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Deploying flex application on a j2ee application server.

Avatar

Level 2
Hi,



Can someone please detail me as to how can I deploy my flex
application on a J2EE server. I tried to deploye the same as per
the guidelines in the flex builder Help on building and deploying
the flex applications on a J2EE server, but in vain. My wrapper
HTML file cannot access the .as(action script) and other required
files. Besides my .swf cannot access the Internet when I run it
from my application server.

Please someone help me out.



TIA,

Shishir
16 Replies

Avatar

Level 3
I would recommend creating an ant script that cleans,
compiles, and deploys. If you are already building J2EE
applications, then all you really need to do is and your flex stuff
to your ant deployment script.

Avatar

Level 2
Thanks for the reply. I am a mere novice in the field of
these technologies for web applications, so I am not aware of Ant
or of other such things. Can you please detail me in layman terms,
how to deploy an example flex application on a j2ee application
server.



TIA,

Shishir

Avatar

Employee
Which J2EE application server are you using? Their deployment
procedures differ.

Avatar

Employee
JDeveloper is a client-side integrated development
environment (IDE), not a J2EE server. From a quick glance at
Oracle's
JDeveloper
documentation
, it seems to work with a number of app servers,
including Oracle's OC4J and Apache Tomcat.



So back to my previous question: which J2EE app server are
you using?

Avatar

Level 2
Ok, I am sorry for the last post. Its Oracle's OC4J am trying
to deploy my flex application on. OC4J is the default app server
that comes along with the JDeveloper IDE.

Avatar

Employee
The Flex Data Services J2EE install gives you three WAR
files, which you should be able to deploy into OC4J.

* See the OC4J docs for deployment instructions

* See the
Flex
installation instructions
for more information, including a
special step for OC4J.

Avatar

Level 2
Thanks for the links, but I still dont understand the role of
flex data services in the process of deployment of a simple flex
application on an app server. Why do I need to install the flex
data services application.?

Avatar

Employee
Among other things, Flex Data Services offers enhanced
security, proxy functionality, messaging, and the Data Management
Service (for real-time data synchronization among multiple
clients). That said, one of the major features of Flex 2 is the
ability to deploy your Flex application _without_ a server.



Have you read the Getting Started with Flex 2 book? It's
online in HTML format
in
LiveDocs
and in PDF from the
Flex
Documentation
page. In particular, I think the tutorial lessons
are very helpful, although you may have to adapt them a little if
you're using JDeveloper.



HTH

Avatar

Level 2
I see, that's interesting. But right now the only concern I
have is to deploy the application on the server. I did read the
'Getting Started' and specifically the Deploying flex application
part of it, but the directory structures given in there have no
similarity to what is available on OC4J. :(

Avatar

Employee
You should be able to install the flex.war, flex-admin.war,
and samples.war web applications using the instructions Oracle
provides. There is a lot of doc on their website, and
this
might be the page you're looking for. Also, there is an additional
tweak to OC4J listed
here.



My advice is to start by deploying samples.war and running
the sample applications on OC4J. This will verify the
installation/deployment. Once you've done that, set up a Flex
Builder project for one of the samples and make sure that works.
That should get you going.

Avatar

Level 2
hi,

I know am pushing it a bit too far, but can you please let me
know where do I get these .war files from. As in, my installation
of the flex builder doesn't contain the .war files for the sample
applications which are there already. Also , if I wish to make a
.war file for my application how do I do that.?



thanks,

:( shishir

Avatar

Employee
No problem. You get the WAR files by downloading Flex Data
Services and choosing the J2EE option when you run the installer.
You can get the installer by going to
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/,
clicking on the Flex for Developers tab and downloading free Flex
Data Services 2 Express.



As I said earlier in this thread, you can get installation
instructions from
http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flex/2/install.html#flexj2ee



That should do it!

Avatar

Level 2
Is .war file any different from an archive such as .zip of
all the project files associated with the application. That is to
say, can I zip all the contents and rename it to a .war extension
and give to my OC4J server which will deploy it.

Avatar

Employee
Here's what I think you do:

1) Deploy the flex.war file (this is the empty WAR file you
use to start new FDS apps) onto your test/development server.

2) Modify configuration files, create and test assemblers,
define resources, as necessary. Create MXML and AS files, compile
them, define HTML wrappers, etc., and store them in or under the
web application root (not under WEB-INF).

3) Zip up the app into a WAR file and deploy on other
servers, as necessary.



HTH

Avatar

Level 2
Is that not too much to ask for.[:(]. I seriously wonder if
the whole web application deployment technology needs a
restructuring to get rid of these cumbersome issues. I am perplexed
if the same application can run from inside the flex builder , WTH
it cannot from within the web server.



>>Here's what I think you do:

>>1) Deploy the flex.war file (this is the empty WAR
file you use to start new FDS apps) onto your test/development
server.

>>2) Modify configuration files, create and test
assemblers, define resources, as necessary. Create MXML and AS
files, >>compile them, define HTML wrappers, etc., and store
them in or under the web application root (not under WEB-INF).

>>3) Zip up the app into a WAR file and deploy on other
servers, as necessary.