TOTD # 77: Running Seam examples with GlassFish

Seam is a full-stack solution to assemble complex web applications using simple annotated classes, a rich set of UI components, and very little XML. It integrates Ajax and Business Process Modeling with several Java EE technologies such as Java Server Faces (JSF), Java Persistence API (JPA), and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB 3.0).

GlassFish is a Java EE compliant application server so it's natural to pick GlassFish as your deployment platform for Seam applications :)

This blog is going to show how Seam samples can be easily run on GlassFish.

1. Download Seam 2.1.1 GA from here and unzip.
2. Build "examples/jpa" sample as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa >ant glassfish Buildfile: build.xml glassfish: initcopy: initpoms:      [echo] Setting up dependencies     [mkdir] Created dir: /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms      [copy] Copying 1 file to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms [artifact:install] [INFO] Installing /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms/root.pom to . . . . . . init.war: war:      [copy] Copying 27 files to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa/exploded-archives-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war      [copy] Copying 7 files to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa/exploded-archives-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war/WEB-INF/lib noejb.war:      [copy] Copying 18 files to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa/exploded-archives-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war/WEB-INF/lib      [copy] Copying 2 files to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa/exploded-archives-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war      [copy] Copying 4 files to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa/exploded-archives-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war distributable.war: noejb.archive:       [jar] Building jar: /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa/dist-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 5 seconds

3. Deploy the sample as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jpa >~/tools/glassfish/v2.1/glassfish/bin/asadmin deploy dist-glassfish/jboss-seam-jpa.war Command deploy executed successfully.

   
   The app is now accessible at "http://localhost:8080/jboss-seam-jpa" and here are some of the captured screenshots:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Simple and easy!
   
4. Build "examples/hibernate" as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/hibernate >ant glassfish Buildfile: build.xml glassfish: initcopy: initpoms:      [echo] Setting up dependencies      [copy] Copying 1 file to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms [artifact:install] [INFO] Installing /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms/root.pom to /Users/arungupta/.m2/repository/org/jboss/seam/root/2.1.1.GA/root-2.1.1.GA.pom  . . . distributable.war: noejb.archive:       [jar] Building jar: /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/hibernate/dist-glassfish/jboss-seam-hibernate.war BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 6 seconds

   
   
5. Deploy the sample as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/hibernate >~/tools/glassfish/v2.1/glassfish/bin/asadmin deploy dist-glassfish/jboss-seam-hibernate.war Command deploy executed successfully.

   
   The app is now accessible at "http://localhost:8080/jboss-seam-hibernate" and has exactly similar snapshots as shown in "jboss-seam-jpa" sample. Simple and easy, yet again!
   
6. Build "examples/jee5/booking" and deploy as:
   
   

   ~/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jee5/booking >ant Buildfile: build.xml initcopy: initpoms:      [echo] Setting up dependencies      [copy] Copying 1 file to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms [artifact:install] [INFO] Installing /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms/root.pom to /Users/arungupta/.m2/repository/org/jboss/seam/root/2.1.1.GA/root-2.1.1.GA.pom      [copy] Copying 1 file to /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/classes/poms . . . archive:       [jar] Building jar: /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jee5/booking/dist/jboss-seam-jee5-booking.jar       [jar] Building jar: /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jee5/booking/dist/jboss-seam-jee5-booking.war       [jar] Building jar: /Users/arungupta/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jee5/booking/dist/jboss-seam-jee5-booking.ear BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 5 seconds ~/tools/jboss-seam-2.1.1.GA/examples/jee5/booking >~/tools/glassfish/v2.1/glassfish/bin/asadmin deploy dist/jboss-seam-jee5-booking.ear Command deploy executed successfully.

   
   The application is now accessible at "http://localhost:8080/seam-jee5-booking". Wow, that's simple and easy as well!

So we have deployed multiple Seam samples on GlassFish v2.1 - simple and easy!

Here are some more useful pointers realted to Seam and GlassFish:

• Chapter 39 of the Seam Community Documentation even describes how to deploy an application created using seam-gen on GlassFish.
• Dan Allen, the author of Manning's Seam in Action, presented a webinar at TheAquarium Online.
• Several other Seam entries @ TA.
• Deploying a seam-gen project to GlassFish (blog entry) - Here is a quote from the blog:
  
  GlassFish has a very sexy administrative console, but it also has a very sexy commandline tool known as asadmin. The asadmin tool gives you virtually unbounded control over the application server, including core tasks such as starting and stopping the application server, deploying and undeploying applications, and setting up database connection pools, amidst a plethora of other controls. You'll see that my modified seam-gen tool takes advantage of a handful of these commands.
  
  And another one ...
  
  GlassFish gives you efficiency through automation, which is undoubtedly the most effective way to become efficient. ... GlassFish volunteers itself to participate in a script and is the reason why I choose it as my preferred application server.
• GlassFish support added to seam-gen: It is certainly exciting to know that there are targets like "gf-deploy-datasource", "gf-deploy-hibernate", and "gf-prepare" available to Seam developers out-of-the-box.
• Sample Application using JSF, Seam, and Java Persistence APIs on GlassFish - detailed step-by-step blog explaining how to run Seam applications on GlassFish

The other samples in the bundle (that I tried) rely upon non-Java EE jars in the App Server's classpath. A slight build file tweaking can bundle those jars in the application itself and will allow to run them as well.

Are you deploying your Seam applications on GlassFish ?

Happy Seaming on GlassFish!

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD (Tip Of The Day) that you'd like to see. A complete archive of all the tips is available here.

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