Macromedia colfusion mx 7 Manual

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Chapter 4:  Installing the J2EE Configuration

Choosing EAR or WAR deployment

In the J2EE environment, you deploy applications in one of the following formats:

Web application archive file

  Contains the ColdFusion MX 7 application. A web application 

archive (also called a 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 7 must run from an 
expanded directory structure:

cfusion (cfusion.war)
  WEB-INF
    web.xml
  CFIDE
  cfdocs
CFIDE (rds.war)
  WEB-INF
    web.xml

The cfusion.war file contains the ColdFusion MX 7 web application. The rds.war file is a web 
application that redirects requests from /CFIDE to /context-root/CFIDE. It forwards requests to 
the ColdFusion MX Administrator when ColdFusion MX 7 uses a context root other than a 
forward slash (/). 

Enterprise application archive file

  Contains the ColdFusion MX 7 and RDS redirector web 

applications. An enterprise application archive (also called an EAR) uses a directory structure that 
contains a META-INF/application.xml deployment descriptor, which defines the web 
applications that 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 7 must run from an expanded directory structure:

cfusion-ear
  META-INF
    application.xml
  cfusion-war
    WEB-INF
      web.xml
    CFIDE
    cfdocs
  rds.war
    WEB-INF
      web.xml

If your J2EE application server supports enterprise applications, you should install and deploy the 
EAR file. For more information, see