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Oracle® Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Java EE
11g Release 1 (11.1.1)
E10126-02
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4 Upgrading Your Java EE Applications

This chapter summarizes the general tasks you will likely need to perform when upgrading your OC4J applications and redeploying them on Oracle WebLogic Server.

This chapter contains the following sections:

4.1 Task 1: Verify that Your Application Deploys and Works Successfully on OC4J

Before you upgrade any Oracle Application Server 10g applications to Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, you should first make sure that the application is currently deployed and running successfully on Oracle Application Server 10g.

Also, make note of any application-specific configuration changes you performed to the OC4J instance where you deployed the application. For example, if the application requires any specific data sources, JMS servers, or other resources, you will need to make similar configuration changes to the Oracle WebLogic Server domain, as described later in this chapter.

4.2 Task 2: Select Your Development Tools

Refer to the following sections for information that can help you select the best tools for developing your Java EE applications for the Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Fusion Middleware platform:

4.2.1 General Guidelines for Selecting Your Development Tools

For Java EE applications that do not take advantage of Oracle technologies, such as the Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF), Oracle Metadata Services (MDS), Oracle SOA Suite, or Oracle WebCenter, you can make the code changes using any development tools you are accustomed to using.

However, if you want to use any Oracle technologies, Oracle recommends the use of Oracle JDeveloper, an integrated development environment (IDE) that makes it much easier and efficient to develop, test, and deploy ADF, SOA, and WebCenter applications for Oracle Fusion Middleware.

4.2.2 Using the SmartUpgrade Oracle JDeveloper Extension and Command-Line Tool

Besides offering the ability to easily develop applications that take advantage of Oracle techologies, such as Oracle ADF, Oracle SOA, and Oracle WebCenter, Oracle JDeveloper also provides an extension that can help you upgrade your OC4J applications to Oracle WebLogic Server.

The SmartUpgrade extension allows you to use Oracle JDeveloper to analyze an existing enterprise archive (EAR) file and generate a SmartUpgrade report that steps you through a series of "findings". Each finding provides advice for how to modfiy the applicatoin so you can successfully deploy it on Oracle WebLogic Server.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Fusion Middleware SmartUpgrade User's Guide.

4.3 Task 3: Verify That Your Application Supports Java Development Kit (JDK) 6

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g supports JDK SE 6. Before you redeploy your application on Oracle WebLogic Server, verify that the Java source code in your application is compatible with JDK 6.

For more information, refer to the resources available on the following Sun Microsystems Web site:

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/

4.4 Task 4: Upgrade the Application Deployment Descriptors

Both OC4J and Oracle WebLogic Server support not only the Java EE standard deployment descriptors, but also corresponding proprietary descriptors. However, when you redeploy an OC4J application on Oracle WebLogic Server, you must modify the application descriptors, such as application.xml and web.xml, to comply with the requirements of Oracle WebLogic Server.

Use the following sections to learn more about upgrading your application deployment descriptors:

4.4.1 Comparison of OC4J and Oracle WebLogic Server Deployment Descriptors

If you are familiar with the standard deployment descriptors and the OC4J-specific descriptors, you can use Table 4-1 to locate the equivalent deployment descriptor files in the Oracle WebLogic Server environment.

Table 4-1 J2EE, OC4J, and WebLogic Server Deployment Descriptors

J2EE Standard Descriptor OC4J Proprietary Descriptor WebLogic Proprietary Descriptor

application.xml

orion-application.xml

weblogic-application.xml

web.xml

orion-web.xml

weblogic.xml

ejb-jar.xml

orion-ejb-jar.xml

weblogic-ejb-jar.xml

application-client.xml

orion-application-client.xml

weblogic-appclient.xml

ra.xml

oc4j-ra.xml

weblogic-ra.xml

webservices.xml

oracle-webservices.xml

weblogic-webservices.xml


4.4.2 Guidelines and Resources for Upgrading Deployment Descriptors for Oracle WebLogic Server

To prepare your applications for WebLogic Server deployment, you must remove OC4J-specific deployment descriptors and replace them with their equivalent WebLogic Server specific settings.

For a successful deployment, examine each of the deployment descriptors and perform one the following actions for each deployment descriptor feature used by the application:

  • If the OC4J deployment descriptor feature has a direct mapping within the equivalent WebLogic Server specific deployment descriptor, then use the equivalent WebLogic Server descriptor with the appropriate elements and values.

  • If the OC4J deployment descriptor feature does not have a direct mapping, then review the appropriate Oracle WebLogic Server documentation.

    Features that are not directly mapped to Oracle WebLogic Server deployment descriptors can often be achieved by configuring the WebLogic domain accordingly.

Table 4-2 provides a list of documentation resources that will help you upgrade your deployment descriptors to Oracle WebLogic Server.

Table 4-2 Documentation Resources for Upgrading Deployment Descriptors to Oracle WebLogic Server

When upgrading to this WebLogic-Specific Deployment Descriptor... Refer to these documentation resources...

weblogic-application.xml

"Enterprise Application Deployment Descriptor Elements" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server

weblogic.xml

Appendix A, "orion-web.xml and orion-ejb-jar.xml Upgrade Reference" provides upgrade advice for each of the deployment descriptor elements in the orion-web.xml and orion-ejb.jar.xml files.

weblogic-ejb-jar.xml

Appendix A, "orion-web.xml and orion-ejb-jar.xml Upgrade Reference" provides upgrade advice for each of the deployment descriptor elements in the orion-web.xml and orion-ejb.jar.xml files.

weblogic-appclient.xml

"Client Application Deployment Descriptor Elements" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Programming Stand-alone Clients for Oracle WebLogic Server

weblogic-ra.xml

"Configuring the weblogic-ra.xml File" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Programming Resource Adapters for Oracle WebLogic Server

weblogic-webservices.xml

"WebLogic Web Service Deployment Descriptor Element Reference" in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Web Services Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server


4.4.3 About Security Elements in Deployment Descriptor Files

If you use the suggested procedures in Section 5.3.6, "Configuring Security on Oracle WebLogic Server", then the security configurations, including authentication methods, security constraints, and EJB method permissions, that are contained in standard Java EE application deployment descriptors, such as web.xml and ejb-jar.xml, can remain untouched for upgrade and will continue to function when the application is deployed to Oracle WebLogic Server.

For security configurations specified in OC4J specific descriptors (for example, security role mappings), see the WebLogic Server Security documentation to map each configuration to an element within the equivalent Oracle WebLogic Server deployment descriptor described in Section 4.4.1, "Comparison of OC4J and Oracle WebLogic Server Deployment Descriptors".

4.4.4 Upgrading Deployment Plans

Deployment plans are a standard Java EE server capability supported by both Oracle WebLogic Server and OC4J. However, deployment plans are not portable between application servers. When you upgrade from OC4J to Oracle WebLogic Server, you must regenerate and save your application deployment plans saved as part of the deployment process on Oracle WebLogic Server. Alternatively, you can construct new deployment plans using the weblogic.PlanGenerator command line tool.

For more information, see "Overview of weblogic.PlanGenerator" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server.

4.5 Task 5: Review Oracle WebLogic Server API Support

Before you can redeploy your Oracle Application Server 10g application on Oracle WebLogic Server, you must review your applications to identify the application programming interfaces referenced by the source code.

For more information, refer to the following sections:

4.5.1 APIs Available With the Java Required Files (JRF) Domain Template

Oracle Fusion Middleware11g provides an Oracle WebLogic Server domain template, referred to as the Oracle Java Required Files (JRF) template. You can use this template to create (or extend) an Oracle WebLogic Server domain. The resulting domain contains an updated version of some of the key capabilities and features of Oracle Application Server 10g.

For more information, see Section 5.1.4, "Using the Java Required Files (JRF) Domain Template".

Specifically, the JRF template enables support for the following Oracle Application Server features in Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g:

  • Dynamic Monitoring System (DMS)

  • Diagnostics and Logging Framework (ODL)

  • Oracle HTTP Client

  • Oracle Java Object Cache

  • Oracle XML

  • Oracle Security Developer Tools

  • Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS)

  • Oracle Globalization Development Kit

Applications that use these APIs can take advantage of a JRF-extended domain and will not require any modification beyond those necessary as a result of potential updates to the APIs.

For more information, see Chapter 5, "Upgrading Your Java EE Environment".

4.5.2 Other Oracle WebLogic Server API Requirements

Table 4-3 provide a summary of additional Oracle Application Server 10g APIs and a summary of how they are affected by an upgrade to Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g.

Table 4-3 Other API Changes for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g

API Description and Actions Required More Information

Oracle JAZN (Java Authorization)

The JRF domain template provided with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g provides an updated and equivalent set of features provided by the Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS) API.

Applications that currently use the Oracle JAZN API for security management must be updated to use OPSS so that they can be deployed to a JRF-extended Oracle WebLogic Server domain as part of the upgrade.

"Introduction to Oracle Platform Security Services" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide

Oracle TopLink

You can continue to use Oracle Toplink by ensuring that the target Oracle WebLogic Server domain is configured to use Oracle TopLink as the JPA persistence provider.

Oracle WebLogic Server is certified by Oracle to fully support Oracle TopLink.

