Multi-module Websphere web application

This article explains how to create a Spring web application for deployment on IBM WebSphere Application Server. The objective is to set up a Maven project that produces an EAR package (with a WAR module and application assembly) suitable for WebSphere.

Maven project structure

The following list shows the directory structure of the multi-module Maven project:

|- websphere-maven-spring-project
|-- app-ear/
|---- pom.xml
|-- app-webapp/
|---- src/
|---- .classpath
|---- pom.xml
|- pom.xml

The project consists of one parent (aggregator) module and two child (sub) modules.

For more details on working with multi-module builds, see the official Maven documentation.

Aggregator module

The aggregator is the top-level module that brings multiple modules together into a single build.

The following is an excerpt from the pom.xml of the aggregator module:

  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.svlada</groupId>
  <artifactId>app</artifactId>
  <name>app</name>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <packaging>pom</packaging>
  <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
  <modules>
    <module>app-ear</module>
    <module>app-webapp</module>
  </modules>

Sub-modules

Both sub-modules (app-ear and app-webapp) must reference the parent module in their pom.xml files, as shown below:

<parent>
	<artifactId>app</artifactId>
	<groupId>com.svlada</groupId>
	<version>1.0.0</version>
</parent>

Sub-module: app-ear

The WAR module (app-webapp) must be included in the list of EAR dependencies.

<dependencies>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>com.svlada</groupId>
		<artifactId>app-webapp</artifactId>
		<version>1.0.0</version>
		<type>war</type>
	</dependency>
</dependencies>

In the app-ear/pom.xml, include the maven-ear-plugin in the <build><plugins> section:

<plugin>
	<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
	<artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
	<version>2.10</version>
	<configuration>
		<finalName>APP_EAR</finalName>
		<modules>
			<webModule>
				<groupId>com.svlada</groupId>
				<artifactId>app-webapp</artifactId>
				<bundleFileName>app-webapp.war</bundleFileName>
				<contextRoot>/app</contextRoot>
			</webModule>
		</modules>
		<generateApplicationXml>true</generateApplicationXml>
	</configuration>

</plugin>

Sub-module: app-webapp

The web app module is a simple web application generated with Spring Initializr.

Source code

You can clone the entire project from the following GitHub repository.