J2Ee Application Servers; Choosing Ear Or War Deployment - MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION MX 61 - INSTALLING AND USING COLDFUSION MX Using Manual

J2EE application servers

One of the main advantages of ColdFusion MX is that it can be installed as an integrated server
(the server configuration) or deployed as a Java application on a standards-based J2EE application
server (the J2EE configuration). In addition to greater flexibility, this allows your ColdFusion
applications to leverage features of the J2EE architecture, such as support for multiple application
instances and multiple-instance clustering.
You can deploy ColdFusion MX in the J2EE configuration using either the bundled copy of
Macromedia JRun 4 or a third-party J2EE application server. If you use the bundled version of
JRun (recommended), the installation wizard automatically deploys and configures ColdFusion
MX 6.1 on its own JRun server. If you choose to use a third-party J2EE application server, the
installation wizard creates a web application archive (WAR) or enterprise application archive
(EAR) file, which you then deploy using the tools provided by your chosen application server.

Choosing EAR or WAR deployment

In the J2EE environment, you deploy applications in one of the following formats:
•
Web application
WAR) uses a directory structure that contains a WEB-INF/web.xml deployment descriptor,
which defines the servlets and context parameters it uses. J2EE application servers can deploy
web applications in this directory structures as-is or in compressed WAR files that contain
these directory structures. However, ColdFusion MX must run out of an expanded directory
structure.
cfusion (cfusion.war)
WEB-INF
web.xml
CFIDE
cfdocs
CFIDE (rds.war)
WEB-INF
web.xml
Cfusion.war contains the ColdFusion MX web application. Rds.war is a web application that
redirects requests from /CFIDE to /context-root/CFIDE. It forwards requests to the
ColdFusion MX Administrator when ColdFusion MX uses a context root other than /.
•
Enterprise application
An enterprise application (also called an EAR) uses a directory structure that contains a
META-INF/application.xml deployment descriptor, which defines the web applications it
contains. J2EE application servers can deploy enterprise applications in these directory
structures as-is or in compressed EAR files that contain these directory structures. However,
ColdFusion MX must run out of an expanded directory structure.
cfusion-ear
META-INF
application.xml
cfusion-war
WEB-INF
web.xml
CFIDE
cfdocs
rds.war
WEB-INF
web.xml
32 Chapter 3: Installing the J2EE Configuration
Contains the ColdFusion MX application. A web application (also called a
Contains the ColdFusion MX and RDS redirector web applications.