To test and publish on your server, you need
to define one or more of the following resources:
- A server
- A server runtime environment
If a server has server configuration files, in most situations,
these server configuration files are created for you automatically and contained
in a server project.
Server Project
A server
project contains servers and server configuration files. When a server
project is created automatically by the workbench, the name given to the project
is Servers and is available in the Project Explorer
view.
Server
A server identifies where you want to test or
publish your application. A server points to a specific runtime environment
such as a local test environment, a full installation of a server, or a server
on another machine. A server contains the logic of how to publish to the server;
and what application projects and configurations to run.
On
the workbench, when the metadata of the server is automatically created, it
is stored in a serverName.server file, where serverName is the
name assigned to the server. For details on the metadata of the server, refer
to the Displaying or hiding the metadata of the server link at the
bottom of this topic.
Server configurations
Server configurations are files that contain
information to set up and publish to a server. For example, these files may
include information about what port to run the server, security preferences
and other vendor-specific server settings.
On
the workbench, the metadata of the server configurations is automatically
created and stored in a configuration data folder under a server project.
The naming convention of the configuration data folder is dependant on the
vendor, typically it has the following convention: serverName@hostname-config,
where serverName is the name assigned to the server, and hostname is
the fully qualified DNS name or IP address of the host machine where the server
is running.
Server Runtime Environment
You
need to define the runtime environment of an application server for compiling
your application. A server contains a reference to a server runtime environment
it is currently using. For details on how to define a server runtime environment,
refer to the
Defining the server runtime environments preference link
at the bottom of this topic.
Relationship between the resources
For
each server, you can specify the server configuration and server runtime environment
that should be used for that server. A server can only point to one or no
server configuration. However, a server configuration can be pointed from
one or more servers.
A relationship between a server configuration and
an application project, for example an EAR project, is created when a project
is added to the server configuration. A server can point to one or more projects.
A project can be pointed from one or more server configurations.
