Workshop version 10.x provides functionality through which you can use the import wizard to upgrade version 8.1 applications. This wizard makes nearly all of the changes that upgrade a working version 8.1 application to a working version 10.x application. Because the differences between version 8.1 and version 10.x are many, there can be a lot of changes to make. The list of changes made, of course, omits those that would involve rewriting your code or making non-obvious assumptions about what you intend your application to do.
Note: Your version 8.1 application must have been upgraded to SP4, SP5, or SP6 before using the wizard.
Keep in mind that using the import wizard is usually only one part of the upgrade process. Depending on the technologies your application uses, you might find that some preparatory work makes an upgrade process that incorporates the wizard more efficient. Likewise, some work after using the wizard is likely to be needed to get your upgraded application compiling and running. For more at a high level on the upgrade process, see Overview: Upgrading from WebLogic Workshop 8.1.
Note: Due to a known issue with the Sun JVM in which JAR files become locked, when upgrading applications on the Windows operating system there might be intermittent cases when files are left behind in the temp directory after upgrade. If this occurs you should be able to delete the files by first closing the IDE.
Setting Wizard Defaults for Upgrade
You can set defaults for some of the wizard's prompts. This is useful if you intend to upgrade multiple applications with the same settings. Use the following steps to set upgrade defaults:
- In Workshop version 10.x, click Window > Preferences.
- In the Preferences dialog, in the left pane, expand WebLogic, then click Upgrade.
- Set defaults as needed, then click OK.
Note that the settings themselves are described in the import and upgrade procedure below.
Ensuring That the Wizard Has Enough Memory for Large Applications
Before using the import wizard to upgrade very large applications, consider temporarily increasing the maximum amount of memory that the Java Virtual Machine allows to Workshop. The upgrade process requires a compilation step that potentially includes a large number of files. The recommended maximum memory is 1 gigabyte.
You can increase maximum memory in the following way:
- Before starting the IDE, edit the IDE launcher initialization file
to replace the
-Xmxvalue with a sufficiently high memory maximum. By default, the launcher initialization file is located here:WORKSHOP_HOME/workshop.ini
For example, if the default setting is
-Xmx768m, then increase it to-Xmx1G(to set it to 1 gigabyte).(When upgrading using the command line, add JVM memory arguments, for example: java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m.)
After you've finished using the upgrade tools, set the memory maximum back to a level that's appropriate for development.
To Import and Upgrade a Version 8.1 Application
- If the files you're upgrading are in a source control system, check them out before running the wizard.
- Start Workshop version 10.x.
- Open or create the workspace that will be the destination for your upgraded files.
- Click File > Import
- In the Import dialog, select Other > Workshop 8.1 Application, then click Next.
- In the Workshop 8.1 Application Upgrade dialog, click the Browse button to locate the WORK file for the Workshop 8.1 application you want to upgrade.
- After you have selected the WORK file, note that the application's projects are listed with check boxes.
- In the project list, clear check boxes for projects you do not want to upgrade and import; ensure that check boxes are selected for desired projects.
While it is possible to deselect projects and so omit them from the upgrade, note that build and visibility dependencies between deselected projects and selected projects will be lost. You will need to manually reset these dependencies if you choose to upgrade the deselected projects at a later time.
- Under Source Upgrade, expand General, NetUI Project Upgrader Options, Properties file upgrade options, and JSP File Upgrader options to consider the following options for upgrade:
- Under General, select your preference for error handling and message verbosity. The following table lists the options:
Error handling options:
- Under NetUI Project Upgrader Options, select the Use WebLogic J2EE Shared Libraries check box to request that all upgraded projects in the application share a common set of runtime libraries.
- Under Properties file upgrader options, select the Delete copied resource bundle files... check box to have the upgrader remove unneeded resource bundle files from your upgraded project.
- Under JSP File Migrator Options, select the Replace NetUI tags... check
box to upgrade these version 8.1 JSP tags.
For important information about upgrade and JSP tags, be sure to read about upgrading JSP tags in Upgrading Page Flows before upgrading JSP tags. Many of the NetUI custom JSP tags that were part of WebLogic Workshop 8.1 were donated to the Apache Beehive open source project. The latest versions of these tags are now in the Beehive project. Select this check box to have the version 8.1 tags in your upgraded projects replaced with the current tags.
Setting Description Log errors but continue upgrade (default) Upgrade will proceed regardless of whether there are errors; errors will be logged. Log errors but abort upgrade Upgrade will be aborted if there are errors; errors will be logged. Display dialog on error The IDE will display a dialog on each upgrade error. Note that errors will still be written to the upgrade log. 
Message verbosity options:
Setting Description Include informational comments (default) Upgrade messages will include all three levels of comment severity: information, warnings, and errors. Include warning comments Upgrade messages will include the top two levels of comment severity: warnings and errors. Include error comments Upgrade messages will include only the most severe comments: errors. - Under General, select your preference for error handling and message verbosity. The following table lists the options:
- Click Next. Workshop will import and compile the application in order to display file-by-file upgrade status messages.
- If you are prompted with the Java license agreement, click I Agree or I Disagree. Note that clicking I Disagree aborts application upgrade.
- Under Upgrade Preview, note the list of included files and related upgrade messages. As noted in Viewing the Upgrade Log, you can expand the nodes in the dialog to view messages for each file. The messages here are also available in a log file after the wizard has done its work.
- After reviewing the messages, click Finish.