Module visibility

Module visibility is a property of an application server that defines the application classloader isolation mode to use for the application server. By changing the default visibility level, it is possible to have visibility of classes in other modules, or even other applications. The following visibility modes are available:

Server
All modules on the server have visibility of all other modules on the server.
Application
All modules are visible to all other modules within the same enterprise application. Modules that are part of a different enterprise application are not visible.
Application--J2EE
To enable Application--J2EE visibility mode define Java system property com.ibm.ws.classloader.J2EEApplicationMode with a value of true on the JVM Settings tab of the application server.
EJB modules are visible to all other modules within the same enterprise application. EJB modules that are part of a different enterprise application are not visible. Web modules are not visible to other Web modules or to EJB modules. Dependencies (locations specified in module classpaths) are visible to all modules in the application.
Module
Module visibility has been deprecated. Application servers using module visibility should switch to Application--J2EE visibility.
Modules are not visible to each other. Visibility to other modules in the application is only achieved when MANIFEST Class-Path entries are added to a module. This is done by setting the Classpath property on the EJB module or WAR module in the Application Assembly Tool (AAT).
Compatibility
This value provides compatibility for applications ported from WebSphere Application Server Version 3.5 and 3.0.2. In this mode, all EJB modules have visibility of all other EJB modules, even across different applications, and all Web Application modules have visibility of all EJB modules. Dependencies (locations specified in module classpaths) are visible to all modules in the server.

Portable J2EE applications should be written visibility. The other modes are provided to accommodate applications that have different visibility requirements that cannot be modified. See Guidelines for packaging classes for more information on how to package J2EE applications.

The default module visibility for WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Advanced Edition is module.