arjan tijms wrote on 1/23/15 4:48 PM:
> Hi,
>
> On Sat, Jan 24, 2015 at 1:18 AM, Bill Shannon <bill.shannon_at_oracle.com> wrote:
>>
>> Once there's a module system in Java SE, what I'm expecting in Java EE is that we will define how to package an application composed of modules for deployment to a Java EE app server. And we'll define how to deploy "shared modules" for use for applications. We likely will also define the modules (names, version numbers, whatever) that the Java EE app server must appear to support, for use in dependency references from applications.
>
> My hope is that this module system for applications will be a more
> modern replacement for the existing EAR structure.
>
> While I think the separate EJB module was originally largely just a
> requirement side-effect since it was the only thing where EJB beans
> could exist, we currently use it to have a certain amount of layering
> in the application. Business code (not necessarily EJB beans) go into
> the EJB module(s), while web artifacts go into the Web/WAR module(s).
> If one extra layer is required we deploy multiple ears that logically
> all belong to a single application to an AS.
>
> I wonder if with modules in place the EAR structure would be largely
> unnecessary?
We'll likely need some sort of package to carry all the modules of an
application, along with any EE-specific metadata.
We'll need to decide whether a module-based application is a completely
separate thing from existing Java EE applications, or whether there's
some reasonable way to combine the existing application structure with
modules to allow an more gradual transition to a module-based application.
There are many interesting issues here to be explored in Java EE 9!