Testing and publishing on your server

The testing and publishing tools provides runtime environments where you can test JSP files, servlets, HTML files, web services, enterprise beans, Java™™ Persistence API, Java classes and many more artifacts.

You can use the workbench to test and publish resources from many types of projects, here are examples:

  • Dynamic Web projects, which typically contain JSP files, HTML files, servlets, and JavaBeans
  • Static Web projects, which typically contain HTML files and graphic files
  • Enterprise Applications projects, which may contain Java Archive (JAR) files or Web Archive (WAR) files or both, and pointers to other Web or EJB projects
  • EJB projects, which contain enterprise beans
  • Application client projects

After testing your application, you can use the tools to publish the application.

Server Definitions

The workbench defines servers to test and publish your projects. Servers are definitions that identify where you want to test your projects. You can either have the development environment create the servers automatically for you, or you can create them using the New Server wizard (right-click in the Servers view and select New > Server).

Compatible Application Servers

The Version 8.5 release of IBM® WebSphere® Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse introduces support for WebSphere Application Server Liberty. The Liberty server is a lightweight profile of the application server for web, Web 2.0, mobile, and OSGi applications. The Liberty server is a highly composable, fast to start, ultra lightweight profile of the application server that is optimized for developer productivity and smaller, simpler production server deployments. Use this server when you are building applications that do not require the full Java EE environment of traditional enterprise application server profiles. For more information about the Liberty server, see the Liberty server help topic.

The application server that is commonly used with IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse is WebSphere Application Server, which is tightly integrated with the workbench. To test, run, and debug applications on the server, the workbench contains tools such as Run On Server. The following features are available from within the workbench:
  • Starting tools from WebSphere Application Server, such as the administrative console and the Profile Management Tool
  • Developing, running, and debugging administrative scripts against the application server

Server adapters for particular servers are included in IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse from the Web Tools Platform that is based on Eclipse technology. You can also download more server adapters to the workbench: Open the Servers view, right-click; then click New. In the New Server wizard, click Download additional server adapters.

Integrating with WebSphere Application Server

The following versions of IBM WebSphere Application Server are compatible with this product:
  • V8.5
  • V8.5 Liberty
With WebSphere Application Server, you can create the following types of servers:
Stand-alone (unmanaged) server
A node that is defined in the cell of a WebSphere Application Server topology that does not run a node agent to manage its process.
Federated (managed) server
A server that runs a node agent to manage its process.
IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse does not support the tools for a federated (managed) WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment. The IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse workbench does not support connections to the deployment manager, and it does not support publishing to clusters or federated nodes. However, there is support for stand-alone (unmanaged) WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment; you can test, run, and debug applications from the workbench to a stand-alone (unmanaged) application server. For both managed and unmanaged WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, you can continue to run the Profile Management Tool from within the workbench to create and augment profiles.

WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse does not provide support for embedded hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) servers or web servers with IBM WebSphere Test Environment. These web servers can be added by using the WebSphere Application Server admin console. After being added, the web servers don't show after restarting WebSphere Application Server or re-publishing to WebSphere Application Server. This is because the embedded web servers are not supported by the server tools that provide tools to run WebSphere Application Server. For more information, see the DCF document at http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21064208.

Specification-level

The workbench provides server selection options that are based on the specification-level that you defined for your project. The following list summarizes specification-level support for the different version-levels of the WebSphere Application Server. For more information about supported WebSphere Application Server specification-levels, see Specifications and API documentation.

WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5

Java EE 6 (or earlier) support is available for running applications against a WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 .

WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 Liberty

Java EE 6 (or earlier) support is available for running applications against a WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 Liberty.

Tip: When you deploy Java EE 1.4 or earlier applications in Rational Application Developer, you can right-click your project, and select Java EE Tools > Prepare for deployment. WebSphere Developer Tools does not support the development of Java EE 1.4 or earlier modules. When you deploy Java EE 1.5 or later applications in WebSphere Developer Tools, you do not need to select Prepare for deployment before you deploy or run any Java EE applications on WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty.