About Deployment Descriptors

Deployment descriptors are configuration files that are associated with projects and are deployed with J2EE applications. The deployment descriptors contain the declarative data required to deploy the components as well as the assembly instructions that describe how the components are composed into an application. The deployment descriptors a project requires depends on the technologies the project uses, and on the type of the target application server.

JDeveloper provides dialogs that can be used to inspect and set the properties of many deployment descriptors. They can also be created and edited as XML source files.

The essential descriptors are created by the wizards that create deployment profiles. Add other descriptors only if you wish to override default behavior. In some cases descriptors will be created and included in archive files as they are deployed.

Deployment descriptors can also be created from the the New Gallery. New deployment descriptors are placed in a META-INF subfolder of a projects Application Sources or Web Contents folders.

Warning: Avoid creating any deployment descriptors that apply to EAR files for more than one project in an application or workspace. These files are assigned to projects, but have workspace scope. If multiple projects in an application or workspace have the same deployment descriptor, the one belonging to the launched project will supersede the others. This restriction applies to application.xml, data-sources.xml, jazn-data.xml, and orion-application.xml .

The following deployment descriptors can be created through the

application.xml: The standard J2EE descriptor that names the application and a lists the J2EE modules (EJB, WAR, client JAR, and RAR) that comprise the application. This file is a manifest of all web modules that run under a given J2EE application. It points to each web module that is deployed. The file changes frequently as web modules are added or reconfigured. The name and location of the application.xml file is fixed by the J2EE standard. There is one file for each J2EE application.
application-client.xml: J2EE client module deployment descriptor.
data-sources.xml: An OC4J platform-specific descriptor that describes data sources (the JDBC driver implementation classes) installed on the application server. See About OC4J Data Sources.
ejb-jar.xml: The standard J2EE descriptor for EJB JAR modules.
jazn-data.xml: An OC4J platform-specific descriptor that specifies JAAS configuration.
jboss.xml: A JBoss platform-specific descriptor for EJB JAR modules.
orion-application.xml: An OC4J platform-specific descriptor containing deploy-time information for the OC4J application.
orion-application-client.xml: J2EE client module deployment descriptor for an OC4J deployment.
orion-ejb-jar.xml: An OC4J platform-specific descriptor for EJB JAR modules.
orion-web.xml: An OC4J platform-specific descriptor for web modules.
web.xml: The standard J2EE descriptor for web modules.
weblogic.xml: A WebLogic platform-specific descriptor for web modules.
weblogic-ejb-jar.xml: A WebLogic platform-specific descriptor for EJB JAR modules.