Application Deployment Descriptor in Java EE 6

Question

I would like to set the context-root of the web application part of my enterprise application (bundled as an EAR). I added an "application.xml" file which looks like this:

<application>
    <module>
        <web>
            <web-uri>SearchResulter-war.war</web-uri>
            <context-root>/searcharoo</context-root>
        </web>
    </module>
</application>

The thing is, I have EJBs in the project as well. It seems that the Java EE 5/6 magic previously did not require me to include an "application.xml" file, and that was all good until I wanted to change the context-root. Is it an all-or-nothing proposition as far as defining your own goes? In other words, must I add an <ejb> element with the relevant info?

Answer 1

I cannot get to the jcp.org site to check the final draft of JSR316... which should have the definitive answer...

My best advice would be to create a 'complete' application.xml, though.

Answer 2

According to JSR316, context root must be specified in META-INF/application.xml, otherwise web module will acquire name of its deployment package stripped of .war extension.

Answer 3

Quoting the section 8.5.2 Deploying a Java EE Application of the Java EE Specification v6:

The deployment tool must first read the Java EE application deployment descriptor from the application .ear file (META-INF/application.xml). If the deployment descriptor is present, it fully specifies the modules included in the application. If no deployment descriptor is present, the deployment tool uses the following rules to determine the modules included in the application.

In other words, when providing an application.xml, you need indeed to include all modules in it.