Weblogic Tutorial

Overview of WebLogic? 

WebLogic Server is a leading Java application server that is used to develop and deploy multi-tiered distributed applications. WebLogic server can also be called as middleware or a managed server and it implements J2EE. We can deploy and manage Java environments including JSP servlets, EJB, etc. Oracle, DB2, MS SQL Server, and other JDBC-compliant databases are supported by WebLogic Server. This server has been in the market since 1997. Oracle has acquired WebLogic Server in the year 2008 when it purchased BEA Systems. 

WebLogic Application Server undergoes continuous improvements and 30 versions have been released till now. Here are the last 5 version releases,

• WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1) is the latest version of WebLogic and it is released on March 30th, 2020
• WebLogic Server 12cR2 (12.2.1.4) is released on September 27th, 2019
• WebLogic Server 12cR2 (12.2.1.3) is released on August 30th, 2017
• WebLogic Server 12cR2 (12.2.1.2) is released on October 19th, 2016
• WebLogic Server 12cR2 (12.2.1.1) is released on June 21st, 2016

Features of WebLogic Server

WebLogic makes it easy to manage, monitor, and configure domains and applications. Some of the main features of WebLogic are,

• It uses caching and connection pooling for improving resource utilization and application performance
• Provides security and administration facilities
• Depending on the application needs, the servers can be dynamically scaled up
• Automatically handles application behavior 
• Migrating the WebLogic domains to partitions
• Provides continuous availability by extending the Oracle's Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA)
• Provides multitenancy support, the multitenant information can be shared by multiple parties
• It is certified to run in a Docker container

Advantages of WebLogic Server 

The main advantages of WebLogic Server are,

• We can activate built-in diagnostic modules for any server instance
• Easily create and maintain multiple domains for various applications
• We can create virtual targets and hosts to which the server clusters or instances respond to
• WebLogic's distributed clustering framework automatically balances the load on server instances
• It is highly scalable and robust to use
• We can make use of the dashboard for real-time monitoring
• Cloning environments is easy

Difference between an Application server and a web server 

An application server and a web server serves different requests. Here are some points that explain the main differences between the two,

• A web server serves user requests on static web pages via HTTP like HTML and CSS. While an application server is used when we need to generate dynamic content by executing on the server side like JSP, Servlet, EJB.
• The web server uses HTTP protocol to deliver the content. The application server uses several protocols including HTTP
• Web Servers have only web containers. The application server contains both web container and EJB container
• Application servers support long-running processes and web servers support traffic that is not much resource-intensive
• Multithreading is supported in application servers. It is not supported in web servers

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Installation of WebLogic Server

Firstly, ensure that you have a JDK 1.8 or later version. Go to Oracle Fusion Middleware Software and download the quick installer. 

A file with the name fmw_14.1.1.0.0_wls_quick_Disk1_1of1.zip will be downloaded. Unzip the file to your desired local folder. When the installation starts, you will be prompted with a few screens.

If you are installing in Linux, it will ask you to select the location for creating a central inventory. This screen does not appear for Windows installation. Skip the ‘Auto Updates’. It will then ask you to choose the installation location. 

Then the ‘Installation Type’ screen prompts, select ‘WebLogic Server’. Then comes the ‘Prerequisites Checks’ screen which shows all the prerequisites needed. Verify that all the necessary requirements are met by your system. 

Skip the ‘Specify Security Updates’ screen. Then a summary of all the options that you have selected till now will be shown on the ‘Installation Summary’ screen. Click on ‘Finish’. WebLogic Server will be successfully installed.

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What is a WebLogic domain?

A WebLogic Domain represents an environment. It is referred to as the basic administration unit for WebLogic Server instances. A domain contains several WebLogic Server instances that are managed through a single Administration Server. It also contains all the resources that are required for applications to run.

How to create a WebLogic domain? 

We can create a WebLogic through Configuration Wizard. First, we have to start the Configuration Wizard.

Windows

Open a command prompt and execute the below commands,

cd \oracle_common\common\bin

.\config.cmd 

[Related Article: Weblogic Tutorial]

Linux

Open a terminal and execute the below commands,

cd /oracle_common/common/bin

./config.sh

The Configuration Wizard will open up. Navigate to the ‘Configure the Domain’ screen. Select 'Create a New Domain'. Leave the default options for the ‘Configuration Templates’ screen. 

Next, you will be prompted to give a username and password for the WebLogic administrator account. Give the fields and remember them for future purposes. 

In the next screen, select ‘Production’ for the ‘Domain Mode’ field.  For the ‘JDK’ field, select 'Oracle Hotspot JDK'. In the next screen, select the below options,

• Administration Server
• Node Manager
• Topology

Next, select the IP address or the DNS name of the administration server for ‘Listen to Address’. Keep clicking on ‘Next’. Once the configuration is successful, you will be shown Domain Location and Administration Server URL. Make a note of these for future purposes. Click on ‘Finish’ to close the Configuration Wizard.  

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Deployment Units

A deployment unit is basically a J2EE application that is organized and ready to deploy into WebLogic Server. Below are the types of deployment units that the WebLogic Server supports,

• Enterprise Application - includes one or more J2EE applications
• Web Application - includes a Servlet (or) JSP and a web.xml file
• Enterprise JavaBean - contains compiled EJB classes, XML deployment descriptors
• Resource Adapter - contains JAVA classes and components to interact with the Enterprise Information System (EIS)
• Web Service - includes either Java classes or EJBs
• J2EE Library - either a single J2EE module (or) multiple modules
• Optional Package - allows single JAR file sharing among multiple applications
• JDBC, JMS, and WLDF Modules - configurations are stored in XML
• Client Application Archive - includes a client application archive file

Deploying an application

• WebLogic Server provides four types of deployment tools which are,
• WebLogic.Deployer
• WebLogic Server Administration Console and Fusion Middleware Control
• WLST
• Deployment Tools for Developers

Open your server domain and package the application into an archive file that contains all the files and descriptor files too. You can deploy the application in either normal mode or in debug mode. 

To deploy in normal mode, click on 'Run As' and then click on 'Run on Server'. 

If you want to deploy in debug mode, click on 'Debug As' and then click on 'Debug on Server'. 

The application will be published to your server. Once the deployment is successful, you will be able to see the Servers view. The application results will be displayed on the workbench editor. If your application has a JSP page, it will open it in a tab in the editor that can be used as a test browser. You can continue testing your application.

Conclusion :

WebLogic Server is a highly extensible platform for deploying and running many enterprise-level apps. It supports on-premise and cloud environments that help serve various client requests over the internet. However there are many alternative servers with similar abilities, but WebLogic offers great interactivity with other products of Oracle. 

I hope this tutorial helped you to gain an in-depth understanding of servers. If you have any further queries, please feel free to share them with us. Our experts will get back to you with your query solution.