Managing Servers

When you install Workshop for WebLogic, a copy of WebLogic Server is installed on your computer. You can then do iterative development by running your application(s) on this local server. However the server and the files that you deploy to the server must be managed to prevent server conflicts and unexpected behavior.

Overview of Server Management Tasks

Do Once for Each Workspace:

Create a server definition in the IDE. A server is simply a link/pointer to your server (the domain on the local WebLogic Server). You may need multiple servers if you need to deploy applications with different server settings. But all servers that point to a domain are, in effect, the same server.

If you define more than one server on a single domain, you must not run the servers simultaneously because servers typically use the same port number and requests to different servers on the same port will result in unpredictable behavior.

Do Each Time you Switch Workspaces

Clear duplicate project/modules from the server.The Run/Debug commands make a pointer to your projects on the server. This pointer persists on the server, and must be managed for best performance. When you begin to work on a different application, old projects (which became J2EE modules on deployment to the server) with duplicate names must be removed.

Do to Speed Up Testing

Manage the projects that are deployed to the server. To enhance testing performance, you can choose to limit the projects that are deployed to the server.

Creating a Server Definition in the IDE

To create a new server definition to use within the IDE, see the topic Setting up Servers for Use Within the IDE.

Each server definition within a domain uses the same default port number and address. New server definitions will retain any deployed projects. Deleting a server definition and creating a new one does not clear deployed projects from the remaining server definitions.

Note that defining a second servers in a single domain creates by default, another server with the same port number. If you have two servers defined, you should not run your applications on both at the same time, since the servers will experience conflicts and produce unpredictable results.

Note also that projects that have been deployed in the past may remain on the server until undeployed. Running new applications on the server may result in conflicts if the new applications include projects with the same names as projects in previous applications. To prevent conflicts, you may want to create different domains for servers that will be used for testing different enterprise applications.

Undeploying Previously Deployed Projects

To undeploy previously deployed projects from a server see the topic Adding and Removing Projects from the Server.

Stopping and restarting the server does not remove application files. Opening a new workspace and defining a new server does not remove application files.

Managing the Projects that are Deployed

From the Servers view, expand the name of your server. The projects from the current workspace that are associated with this server will be displayed. This is not an indication that the projects are actually deployed to the server, simply that they are associated with the server.

If you right click on the server, you can click Add and Remove Projects to dissociate a project from the server and prevent it from being automatically deployed when the application runs.

Note that only open projects are deployed. You can close a project by clicking on the project folder name in the Navigator or Package Explorer view and then click Project > Close Project. The project folder icon will change to to indicate that the project is now closed. Closed projects are not deployed. Note that if the project was deployed before it was closed, it will remain on the server unless you undeploy it.

You can also use the working sets feature of Eclipse to specify a collection of projects/applications to be deployed as a set. You can get information on working sets from the help system by clicking Help > Help Contents and choosing Workbench User Guide.

If you delete projects from your current application, those projects will remain on the server and must also be removed manually.