newbie question: ear's, war's, exploded directory

Posted: 7/31/2003 11:10:00 AM

java-programmer, newbie question: ear's, war's, exploded directory
"Greg Williams" <email***@***.com> wrote in message
news:wiVVa.3379$email***@***.com...
>
> Im a developer - new to java, but not to my company - working on a
> project with a brand new lead. One of the first things he did was
> change the way we deploy in our development environment (all our config
> and build files are in version control, so he controls the team's dev
> enviroments). Right now it takes me ~90 seconds to see a change on my
> web server after i've begun compiling (compile, build process, etc).
> I've confronted him about this and he just says: "java is different than
> CGI, you actually have to compile it." Sure, but from what i understand
> (what I've been reading, and have been hearing from friends with years
> of experience in j2ee) ear files are generally for deployment and not
> for development. one friend said he waits under 10 seconds to see his
> changes. I want to get started figuring out how to change weblogic's
> configuration and change the way ant build's (eventhough i have very
> limited experience in this technology). I just wanted to get some
> feedback before i began. Weblogic is on my computer, i assume that i
> want to configure it to use exploded directories. would i change my ant
> build file? would using ant take too long even with this? should i
> just develop and compile on the command line within the directory (where
> web logic is looking)?
>
> I have a technical background. So, if it is not possible to speed up my
> development - eventhough I'm no expert in java i think i'd understand a
> reasonable explaination (other than "java is different than CGI").

I've worked with both, and prefer exploded directories for development.
WebLogic allows them (although it isn't well documented) so unless your lead
is policing your directory structure, use them. If your lead is policing
your directory structure, find a better job.

If you write automated unit tests first you can avoid the app server
altogether for much of development.

Posted: 7/31/2003 9:03:00 PM

java-programmer >> newbie question: ear's, war's, exploded directory > First, you
> should probably be developing, debugging and testing on your local
> machine, or at least some "scratch" machine

I do develop on my own machine.

>this tends to mean, you do the compiling and bypass the deployment step

So ... you agree. i should develop from within the dir itself and just
compile from the command line (using ant?) every change i make.

>As a rule of thumb, there should be a daily build that generates the
>EAR files, WAR files, and what not.

but that is what im doing for everytime i make a small change, whether
it's a EJB or jsp i have to build and deploy (to the same machine) using
ant. Granted i can choose the target to deploy in ant (war or ejb jar)
but it still takes almost a minute to deploy the war (1 GHz machine with
512M)

>the build files checked into your version
> control system should reflect the daily build, not some convenient
> shortcut that you take during your day-to-day development

Right, im just talking about development. I feel like i should be
finishing these projects in half the time i am taking.

thanks for the input
-greg

Ingo Pakleppa - ingo at kkeane dot com wrote:
> Been there, done that. There are two sides to this discussion. First, you
> should probably be developing, debugging and testing on your local
> machine, or at least some "scratch" machine. On that machine, you should
> get to make the rules. In practical terms, this tends to mean, you do the
> compiling and bypass the deployment step.
>
> However, on integration, test and production machines, I agree with your
> lead. I have seen way too many projects go astray when somebody thought it
> was an easy matter of just replacing a few .class (or .jsp, .asp etc.)
> files here or there. It is way too easy to mess up. IIS is particularly
> prone to this problem because ASP does not have a comparable deployment
> mechanism.
>
> As a rule of thumb, there should be a daily build that generates the EAR
> files, WAR files, and what not.
>
> As another rule of thumb, the build files checked into your version
> control system should reflect the daily build, not some convenient
> shortcut that you take during your day-to-day development (even if that
> shortcut can be quite legitimate). Of course, it is also legit to have two
> sets of build files, one for creating the deployment, the other for
> developers. It can sometimes be tricky to keep the two in sync, though,
> but sometimes you may be able to make one a subset of the other.
>
> On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 15:43:49 -0400, Greg Williams wrote:
>
>
>
>>Im a developer - new to java, but not to my company - working on a
>>project with a brand new lead. One of the first things he did was
>>change the way we deploy in our development environment (all our config
>>and build files are in version control, so he controls the team's dev
>>enviroments). Right now it takes me ~90 seconds to see a change on my
>>web server after i've begun compiling (compile, build process, etc).
>>I've confronted him about this and he just says: "java is different than
>>CGI, you actually have to compile it." Sure, but from what i understand
>>(what I've been reading, and have been hearing from friends with years
>>of experience in j2ee) ear files are generally for deployment and not
>>for development. one friend said he waits under 10 seconds to see his
>>changes. I want to get started figuring out how to change weblogic's
>>configuration and change the way ant build's (eventhough i have very
>>limited experience in this technology). I just wanted to get some
>>feedback before i began. Weblogic is on my computer, i assume that i
>>want to configure it to use exploded directories. would i change my ant
>>build file? would using ant take too long even with this? should i
>>just develop and compile on the command line within the directory (where
>>web logic is looking)?
>>
>>I have a technical background. So, if it is not possible to speed up my
>>development - eventhough I'm no expert in java i think i'd understand a
>>reasonable explaination (other than "java is different than CGI").
>>
>>-greg
>
>