4 Building Applications in a Split Development Directory

Using includes and excludes Properties

More complex Enterprise applications may have compilation dependencies that are not automatically handled by the wlcompile task. However, you can use the include and exclude options to wlcompile to enforce your own dependencies. The includes and excludes properties accept the names of Enterprise Application modules—the names of subdirectories in the Enterprise application source directory—to include or exclude them from the compile stage.

The following line from the helloWorldEar sample shows the appStartup module being excluded from compilation:

<wlcompile srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${dest.dir}"
   excludes="appStartup"/>

wlcompile Ant Task Attributes

Table 4-1 contains Ant task attributes specific to wlcompile.

srcdir

destdir

classpath

includes

excludes

librarydir

Nested javac Options

The wlcompile Ant task can accept nested javac options to change the compile-time behavior. For example, the following wlcompile command ignores deprecation warnings and enables debugging:

<wlcompile srcdir="${mysrcdir}" destdir="${mybuilddir}">
   <javac deprecation="false" debug="true"
   debuglevel="lines,vars,source"/>
</wlcompile>

Setting the Classpath for Compiling Code

Most WebLogic services are based on Java EE standards and are accessed through standard Java EE packages. The Sun, WebLogic, and other Java classes required to compile programs that use WebLogic services are packaged in the weblogic.jar file in the lib directory of your WebLogic Server installation. In addition to weblogic.jar, include the following in your compiler's CLASSPATH:

• The lib\tools.jar file in the JDK directory, or other standard Java classes required by the Java Development Kit you use.

• The examples.property file for Apache Ant (for examples environment). This file is discussed in the WebLogic Server documentation on building examples using Ant located at: samples\server\examples\src\examples\examples.html

• Classes for third-party Java tools or services your programs import.

• Other application classes referenced by the programs you are compiling.

Library Element for wlcompile and wlappc

The library element is an optional element used to define the name and optional version information for a module that represents a shared Java EE library required for building an application, as described in Chapter 9, "Creating Shared Java EE Libraries and Optional Packages." The library element can be used with both wlcompile and wlappc, described in Building Modules and Applications Using wlappc.

The name and version information are specified as attributes to the library element, described in Table 4-2.

file

name

specificationversion

implementationversion

The format choices for both specificationversion and implementationversion are described in Referencing Shared Java EE Libraries in an Enterprise Application. The following output shows a sample library reference:

<library file="c:\mylibs\lib.jar" name="ReqLib" specificationversion="920" implementationversion="1.1" />

wlappc Ant Task Attributes

Table 4-3 describes Ant task options specific to wlappc. These options are similar to the weblogic.appc command-line options, but with a few differences.

Notes:

See weblogic.appc Reference for a list of weblogic.appc options.

See also Library Element for wlcompile and wlappc.

print

version

output <file>

forceGeneration

lineNumbers

writeInferredDescriptors

basicClientJar

idl

idlOverwrite

idlVerbose

idlNoValueTypes

idlNoAbstractInterfaces 

idlFactories

idlVisibroker

idlOrbix

idlDirectory <dir>

idlMethodSignatures <>

iiop

iiopDirectory <dir>

keepgenerated

librarydir

compiler <java.jdt>

debug

optimize

nowarn

verbose

deprecation

normi

runtimeflags

classpath <path>

clientJarOutputDir <dir>

advanced

wlappc Ant Task Syntax

The basic syntax for using the wlappc Ant task determines the destination source directory location. This directory contains the files to be compiled by wlappc.

<wlappc source="${dest.dir}" />

The following is an example of a wlappc Ant task command that invokes two options (idl and idlOrverWrite) from Table 4-3.

<wlappc source="${dest.dir}"idl="true" idlOrverWrite="true" />

Syntax Differences between appc and wlappc

There are some syntax differences between appc and wlappc. For appc, the presence of a flag in the command is a boolean. For wlappc, the presence of a flag in the command means that the argument is required.

To illustrate, the following are examples of the same command, the first being an appc command and the second being a wlappc command:

java weblogic.appc -idl foo.ear
<wlappc source="${dest.dir} idl="true"/>

weblogic.appc Reference

The following sections describe how to use the command-line version of the appc compiler. The weblogic.appc command-line compiler reports any warnings or errors encountered in the descriptors and compiles all of the relevant modules into an EAR file, which can be deployed to WebLogic Server.

weblogic.appc Syntax

Use the following syntax to run appc:

prompt>java weblogic.appc [options] <ear, jar, or war file or directory>

weblogic.appc Options

The following are the available appc options:

Option	Description
-print	Prints the standard usage message.
-version	Prints appc version information.
-output <file>	Specifies an alternate output archive or directory. If not set, the output is placed in the source archive or directory.
-forceGeneration	Forces generation of EJB and JSP classes. Without this flag, the classes may not be regenerated (if determined to be unnecessary).
-library <file[[@name=<string>][@libspecver=<version>][@libimplver=<version|string>]]>	A comma-separated list of shared Java EE libraries. Optional name and version string information must be specified in the format described in Referencing Shared Java EE Libraries in an Enterprise Application.
-writeInferredDescriptors	Specifies that the application or module contains deployment descriptors with annotation information.
-lineNumbers	Adds line numbers to generated class files to aid in debugging.
-basicClientJar	Does not include deployment descriptors in client JARs generated for EJBs.
-idl	Generates IDL for EJB remote interfaces.
-idlOverwrite	Always overwrites existing IDL files.
-idlVerbose	Displays verbose information for IDL generation.
-idlNoValueTypes	Does not generate valuetypes and the methods/attributes that contain them.
-idlNoAbstractInterfaces	Does not generate abstract interfaces and methods/attributes that contain them.
-idlFactories	Generates factory methods for valuetypes.
-idlVisibroker	Generates IDL somewhat compatible with Visibroker 4.5 C++.
-idlOrbix	Generates IDL somewhat compatible with Orbix 2000 2.0 C++.
-idlDirectory <dir>	Specifies the directory where IDL files will be created (default: target directory or JAR)
-idlMethodSignatures <>	Specifies the method signatures used to trigger IDL code generation.
-iiop	Generates CORBA stubs for EJBs.
-iiopDirectory <dir>	Specifies the directory where IIOP stub files will be written (default: target directory or JAR)
-keepgenerated	Keeps the generated .java files.
-compiler <javac>	Selects the Java compiler to use.
-g	Compiles debugging information into a class file.
-O	Compiles with optimization on.
-nowarn	Compiles without warnings.
-verbose	Compiles with verbose output.
-deprecation	Warns about deprecated calls.
-normi	Passes flags through to Symantec's sj.
-J<option>	Passes flags through to Java runtime.
-classpath <path>	Selects the classpath to use during compilation.
-clientJarOutputDir <dir>	Specifies a directory to place generated client jar files. If not set, generated jar files are placed into the same directory location where the JVM is running.
-advanced	Prints advanced usage options.