Deployable Application Types

You can deploy several different types of enterprise applications in JBoss AS :

• The  WAR   application archive (e.g.,   myapp.war ) packages a Java EE web application in a  JAR file. It contains   servlet   classes, view pages, libraries, and deployment descriptors such  as web.xml, faces-config.xml, and jboss-web.xml etc..

• The  EAR   application archive (e.g., myapp.ear) packages a Java EE enterprise application in  a JAR file. It typically contains a WAR file for the web module, JAR files for EJB modules, as  well as deployment descriptors such as application.xml and jboss-app.xml etc..

• The  SAR   application archive (e.g., myservice.sar) packages a   JBoss   service in a JAR file. It is  mostly used by   JBoss   internal services. Please see more in   Chapter 3, The   JBoss   JMX  Microkernel .

• The *- ds.xml   file defines connections to external databases. The data source can then be  reused by all applications and services in   JBoss   AS via the internal JNDI.

• You can deploy XML files with   MBean   service definitions . If you have the appropriate JAR  files available in the deploy or lib directories,  the MBeans   specified in the XML files will be  started. This is the way how you start many   JBoss   AS internal services, such  as  the  JMS  queues.

• You can also deploy  JAR   files containing EJBs or other service objects directly in   JBoss   AS. 

 

Exploded Deployment

The WAR, EAR, and SAR deployment packages are really just JAR files with  special XML deployment descriptors in directories like META-INF and WEB-INF.  JBoss   AS allows you to deploy those archives as expanded directories instead of  JAR files. That allows you to make changes to web pages etc on the fly without  re-deploying the entire application. If you do need to re-deploy the exploded  directory without re-start the server, you can just "touch" the deployment  descriptors (e.g., the WEB-INF/web.xml in a WAR and the  META-INF/application.xml in an EAR) to update their timestamps.