A deployment descriptor (DD) refers to a

configuration file In computing, configuration files (commonly known simply as config files) are computer file, files used to configure the Parameter (computer programming), parameters and Initialization (programming), initial settings for some computer programs. T ...

for an artifact that is deployed to some

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

/engine. In the

Java Platform, Enterprise Edition Jakarta EE, formerly Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), is a set of specifications, extending Java SE with specifications for enterprise features such as distributed computing and web serv ...

, a deployment descriptor describes how a component, module or application (such as a

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

enterprise application Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Such organizations include businesses, schools, interest-based user groups, ...

) should be deployed."The Java EE 5 Tutorial: Packaging Applications"
retrieved 2010-07-13 It directs a deployment tool to deploy a module or application with specific container options, security settings and describes specific configuration requirements.

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

is used for the syntax of these deployment descriptor files. For web applications, the deployment descriptor must be called ''web.xml'' and must reside in the ''WEB-INF'' directory in the web application root. For Java EE applications, the deployment descriptor must be named ''application.xml'' and must be placed directly in the ''META-INF'' directory at the top level of the application .ear file.

Types

In Java EE, there are two types of deployment descriptors: "Java EE deployment descriptors" and "runtime deployment descriptors". The Java EE deployment descriptors are defined by the language specification, whereas the runtime descriptors are defined by the vendor of each container implementation. For example, the ''web.xml'' file is a standard Java EE deployment descriptor, specified in the

Java Servlet A Jakarta Servlet (formerly Java Servlet) is a Java software component that extends the capabilities of a server. Although servlets can respond to many types of requests, they most commonly implement web containers for hosting web application ...

specification, but the ''sun-web.xml'' file contains configuration data specific to the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server implementation."Sun Java System Application Server Descriptors"
{Dead link, date=July 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes , retrieved 2010-07-13

References

External links

* http://java.sun.com/javaee/reference/glossary/ * http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/index.html - Deployment Descriptor XML Schema Reference * (dead) http://java.sun.com/blueprints/guidelines/designing_enterprise_applications_2e/deployment/deployment5.html

Types

References

External links

See also