# LAB-7001: Using Eclipse to Develop for the GlassFish Server

Expected Duration: 60 minutes
Contacts:Davis Nguyen, Rochelle Raccah

Introduction | Exercise 0 | Exercise 1 | Exercise 2 | Summary
Introduction Background Information Steps to Follow Summary ## Exercise 1: Introduction to Eclipse GlassFish Tools (30 minutes) The goal of this exercise is to give you an overview of the integration of the GlassFish Server within the Eclipse IDE. You will also learn to inspect and configure Eclipse IDE preferences which affect all registered GlassFish servers in Eclipse. In this lesson we will learn to configure the GlassFish v3 prelude server, access the administration console, change the global server preferences, use the server help menu, connect to the default derby database, register the GlassFish server, and use the GlassFish server update center. ### Background Information #### Introduction to GlassFish Servers and GlassFish Eclipse Intergration GlassFish is an open source application server project led by Sun Microsystems for the Java EE platform. The commercial version is called Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server. GlassFish is based on source code donated by Sun and Oracle Corporation's TopLink persistence system. It uses a derivative of Apache Tomcat as the servlet container for serving Web content, with an added component called grizzly which uses Java NIO for scalability and speed. GlassFish Eclipse Integration consists of the GlassFish Eclipse Plugin which is also an open source project led by the Java Development Community. It allows IDE users to develop, deploy and run their Java EE applications by using the Eclipse IDE with GlassFish Servers v1, v2, v3 Prelude, v3 Enterprise (promoted build), Saifin v1 and Sun Application Server 8.1 and 8.2 (J2EE SDK Reference Implementation). ### Steps to Follow Step 1: Introduction to GlassFish Server Usage If the tools bundle is not already running, please start it. When Eclipse has started, close the Welcome page Click the Servers Tab. You should see Bundled GlassFish v2.1 and v3 Prelude Servers appear This tab shows the two GlassFish server entries that have been pre-configured to work with Eclipse. Each server has a popup menu for useful actions like "Start", "Debug", "View Log File", "Get Support...". Most of these actions are also available in the toolbar. Right-click the GlassFish v3 Prelude server node, then choose the GlassFish Enterprise Server submenu. The "GlassFish Enterprise Server" popup menu has entries that allow for quick access to the GlassFish Update Center UI, the registration page, the Java EE Blog Aquarium Web site, the administration console page and the log viewer for this application server. In order to access to the GlassFish Update Center UI, the registration page and the administration console page, you must start GlassFish server first. Step 2: Opening Server Configuration Editor Double-click on the Bundled GlassFish v3 Prelude node in the "Servers" view to open the server editor. You can examine and fine tune server parameters in this editor. For example, in the "Publishing" section, you can configure whether the GlassFish server performs an automatic redeployment of Web Application projects as soon as you save. This can be a servlet change or a JSP change, or any class or web artifact in this application. This feature is also called "Deploy on Save" and for most web applications, this is very fast (less than a second) with GlassFish v3 Prelude. By default for GlassFish v3 Prelude, the "Publishing" is setup to "Automatic" with a 0 second interval delay. If this is not the behavior you want, just select the "Never publish automatically" option and save your settings. Another setting in this editor is "Preserve Sessions Across Redeployment". We'll learn more about that feature in Exercise 2. Let's start the GlassFish v3 Prelude server by clicking on the green arrow "Start" button (or popup menu action). A server log file will be opened in the Eclipse console. You can use the "Display Selected Console" drop down menu to switch between consoles in Eclipse's console tab. This is especially useful when you have multiple servers running and would like to switch between their respective server logs. Once the server starts you should see the "Started" state and "Synchonized" status for this server. Step 3: GlassFish Server Global Preferences From the IDE Window menu, select the "Preferences" menu item to start the GlassFish server Preferences dialog. Note: on Mac OS, you should select the "Preferences" menu from the GlassFish menu Select the "GlassFish Preferences" node to modify the following flags: Enable GlassFish Plugin Log information in IDE log file This is more for the plugin debugging purpose than anything else. Turn on this option to see additional traces in the Eclipse log file specific to the GlassFish Plugin. This option is OFF by default. Start the JavaDB database process when Starting GlassFish Server GlassFish Server includes Java DB Database and this option allows you to start it automatically when the server is started. It is very convenient to do when you work with JPA applications. The options is ON by default. Start the GlassFish Enterprise Server in verbose mode (Eclipse console can be used) Using this flag will send all the output log of the Server inside the Eclipse console as well. This options is OFF by default as there is a GlassFish specific log view. Enable colored rendering in the GlassFish Log Viewer For color blind people, you can turn this option OFF. Otherwise, INFO level messages will be black, WARNING messages will be yellow, SEVERE messages will be red, and multiple line entries will be Italic. Let's select all GlassFish Server Preferences options and restart the server. Either click Restart in the server's right-click menu or <Ctrl-Alt-R"> to restart the v3 Prelude Server. Step 4: Viewing the GlassFish Administration Console To open the administration console, you can either choose "View Admin Console" from the GlassFish Enterprise Server popup menu on the GlassFish server node or click the GlassFish icon in the toolbar. Remember that the server must be running to use the administration console. The GlassFish administration console will be shown in the Eclipse embedded browser. For GlassFish v2.1 or v3 enterprise server, you need to provide login userName and password. Step 5: Connecting to the Sample JavaDB Database Click the Data Source Explorer tab 2. Right-click "Sample JavaDB Database" then select "Connect" menu. 3. Expand the "sun-appserv-samples" node to view the Schemas, then expand the "APP" node to view the sample database. If you expand the "Tables" node, you will see the sample tables in our database. We will use these tables in Exercise 2. 6. Accessing the GlassFish v3 Prelude Update Center from Eclipse Click the Servers tab double-click on "Bundled Glassfish v3 Prelude" to open the server editor page Click "GlassFish Update Center" tab Step 7: Registering your GlassFish installation In order to receive patch information and bug updates, screencasts and tutorials, support and training offerings and more... especially free samples, you should register your GlassFish servers. You can do that directly from your GlassFish Tools Bundle for Eclipse. From the Servers tab, you can either choose "Registering your GlassFish Server" from the GlassFish Enterprise Server popup menu on the GlassFish server node or click the "Bundle GlassFish v3 Prelude" icon in the toolbar. When the Product Registration page comes up, fill in your information then click the "Register" button. The first time you launch the GlassFish Tools Bundle for Eclipse, you will be asked to register. If you did not do so, you can always register by accessing this menu here. ### Summary In this exercise, we covered an overview of the GlassFish Server Usage menu, opening the GlassFish Server Configuration Editor, launching Administration Console, viewing Server Log, changing Server Global Preferences, connecting to the default JavaDB, and accessing the Update Center. In the next exercise you will learn to create some basic Java EE projects using the GlassFish v3 Prelude application server. Back to top Next exercise