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Deploying BEA WebLogic

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CIOL Bureau
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By: Sushil Oswal

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BEA WebLogic is a suite of tools for developing Web and J2EE-based applications.

There's a set of five tools, which can run on most versions of Windows and Linux distros. You need at least 1.1 GB of free disk space and at least 512 MB RAM on a system to run WebLogic. We installed it on Win XP with 512 MB Ram. But, ensure that you don't have any other application running while you install WebLogic. On a clean installation of Win XP, WebLogic takes about 15 minutes to install, but if other applications are running, then the installation can extend to half an hour or more. 

Installation



The starting point for any application on the WebLogic platform is a 'domain', which is a basic administration unit for the WebLogic server. The first step is to create a domain before an application is deployed. The WebLogic domain is not related to network domain. The configuration wizard has pre-defined domains that can be extended to create a domain for your application. A configuration template builder creates custom domains that become available in the configuration wizard. To create a domain for WebLogic Server using the configuration wizard do the following.

Direct Hit!
Applies to: Java developers
USP:

Set up the BEA products suite to develop enterprise apps
Links:

www.bea.com 
On PCQXtreme CD:

system\cdrom\ windows\weblogic-platform-8.1
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First, click on Start>Programs> BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1>Configuration Wizard. Select 'Create a new WebLogic configuration' and click on Next. Then under WebLogic Configuration Templates on the left-hand side, select 'Basic WebLogic Server Domain'. Click on Next. There will be two options for creating domain: express and custom. The express domain creates the domain with default settings (such as server port number) and the custom option allows configuring the domain settings according to your application need. For now select the 'express' option and click on Next. 

Give a username, password and description of the server. Click on Next. Two modes will be displayed on the left-hand side for starting the WebLogic Server, development and production. The production mode will always ask for a password when the WebLogic Server is started. The development mode does not ask for a password; it should be used when applications are developed. When the application is finally deployed, the production mode should be used as it offers better security features. We will select 'use the development mode' for domain creation. 

On the right-hand side, Java SDK selection has to be done. It will show a list of all Java SDKs installed on your machine. By default BEA installs jdk 1.42. The left-hand side will show the default server name (myserver) and its configuration details on the right-hand side. The default server name is created automatically when the domain is created using custom option. Give the name of domain beside 'Configuration Name' and click on Create. Note the path where the domain is created. Click on Done. 

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myserver domain logged in WebLogic admin server console

Starting the server 



You now need to start the server for the domain created. Click on Start>Programs>BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1>User Projects>'name of the domain'>Start Server. A command prompt will open, which configures the domain, and few messages will be displayed. The configuration takes some time and when command prompt displays , it means the domain is configured. This happens every time the server is started. To login into the server, go to http://localhost:7001/console. Enter the username and password created earlier. Click on Sign In and the WebLogic Server Administrator console will open. The WebLogic Server Administrator console is divided into three areas. The top gives the details of the domain; the left-side area enables to browse to the server configuration, deploy applications and so on; and the right side helps to configure the server. 

Deploying applications



Applications can be created either in WebLogic workshop or some other IDE such as Eclipse and Edit Plus. Once the application is created you need to create appropriate directories and place files in it according to J2EE specifications. A number of files specific to WebLogic platform have to be created for type of applications being developed. Once this is done, deploy the application in the domain created using the WebLogic Server Administrator console. 

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Stopping the server



Click on 'logout' in the upper area of the WebLogic server console to logout the domain. To stop the server, go to the domain foldercreated above. Double click on the 'stopWebLogic' script. A command prompt will open and stop the server. It is important that you close the server to free the computer resources for other applications. 

If you close the server and are still logged in the WebLogic server console, the console will not work. So ensure that the server is always running to work in the server console. 

Tools in WebLogic

We've given the BEA WebLogic 8.1 platform with SP4. It includes the following elements: 
  • WebLogic: Server is a full-featured application server, having a three-layered architecture viz. presentation, business and back end. It supports all the common industry standards such as Web services, J2EE, XML and SOAP. Plus, it provides services for applications such as security, database connectivity, load balancing and transaction management. 
  • WebLogic: Workshop is a full-featured development framework to build J2EE applications like EJBs, Web applications, etc. Flow charts can be made for business processes and it also enables connectivity to non-Java applications such as

    Microsoft.NET.
  • WebLogic: Portal enables you to build any kind of enterprise portals such as those for human resource management, e-commerce, supply chain management, etc. 
  • WebLogic: Integration is a framework for integrating various enterprise applications like ERP, CRM and databases that are running on different platforms. This tool also allows you to model complex business processes. 
  • WebLogic: JRockit is a high performance Java Virtual Machine that supports Intel 32 and Intel 64 architectures. Along with JRockit, jdk 1.42 also gets installed.

WebLogic Quick Start



Quick Start gives the option to learn different components of the platform and refer to online documents. To launch Quick Start click on Start>Programs>BEA Web Logic Platform 8.1>Quick Start. The help document does not get installed with the platform. You need to go online and download it. Quick Start has a link

for online document. 

Though the platform manages the entire aspect of the enterprise application, learning it takes time.

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