Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

464Chapter 20Open Source Web <strong>Application</strong> Servers20.5.4 IDE IntegrationAnother piece of software you might want to look at is JBoss-IDE, 15 an Eclipseplug-in for JBoss. The software is not downloadable from the footnoted Website, it is available only from the Eclipse Install/Update manager, so run yourcopy of Eclipse and install it. We will not cover JBoss-IDE here, but if you useEclipse as your development platform, JBoss-IDE is very useful for managingand deploying EJB’s, servlets, and JSP.20.6DISPOSITION OF FORCESNot to go all Sun-Tzu on you or anything, but if you want to win the war, youmust control the initiative. In other words, move only when you are ready.Deploying software into JBoss could not be easier if you get everything readybefore you begin.You see, the key is to create a correctly configured WAR file, as abuild.xml file from our project does (Example 20.6).If you look at the deploy task, you will see that it simply copies the WARfile to a particular directory under the Web server 16 and, it turns out, that is allyou need to do to deploy to JBoss. JBoss will notice the new WAR file, stopany existing version, and start the new one. It all depends on getting the WARfile right.20.7APACHE GERONIMOAn up-and-coming alternative to JBoss is Apache Geronimo. Part of the ApacheSoftware Foundation’s set of projects, Geronimo is an Open Source, Apachelicensed17 implementation of the J2EE specification. Furthermore, Geronimoaims to be an Open Source J2EE implementation that is J2EE-certified by15. http://www.jboss.org/developers/projects/jboss/jbosside16. Note that that’s normal for development. For integration and production, either someoneauthorized will run the same build on the target, or (more likely) the WAR file will be “formally”built, tagged, and copied to the test or production server. We’ll talk more about that whenwe get to application maintenance issues.17. Most notably, it doesn’t require anyone to open the source of their changes or customizationsif they improve on an Apache software project, unlike the GPL which does.