WTP Tutorials - Deploy Web Applications to the Oracle Application Server

Summary
This tutorial will step you through the details of deploying a Web Application to the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J).

By Raghu Srinivasan, Oracle Corporation.
October 27, 2005

Introduction

The Eclipse Web Tools Platform project release 1.0 M8 has added support for deploying Web Applications to the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J). This tutorial will step you through the details of installing and configuring the Oracle Application Server Container for J2EE (OC4J) and deploying a Web Applications from the Eclipse Web Tools Platform to the Oracle Application Server.

Getting Started

This section will walk you through the software that you need to download, install and configure. Following is the list of software you will need to install:

• Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition(J2SE) 1.4
• Eclipse and WTP
• Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition(J2SE) 1.4

You must first install the Jaav2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.4.2. You can get the latest release of J2SE 1.4.2 from the Sun's web site.. Install the JDK.

Make a note of the folder in which you install J2SE. This will be required later in the tutorial.

Eclipse and WTP

You need to download and install the WTP 1.0 release build. Download the WTP all-in-one package. It includes the complete set of software to start using wtp immediately.

Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J)

And finally, you need to download, install and configure the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J). The server adapter in the WTP 1.0 release is certified for the OC4J 10g (10.1.3.0.0) release.

The Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J) zip distribution provides a complete J2EE 1.4 server environment, distributed as a simple zip file. You can download the server from the Oracle download site.

Extract OC4J

Extract the oc4j_extended_101300.zip file using any archive utility which handles zip files, including the jar utility in the J2SE.

Initialize OC4J

You need to start the OC4J instance once to set the password for the OC4J administrator account. The username for this account defaults to "oc4jadmin". Set the following environment variables:

• JAVA_HOME: Directory where J2SE was installed
• ORACLE_HOME: Directory where oc4j_extended_101300.zip was extracted.

• JAVA_HOME=C:\j2sdk1.4.2_09
• ORACLE_HOME=C:\Oracle\oc4j

• oc4j -start

Make a note of the password.

• Starting OC4J from C:\Oracle\oc4j\j2ee\home ...
• 05/10/20 14:09:58 Set OC4J administrator's password (password text will not be displayed as it is entered)
• Enter password:
• Confirm password:
• Confirm password: The password for OC4J administrator "oc4jadmin" has been set.
• 05/10/20 14:10:41 The OC4J administrator "oc4jadmin" account is activated.
• 05/10/20 14:10:51 Oracle Containers for J2EE 10g (10.1.3.0.0) -Developer Preview 4 initialized

• oc4j -shutdown -port 23791 -password admin password

The following information will be required in the later part of this tutorial

• User name of the OC4J administrator account is oc4jadmin.
• The password for the administrator account.

Run a Web Application on the Oracle Application Server

In this section you will build a simple JSP Web Application, deploy and run it on the Oracle Application Server. Following is the list of tasks:

• Create a server
• Build a JSP Web Application
• Deploy and Run the Web Application

Create a Server

Launch Eclipse.
Open the J2EE perspective; select Window > Open Perspective > Other menu and in the resulting dialog, choose J2EE. The J2EE perspective includes the Servers view, which is the focus for the rest of the tutorial.
You will also need the Console view to see the output of the Server. Select Window > Show View > Console menu.

From a command prompt, you can launch Eclipse using the following command:
$EclipseInstallFolder\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm "$J2SEInstallFolder\bin\javaw.exe" -clean -data "$WorkspaceFolder"
where $EclipseInstallFolder is folder where you installed Eclipse and $WorkspaceFolder is where you want to create new or access an existing Eclipse workspace.

Figure 1 shows the Eclipse Workbench displaying the J2EE perspective. Note the Servers view and the Console view.

Figure 1. The Eclipse Workbench with the Servers view and the Console view.

Register the JDK you installed with Eclipse.

• Open Windows>Preferences.
• Select Java>Installed Runtimes.
• Select the Add button and in the resulting dialog, add the JDK you installed above.

Next you register the Oracle Application Server runtime and create a server.
Right-click in the Servers View and select New > Server menu. This launches the New Server wizard.

Figure 2 shows the New Server Wizard with the Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 Runtime selected.

Figure 2. The New Server Wizard

1. In the Define a New Server panel, Select Oracle > Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone Server 10.1.3 DP4. Click Next.
2. In the Define a new Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 Runtime panel,
   • For JRE, select the JDK you registered above.
   • For Oracle J2EE Home, browse to the subdirectory j2ee\home in the folder where you installed the Oracle Application Server. Click Next.

   Figure 3 shows the panel to register the Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 Runtime.

   Figure 3. Register the Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 Runtime
   

3. In the Create a new Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 server panel,
   • Set the password to the password for the administrator account you created during the Oracle Application Server install.
   • Accept the defaults for all the other fields. Click Finish.

Figure 4 shows the Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 Preview server in the Servers view.

Build a JSP Web Application

You will now build a simple JSP application that you will then run on the server. The Eclipse WTP web site has a several tutorials that can help you build sophisticated applications using the WTP tools.

The first step to build a JSP application is to create a Dynamic Web Project.

• From the ProjectExplorer view, right-click on the Dynamic Web Projects folder and select New Dynamic Web Project menu.
• Enter a name for the project, say, DemoOC4J.
• Click on the button, ShowAdvanced.
• Note that the Target runtime field is pre-populated with the entry for OC4J: Generic Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4.
• Accept the default values for all the fields in this dialog. Click Finish.

Next, you will create a JSP page.

• Open the Dynamic Web projects folder. Expand the project you created to the WebContent folder.
• Right-click on the WebContent folder and select New JSP menu.
• Enter a name for the file, say, index.jsp. Click Finish.
• The file is opened in a JSP Editor. Enter the text between the body tags:

•  <% out.print("Hello World!!"); %>

• Save the file.

Deploy and Run the Web Application

Right-click on the jsp file, index.jsp, in the ProjectExplorer. Select Run As > Run on Server menu.
In the Run On Server dialog, ensure that the server, Oracle OC4J Standalone Server v10.1.3 DP4 Preview, is selected. Click on Finish.
The Eclipse WTP tool will now do the following:

• Package the Web Application
• Start the server if it is not running
• Publish the Web Application to the Server
• Launch the application in a browser

Figure 5 shows the application running on Oracle OC4J Standalone 10.1.3 DP4 Preview server.

Conclusion

In this tutorial you have learned to configure the Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project to deploy and run a web application on the Oracle Application Server. The WTP web site has articles and tutorials that explain the numerous tools provided in WTP to help you build and deploy web applications. The Oracle web site has extensive resources to help you explore the capabilities of the Oracle Application Server.

References

1. WTP Articles and Tutorial.
2. Oracle Application Server.