Eclipse WAR with 2 projects?

Question

I am trying to export a WAR file from Eclipse. I have a "Dynamic Web Project". But I need classes created for two other projects, one a plain Java project, the other another web project. So in the Build Config I told it to add the other projects and on the "Order and Export" page I clicked the boxes to export the second and third projects. In runs fine within Eclipse, apparently finds the files from the other projects with no problem. But when I export, only the files from the first project are included in the WAR file.

How do I get Eclipse to include the other projects' files in the WAR? Apparently just adding them to the Build Config and marking for export isn't enough. Is there a problem because one of the other projects is also a web project? Does Eclipse balk at that?

I presume I could make this work by copying the files I need from the other projects to the first. But then any time they are updated, I would have to know that this had happened and copy the new versions. That would be a pain, and I thought that's what Eclipse projects were for, so I could share files between applications.

Edit

Let me clarify that I don't want to deploy 2 WARs. I have a web app written for one project that includes some classes that I want to re-use on another project. What I was trying to do was just pick up those couple of classes in the "real" WAR. I definately don't want to deploy 2 WARs because this might go on the same server as the original project, and I don't want to overwrite the existing WAR of the original project.

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Packing together different projects for deployment is achieved through an EAR file (enterprise archive). An EAR may combine multiple web projects (WAR), Enterprise JavaBeans projects (JAR), standard JARs, etc. and packs it into a single application.

Create a new EAR project in Eclipse, open its properties and check all dependencies on the Java EE Module Dependencies page. After that export the project as an EAR and deploy it.

Answer 2

You need to add your other project as a JEE module to your web project. Right click on your web project -> properties -> Java EE module Dependencies. Add the 'other' project to it. Eclipse will include this project in the export.