About this task
By default, the "dropins" directory is automatically monitored. If you drop an application
into this directory, the application is automatically deployed on the server. Similarly, if the
application is deleted from the directory, the application is automatically removed from the server.
The "dropins" directory can be used for applications that do not require extra configuration,
such as security role mapping. If you put your applications in the "dropins" directory, you
must not include an entry for the application in the server configuration. Otherwise, the server
tries to load the application twice and an error might occur. For applications that are not in the
"dropins" directory, you specify the location by using an application entry in the server
configuration. The location can be on the file system or at a URL.
Your application can be packaged as an archive file, a directory,or as a loose application
where files are in multiple locations. For more information about loose applications, see Loose applications.
For applications in the "dropins" directory, the file name and file extension are used by
the application monitor to determine the type of application, and to generate the application id and
application name. For example, if the archive file or directory is named
snoop.war, the application monitor assumes that the application is a web
application and that the application id and application name is "snoop". For configured
applications, the application type and name are specified.
For more information about the default directory structure and the properties that are associated
with directories (for example server.config.dir), see Liberty: Directory locations and properties.
Note: If you modify an application in the "dropins" directory, the application is restarted
unless the change is to a component of a WAR file outside of the WEB-INF
folder.
- Deploy an application by dropping it into the dropins directory.
For example, by using the default directory structure, to deploy an application you drop it into
the ${server.config.dir}/dropins
directory (that is, wlp/usr/servers/server_name/dropins).
You can deploy your application in any of the following ways:
- Place the archive file with its identifying suffix (.ear,
.war, and so on) directly into the /dropins directory. For
example, ${server.config.dir}/dropins/myApp.war
- Extract the archive file into a directory that includes the application name and the identifying
suffix. For example, ${server.config.dir}/dropins/myApp.war/WEB-INF/...
- Place the archive file or the extracted archive into a subdirectory that includes the
identifying suffix. For example, ${server.config.dir}/dropins/war/myApp/WEB-INF/...
- Deploy an application by adding it to the server configuration file.
Configure the
application element in the
server.xml
configuration file. For more information, see the descriptions of the
application
element in
Enterprise JavaBeans Lite 3.1,
Java Servlets 3.0, and
OSGi Blueprint. You must configure the following attributes for
the application:
- id
- Must be unique and is used internally by the server.
- name
- Must be unique and depending on the application. The value of name might be
used as the context-root of the application. For more information on how the context-root is set for
an application, see Deploying a web application to Liberty.
- type
- Specifies the type of application.
- For web applications, the supported type is war.
- For enterprise applications, the supported type is ear.
- For OSGi applications, the supported types are eba and
esa.
- location
- Specifies the location of the application. It can be an absolute path or a URL that you can
download the application from. It can also be the file name of your application (including file
extension if any).
If the application is available on the file system, the location can either be the full path name
or a simple file name. If the location does not include the full path, the application manager looks
for the application in ${server.config.dir}/apps and ${shared.app.dir}. If the application is available at a URL,
the application manager downloads the application to a temporary folder inside the server work area,
then starts the application.
Note: The location that you specify for a configured application must not be in the "dropins"
directory. If you drop an application into the "dropins" directory, and also specify the
location in the server.xml file, you are telling the server to deploy the
application twice.
In the following two examples, the location is the file system. If the location is a URL, enter
the URL in the location
field.
<osgiApplication location="D:/apps/ImpactEBA.eba"/>
<webApplication location="ImpactWeb.war"/>
The
second example does not include the full path. In this case, you must put the application in one of
the following locations:
- ${server.config.dir}/apps (that
is,
server_directory/user/servers/server_name/apps)
- ${shared.app.dir} (that is,
liberty_install_location/usr/shared/apps)
You can deploy your application to the file system in either of the following ways:
- Place the archive file with its identifying suffix (.ear,
.war, and so on) directly into the chosen location. For example,
application_directory_path/myApp.war
- Extract the archive file into a subdirectory of the chosen location, which is named with the
application name and the identifying suffix. For example,
application_directory_path/myApp.war/WEB-INF/...
Note: - You must create the server-level apps directory, whereas the shared
apps directory is present by default. See Liberty: Directory locations and properties for
more information about the properties that are associated with the server directories.
- The application element can be set before or after the server starts. If
the element is set after the server starts, the changes are picked up dynamically.
- Deploy applications on Liberty by using
developer tools.
- Remove an application.
For applications that are included in the server configuration, remove the reference to the
application from the server.xml file. The application is then automatically
removed from the server.
For applications that are deployed to the "dropins" directory, delete the application from
the directory. The application is then automatically removed from the server.
To uninstall all applications that are in the "dropins" directory, set the application
monitor dropinsEnabled property to false as described in Controlling dynamic updates.