"Integrating TopLink with Oracle WebLogic Server" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle TopLink

Oracle JSP Tag Libraries (ojsputil.jar, jstl.jar)

You can continue to use these tag libraries by ensuring that the Oracle Application Server 10g TLD and JAR files associated with the Oracle JSP tag libraries remain (or if not already there, are placed) in the following directories of the WAR file:

  • WEB-INF/tld

  • WEB-INF/lib

Not applicable.

Oracle Web Cache Invalidation

The Web Cache Invalidation API can continue to be used by ensuring that the appropriate OracleAS 10g jar file is available to the application when deployed to WebLogic Server.

An updated, but fully backward compatible, version of this API is also available in as part of the JRF domain template.

Section 4.5.1, "APIs Available With the Java Required Files (JRF) Domain Template"


OracleAS Web Services

Oracle Web Services Proxy

Oracle Web Services SOAP

Oracle Web Services UDDI Client

Any application using OracleAS Web Services will require modification to use the equivalent set of Oracle Fusion Middleware or WebLogic Server APIs and features. More specifically:

  • Applications using the OracleAS Web Services, Oracle Web Services Proxy, or Oracle Web Services SOAP API must be modified to use the standard based (JAX-RPC or JAX-WS) Web Services APIs of WebLogic Server.

  • Applications using the Oracle Web Services UDDI Client API must be modified to use the UDDI v1, v2, or v3 compliant Oracle Service Registry UDDI client API.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Introducing WebLogic Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server


OC4J Job Scheduler

Oracle provides an upgrade and migration path for the OC4J Job Scheduler to the Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Scheduler (ESS).

Oracle Ultra Search vs Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, Frequently Asked Questions, which is available in PDF format on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

OC4J Support for JSP

Any application using this API will require modification to use the equivalent set of Java Standard Tag Library (JSTL) tags.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Web Applications, Servlets, and JSPs for Oracle WebLogic Server


OC4J JMX MBeans

Any application using the OC4J JMX MBeans directly for application and environment management purposes will require modification to use the equivalent set of WebLogic Server JMX MBeans.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Manageable Applications With JMX for Oracle WebLogic Server



4.6 Task 6: Upgrade the Application Web Services

To upgrade your Web services from OC4J to Oracle WebLogic Server, refer to the following sections:

4.6.1 General Guidelines for Upgrading to Oracle WebLogic Server JAX-RPC and JAX-WS Web Services

In general, to upgrade your Web services from OC4J to Oracle WebLogic Server, you must upgrade your application to use the equivalent Java Web services API on WebLogic Server:

  • For most OC4J Web services applications, this means upgrading from OC4J JAX-RPC Web services to Oracle WebLogic Server JAX-RPC Web services. In general, the JAX-RPC upgrade process consists of re-generating the Java artifacts on Oracle WebLogic Server to the identical underlying Java business logic using Oracle WebLogic Server Web services tooling.

  • If you are using an older release of OC4J, where Web services standards did not exist within Java EE, Oracle recommends that you upgrade to the Java EE 5.0 standard JAX-WS on Oracle WebLogic Server.

For more information, see:

  • "How Do I Choose Between JAX-WS and JAX-RPC?" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Introducing WebLogic Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

4.6.2 Generating Oracle WebLogic Server Web Services From an OC4J WSDL

For absolute fidelity to a specific OC4J Web services public API (its WDSL), you also can regenerate the Web services on WebLogic Server from the OC4J WSDL and deploy the resulting Web service on WebLogic Server. This process is referred to as the "top-down" approach to developing Web services.

After producing the equivalent and deployable Web service artifacts on Oracle WebLogic Server, you can then apply the equivalent quality of service (QOS) capabilities, such as WS-Security and WS-ReliableMessaging as a secondary administrative operation.

4.6.3 Web Services Specifications Supported by OC4J and Oracle WebLogic Server

Table 4-4 compares the Web services standard specifications supported by OC4J and Oracle WebLogic Server. Note that Oracle WebLogic Server supports all of the Web services standards and specifications supported by OC4J, except for WS-Reliability.

Table 4-4 Web Services Specifications Supported by OC4J and Oracle WebLogic Server

Web Services Specification OC4J Support Oracle WebLogic Server Support

SOAP 1.1 and 1.2

Yes

Yes

WSDL 1.1

Yes

Yes

WS-I 1.0 and 1.1

Yes

Yes

XML Signature

Yes

Yes

XML Encryption

Yes

Yes

SAML

Yes

Yes

WS-Addressing

Yes

Yes

WS-Security

Yes

Yes

WS-Reliability

Yes

No

WS-SecurePolicy

No

Yes

WS-Policy

No

Yes

WS-PolicyAttachment

No

Yes

WS-Trust

No

Yes

WS-Conversation

No

Yes

WS-SecureConversation

No

Yes

WS-ReliableMessaging

No

Yes