Manveen Kaur's Blog

Testing your Update Center Module

Before you "host" your module on a server for others to download, it would be wise to test it out yourself.

This blog describes how you can test your update center module locally on your GlassFish container through the updatetool client. Hopefully you already know how to create and package your update center module.

Here's what you do to "host" the module on your local running instance of GlassFish. Updatetool is available from GlassFish v2 onwards.

1. Copy your final module jar to be tested into GF_V2_HOME/domains/domain1/docroot. This enables it to be accessible from http://localhost:8080/module.jar
2. Copy GF_V2_HOME/updatecenter/registry/glassfish/server.xml to GF_V2_HOME/domains/domain1/docroot. Let's call it update_center.xml. Doing this will enable it to be accessible from http://localhost:8080/update_center.xml.
3. Edit update_center.xml to have a single entry for the module. Add appropriate values for module codenamebase="my.package" distribution="http://localhost:8080/roller_module.jar".Make sure the Module-Type (under manifest element) is ADDON_INSTALLER.
   Don't worry about getting the exact numbers for downloadsize etc. for now.
4. Edit GF_v2_HOME/updatecenter/config/config.xml.
   For the catalog name='glassfish' change the url to url='http://localhost:8080/update_center.xml'. Start your server.
5. Run GF_V2_HOME/updatecenter/bin/updatetool and choose your module.

The module jars are downloaded under GF_v2_HOME/updatecenter/registry/glassfish/package.name/module. The updatetool is expected to extract and install the module for you.

Trivia: Did you know that a Netbeans module or .nbm extension is just a fancy name for a .jar?

Important contact information: If you are interested in hosting your application on GlassFish Update Center repository, do touch base with the GlassFish Update Center team at: dev@updatecenter.dev.java.net and they'll be happy to work with you.

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