Framework Releases

[PSmith72]

When packaging the Framework as a separate project with the web project into an .ear file, how do you handle new Framework releases?

Do you put the new release only into the .ear that you are currently re/deploying - this allows there to be several versions of the framework to exist and be used simultaneously.

Or

Do you redeploy all .ears that use the framework so that only one version of the framework is ever in use.

We are looking to find the most popular answer to this question - as both have their ups and downs

 

[sedj]

NEVER have two versions of the same app running at the same time. This is dangerous and foolhardy - and there is no *up* to this. Always undeploy the old and redeploy the new ...

 

[PSmith72]

Any other comments on this would be appreciated. I need to have arguments and comments to present to our team to convince them.

Thank you

 

[sedj]

I don' quite think you are understanding me - having two versions of an application running in the same JVM/app server is madness. There is NO "good points to doing this".

Its like saying, "I've heard that driving the wrong way at 200 mph down a road could be a dangerous, but I'd like other opinions on this

 

[PSmith72]

Yes, I understand and Agree with you. Members of our organization have other opinions on this as we are working with WSAD and have applications running on their own .ear files. They believe that this isolation would shield the applications from Framework problems. I do not agree with this sentiment, even in a very well managed matrix, but I have been tasked with finding the opinions of other groups that are using this same system of .ear files to manage applications.

 

[sedj]

Well, if they trust an app server to load the *correct* version of a class when the ClassLoader inevitably has many to choose from, then that is their look out. I don;t know whether websphere uses its own servlet container or something like tomcat or jetty, but I know from observation that some servlet containers get seriously confused over versioning, just when you deploy one app over another, meaning for the second version to blow away the first. If you've ever looked into the mechanics of class loading inside servers, you'd want to keep it as simple as possible for the class loader !