Related Documentation New and Changed Features in This Release

Introduction and Roadmap 1-3 ■ application version—A string value that identifies the version of a deployed application. Compatible applications that use version strings can use the WebLogic Server production redeployment strategy. ■ deployment configuration—The process of defining the deployment descriptor values required to deploy an application to a particular WebLogic Server domain. The deployment configuration for an application or module is stored in three types of XML document: J2EE deployment descriptors, WebLogic Server descriptors, and WebLogic Server deployment plans. ■ deployment descriptor—An XML document used to define the J2EE behavior or WebLogic Server configuration of an application or module at deployment time. ■ deployment plan—An XML document used to define an applications WebLogic Server deployment configuration for a specific WebLogic Server environment, such as development, test, or production. A deployment plan resides outside of an applications archive file and contains deployment properties which override an applications existing WebLogic Server deployment descriptors. Use deployment plans to easily change an applications WebLogic Server configuration for a specific environment without modifying existing deployment descriptors. Multiple deployment plans can be used to reconfigure a single application for deployment to multiple, differing WebLogic Server environments. ■ distribution—The process by which WebLogic Server copies deployment source files to target servers for deployment. ■ production redeployment—A WebLogic Server redeployment strategy that deploys a new version of a production application alongside an older version, while automatically managing HTTP connections to ensure uninterrupted client access. ■ staging mode—The method WebLogic Server uses to make deployment files available to target servers in a domain. Staging modes determine whether or not files are distributed copied to target servers before deployment.

1.5 Related Documentation

For additional information about deploying applications and modules to WebLogic Server, see these documents: ■ Understanding the WebLogic Deployment API describes the WebLogic Server deployment API, which implements and extends the Java EE 5 specification. All WebLogic Server deployment tools use this API. ■ Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server describes how to deploy applications during development using the wldeploy Ant task, and provides information about the WebLogic Server deployment descriptor for Enterprise applications. ■ The WebLogic Server J2EE programming guides describe the J2EE and WebLogic Server deployment descriptors used with each J2EE application and module: – Developing Web Applications, Servlets, and JSPs for Oracle WebLogic Server – Programming WebLogic Enterprise JavaBeans for Oracle WebLogic Server – Programming Resource Adapters for Oracle WebLogic Server – Getting Started With JAX-WS Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server – Programming Deployment for Oracle WebLogic Server 1-4 Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server ■ Programming JDBC for Oracle WebLogic Server describes the XML deployment descriptors for JDBC application modules. ■ Programming JMS for Oracle WebLogic Server describes the XML deployment descriptors for JMS application modules.

1.6 New and Changed Features in This Release

Now you can use an Apache Maven plug-in for WebLogic Server weblogic-maven-plugin to perform deployment operations similar to those supported by the command-line utility, weblogic.Deployer. For more information, see Section C, Using the WebLogic Maven Plug-In for Deployment. For a comprehensive listing of the new WebLogic Server features introduced in this release, see Whats New in Oracle WebLogic Server. 2 Understanding WebLogic Server Deployment 2-1 2 Understanding WebLogic Server Deployment The following sections provide an overview of WebLogic Server deployment: ■ Section 2.1, Overview of the Deployment Process