.

If upgrading from 9.x or 10.x to 10g Release 3 (10.3.1)

You have to use Oracle Workshop for WebLogic to upgrade 9.x or 10.x applications to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1) as there is no command line utility or Ant task available to update 9.x or 10.x applications to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1).

Publish and deploy the upgraded application using the upgraded domain. You can publish and deploy using Oracle Workshop for WebLogic or from the command line. For more information on publishing and deploying from the command line, see Building Applications with Ant Build Files.
View the Upgrade Process log in Oracle Workshop for WebLogic to ensure that the upgrade has been successful according to your specifications.
Run the upgraded application to test the success of the upgrade process using the Test Form and the Process Graph tabs.
You need to recompile and redeploy the applications once the upgrade is complete.

Note:

Ensure that WebLogic Integration 8.1.x and 8.5 x application process instances are run to completion in the appropriate environment before they are used in Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1) environment.

What Impacts the Upgrade Process

In WLI 9.2, there were several architectural level changes, which were carried forward to WLI 10.2 and Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1). These changes impact the upgrade process. Table 1-1 lists these changes. For a comprehensive list of new features in this release, see Oracle WebLogic Integration Release Notes.

Table 1-1 does not provide a complete list of new features. As a result of these enhancements, WebLogic Platform 8.1 applications will not be binary-compatible and will require automated or manual changes during an upgrade to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1).
All changes expect the Oracle Service Bus control are valid while upgrading from 8.x to 10g Release 3 (10.3.1). Oracle Service Bus control is valid while upgrading from 10.2.

Table 1-1 What Impacts the Upgrade Process
Enhancement	Description
Eclipse-based IDE	The Oracle Workshop for WebLogic IDE is now based on Eclipse, delivering a software development platform that blends open source and commercial software, and is standards-based. The IDE provides access to core Eclipse features, such as source editing, jUnit test integration, and refactoring. It also includes a robust tool set available from the Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) 1.0 project, including server plug-ins for multiple runtimes. For more information about Eclipse 3.2.2 and Eclipse WTP 1.5.4, see http://www.eclipse.org. In WebLogic Integration 9.2 and higher, the IDE delivers design views for developing JPDs.
Apache Beehive 2.0	Oracle Workshop for WebLogic provides tools to make building applications with Apache Beehive 2.0 easier, including support for: Java controls—based on Plain Old Java Objects (POJO) architecture. NetUI—based on Struts, and including Page Flows and JSP tags. Apache Beehive is an open-source programming model designed to simplify J2EE programming tasks and is built on J2EE and Struts. For more information about Apache Beehive, see http://beehive.apache.org.
Metadata Annotations	The programming model for Web Services, EJBs, Java controls, and Java Page Flows uses the Java's metadata annotation facility introduced in J2SE 5.0(specified by JSR-175). In this programming model, you create a Java file that uses annotations to specify the shape and characteristics of the component. From these annotations, the compiler takes care of generating the required supporting artifacts, including Java source code, deployment descriptors, and so on. The annotations that you can specify include: Web Service annotations defined by Web Services Metadata for the Java Platform specification (JSR-181). For more information, see http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=181. EJB annotations as defined in the EJBGen Reference in Programming WebLogic Enterprise JavaBeans. Java control and NetUI (Page Flow) annotations as defined by Apache Beehive 2.0. For more information, see http://beehive.apache.org. WebLogic-specific annotations to support security policy configuration, asynchronous failure and response, conversational Web Service support, and more. For more information, see Programming the JWS File in WebLogic Web Services: Getting Started.
Web Service Policy Framework	Security and authentication configuration has been enhanced to use the standards-based Web Services Policy Framework (WS-Policy), as described in Configuring Message-Level Security in WebLogic Web Services: Security.
Oracle Service Bus Control	WLI supports Oracle Service Bus control that can invoke Oracle Service Bus proxies and is deployed as a library on Oracle WebLogic Server using the `config.xml` file. In order to use the Oracle Service Bus control you need to include a library reference in the `weblogic-application.xml` file as follows: `<wls:library-ref> <wls:library-name>sb-transport-control-10.0</wls:library-name> <wls:specification-version>10.0</wls:specification-version> <wls:implementation-version>10.0</wls:implementation-version> </wls:library-ref>` The Application Upgrade supports the addition of this entry to the `weblogic-application.xml` file during upgrade from WLI 8.1.x, 8.5 x, 9.x, or 10.x to Oracle WebLogic Integration 10g Release 3 (10.3.1). This feature was introduced in WLI 10.2.
XMLBean and XQuery API Standards	WLI supports new standards for XMLBeans and XQuery APIs, as described in XMLBeans and XQuery Implementations.
Changes in Directory Structure	Oracle WebLogic Server offers the following enhancements to the structure of the WebLogic domain directory: To improve configuration management and promote XML file validation, Oracle WebLogic Server supports the specification of domain configuration data in multiple files, including `config.xml` in the new `domain_name/config` directory. (Here, `domain_name` specifies the domain directory.) In previous releases, the `config.xml` file was the repository for all configuration information. Now, new subdirectories of the config directory maintain configuration modules for diagnostic, JDBC, JMS, Node Manager, and security subsystems. Each configuration file adheres to an XML Schema definition. Startup and shutdown scripts are maintained in the `domain_name/bin` directory. In previous releases, they were stored in the root directory of the domain. In addition to the structural enhancements to the domain directory, Oracle WebLogic Server supports new utilities for managing changes to server configuration. These new tools enable you to implement a secure, predictable means for distributing configuration changes in a domain. For more information, see Understanding Domain Configuration.

Terminology Used in This Document

We recommend that, before proceeding, you familiarize yourself with the following terminology:

Compatibility—The capability of an application built using one release or service pack to run in another release or service pack, with or without rebuilding the application.
DTF—Data Transformation File. DTF files have an extension of .dtf and contain definitions of a data transformation that can be invoked from a JPD. From WLI 9.2, all .dtf files have a .java extension. For more information, see, Building Your First Data Transformation.
IDE—Integrated Development Environment. This refers to the Oracle Workshop for WebLogic development environment based on Eclipse, which is a development platform that blends open source and commercial software, and is standards-based.
Interoperability—(1) The capability of an application deployed in one release or service pack to communicate with another application that is deployed in a different release or service pack. (2) The capability of WebLogic components to communicate with third-party software via standard protocols.
JCS—Java Control Source file. JCS files have an extension of .jcs.

From WLI 9.2, all .jcs files have a .java extension.

JCX—Java Control Extension file. JCX files have an extension of .jcx.

From WLI 9.2, all .jcx files have a .java extension.

JPD—A Java Process defined in a Process Definition for a Java file. From WLI 9.2, all .jpd files have a .java extension.
JSR—A Java Specification Request. For more information, see http://jcp.org/en/jsr/overview. From WLI 9.2, all .jsr files have a .java extension.
Migrate—To move an application or domain configuration from a third-party product to a Oracle product.
Upgrade—To upgrade your JPD 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x source and related files to JPD 10g Release 3 (10.3.1) artifacts.
XQ—A short form for XQuery in some cases. XQuery files on Weblogic Platform have an extension of .xq. They contain only the XQuery. So, the term XQ could refer to the XQ file or the XQuery itself.

Upgrade Guide

Overview

Scope of this Document

The WLI Environment

What is the WLI Upgrade Process

What Impacts the Upgrade Process

Terminology Used in This Document