1. JBOSS Application Server
By Dilek Karada
09/05/2010

2. PLAN
Application server definition
Application server architecture
Java application servers
Advantages of application servers
Jboss application server
Jboss installation
Jboss management
Jboss shut down
Deployment
Run application
Modify deployed application
Undeploy

3. Application Server Definition
An application server is a server program in a computer in a distributednetwork that provides the business logic for an application program.
In a two-tier client/server environment, which is most common, the user's machine performs the business logic as well as the user interface, and the server provides the databaseprocessing.
In a three-tier client/server environment, an application server provides middle tier processing between the user's machine and the database management system (DBMS).

4. Application Server Architecture

5. Java Application Servers
Some of the better-known Java Enterprise Edition application servers include:
Apache Geronimo (Apache Software Foundation)
Apache Tomcat (Apache Software Foundation)
Glassfish Application Server (Oracle Corporation)
WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (IBM)
JBoss (Red Hat)
Jetty (Eclipse Foundation)
JRun (Adobe Systems)
Oracle OC4J (Oracle)
WebLogic Server (Oracle)
SAP Netweaver AS (ABAP/Java) (SAP)
tc Server (SpringSource)
Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server (based on GlassFish Application Server) (Oracle Corporation)
Sybase Enterprise Application Server (Sybase Inc)
Tcat Server (MuleSoft)
WebObjects (Apple Inc.)
JEUS (Tmaxsoft Inc.)

6. Advantages of Application Servers
Dataand codeintegrity: no risk of old versions of the application accessing or manipulating data in an older, incompatible manner.
Centralized configuration: changes to the application configuration, such as a move of database server, or system settings, can take place centrally.
Security: acentral point through which service-providers can manage access to data and portions of the application itself counts as a security benefit, devolving responsibility for authentication away from the potentially insecure client layer without exposing the database layer.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): in combination, the benefits above may result in cost savings to an organization developing enterprise applications.
Transaction Support:atransaction represents a unit of activity in which many updates to resources (on the same or distributed data sources) can be made atomic (as an indivisible unit of work). End-users can benefit from a system-wide standard behavior, from reduced time to develop, and from reduced costs. As the server does a lot of the tedious code-generation, developers can focus on business logic.

7. JBoss Application Server
JBoss Application Server is the #1 most widely used Java application server on the market.
Because it is Java-based, the JBoss application server operates cross-platform: usable on any operating system that supports Java.
JBoss AS was developed by JBoss, now a division of Red Hat.

8. Jboss Application Server Installation
First install Java 1.4 or Java 1.5 on your machine.
Get Jboss from Jboss download page http://www.jboss.org/downloads/index
Download archive file of Jboss for the version that you want to install.
Extract Jboss archive to the location that you want to install your Jboss application server.
You are now ready to start your jboss server by running run.bat file in the bindirectory of the jboss server.
Port 8080 should be available on your machine, otherwise you need to change port configuration of the server.
After start up finishes visit http://localhost:8080/ to be sure that your server is up and running.

9. Jboss Application Server Management
JMX Console:JBoss application server provides a management application that lets you see and manage the services that are deployed and running inside the server.
Console location:
http://localhost:8080/jmx-console
When you are there,
you will see that page:

10. Jboss Application Server Shutting Down
Three possible ways to shut down the server:
Use the JMX Console to go to the jboss.system domain and choose the type=Server MBean link. On the MBean page, scroll down to the operations section and click the "Invoke" button for the shutdown( ) operation.
Run the shutdown script for your platform in the same directory where you found the run script.
Type Ctrl-c in the same console window where you started JBoss.
When JBoss is stopped, you'll see the following message:
03:50:02,412 INFO [Server] Shutdown complete

11. Jboss Application Server Configuration
JBoss provides several different configurations that range from a barebones server with no J2EE capabilities to a superserver with more services than any single application could possibly use.
Minimal: This configuration provides the bare services you might need in the simplest application: logging, JNDI naming services, and URL deployment scanning. This configuration doesn't provide support for EJBs, web applications, JMS, or any other high-level services.
Default: This is a lightweight J2EE configuration; it's the one most people use. It provides most of the common J2EE services, but it doesn't include IIOP, JAXR, or clustering services, for example. These services can be added easily to this configuration.
All: This configuration includes everything in JBoss. If you need any extra services not provided in the default configuration, this is the place to start. It's often easier to start from the all configuration and take out unwanted services than to start with the default configuration and add the desired services.
You specify a particular configuration using the -c command to the run script. To run the minimal configuration, for example, use -c minimal.

12. Jboss Application Server Deployment
Ant: Ant is a build tool made with Java in mind, allowing Java developers to have a tool that fits with the Java environment and mentality. It is an expandable, open source tool that is constantly being upgraded and extended to support the latest Java standards.
Go to page http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi and download a binary distribution of Ant.
Unpack the distribution to your local machine.
Set the ANT_HOME environment variable to point at the directory in which you unpacked Ant.

• You can do a quick check to see if Ant is working by typing antversionon the command line. You should see something like this:

ant -version
Apache Ant version 1.6.2 compiled on July 16 2004

13. Jboss Application Server Deployment
Create and package the application:
Package= WAR file
WAR file structure:

14. Jboss Application Server Deployment
Some important files for WAR:
Web.xml: describes the web application and how the web container will deploy the application.
Example:



QuoteServlet
/quote.jsp


QuoteServlet
/quote

15. Jboss Application Server Deployment
build.xml: pulls together all the stuff for our application, and makes the WAR file. It also has tasks for deploying, undeploying and cleaning.
Example:

16. Jboss Application Server Running the Application
Access to the application through Url:
The path to use in the URL is based on the WAR file's name and the url-pattern from the servlet-mapping section in the web.xmlfile.
http://hostName:port/application WarName/ServletName
When you went to the URL for the application, the application compiled and created a servlet based on what is specified in the servlet section of the web.xml file. Then JBoss deployed that servlet and created a mapping based on the servlet-mapping section of the web.xmlfile. Again, the URL is based on the WAR filename created by the build (look in build.xml) and the URL pattern mapping in the web.xml file.

17. Jboss Application Server Modifying deployed application
You are able to modify jsps and static contents withhout the need for redeployment.
You are not able modify deployment descriptor files without the need for redeployment.

18. Jboss Application ServerUndeployment
Two ways to do that:
Delete war file under deploy directory of Jboss server.
Run undeploy ant target of the build.xml file.

19. Thanks..Questions??
For further reading on advanced topics,
you can refer to
JBoss: A Developer'sNotebook
By SamGriffith,
NormanRichards
O'Reilly