0.8.1: What are Web Archive (WAR) files?

WAR files are useful for importing complete web applications into a web server engine or to a development environment. While WebSphere Application Server does not support the direct importation of web applications from WAR files into the Application Server, a tool is provided that converts the WAR file to a format using XML that can be imported by the Application Server using either the console or a command line. A separate command line statement can be used to convert the WAR file into a webapp format that can be imported into a stand-alone server environment or a development environment such as VisualAge for Java.