Directory Deployment

A directory containing an unpackaged application or module is sometimes called an exploded directory. To deploy a directory instead of an EAR, WAR, JAR, or RAR file, you can do one of the following:

• Use the Admin Console as described in The Admin Console Deployment Pages and enter a path to an exploded directory instead of a path to an archive file.

• Use the asadmin deploydir command. See the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server 2.1 Reference Manual. The asadmin deploydir command is available only on the default server instance.

The contents of the directory must match the contents of a corresponding Java EE archive file. For example, if you deploy a Web application from a directory, the contents of the directory must be the same as a corresponding WAR file. In addition, the directories holding the individual modules must be named with _jar, _war and _rar suffixes. For information about the required directory contents, see the appropriate specifications.

You can change the deployment descriptor files directly in the exploded directory. If your environment is configured to use dynamic reloading, you can also dynamically reload applications deployed from the directory. For more information, see Dynamic Reloading.

On Windows, if you are deploying a directory on a mapped drive, you must be running the Enterprise Server as the same user to which the mapped drive is assigned, or the Enterprise Server won’t see the directory.