Gunnar,
We do that quite often to divide the development of a Web application
to multiple projects (A web project + Multiple Utility). This was one
of the use-cases that triggered the flexible project structures work in
WTP. It is in the API, so aşready covered. I do not think you need a
facet for it. but it would be neat to have a facet that simplifies that
setup described below.
Some parts of the process I will describe can be done using the wizards
but others need some "one-time" manual configuration. Complete
wizardry is not in place, but this is a scenario that is very useful
for teams develloping large Web applications. We have described this
procedure in our upcoming WTP book - Java Web Development using WTP,
which I co-authored with Arthur Ryman and Lawrence Mandel.
Here is what you can do:
1) Create a Web Project - WP.
2) Create a Java Utility Project - JUP.
3) Create a folder under the Java Utility Project named WebContent (or
any other thing)
4) Change the J2EE module dependencies for the WP so that it depends on
JUP. At the time of deployment this will create a JAR and package it
with the WP under the WEB-INF/lib.
This is all standard and you can repeat it for as many utility projects
as you want. Now the FUN part !
5) JUP is not really a Java Utility but a sub-web-application! It can
have web content, it should know about the common web libraries, tlds
etc. It needs to know about the "Web Application library" of the WP.
So go to Java Build Path of JUP and add WP as a "Web Application
Library", you will see that it is available as a dropdown option.
6) step 5 solves the sharing of the web libraries, we need to do
reverse also. If you develope some web content in addition to java in
the JUP, these will have to be packaged with the WP. Create a folder
within the JUP project, name it "WebContent" or smt similar.
7) You can probably skip this step but I find it useful. Create a
symbolic link to the WebContent folder in JUP in the WP project folder
(e.g. call it JUPWebContent).
8) This step is the heart of the flexible project structures. Open
the WTP module definitions file that you will find under the .settings
folder (WP/.settings/org.eclipse.wst.common.component) of the Web
project, modify the mappings like the following to add JUP WebContent
to the deployment by adding the line
<wb-resource source-path="/JUPWebContent" deploy-path="/"/>
to the file. The final result should look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project-modules id="moduleCoreId" project-version="1.5.0">
<wb-module deploy-name="WP">
<wb-resource source-path="/WebContent" deploy-path="/"/>
<wb-resource source-path="/JUPWebContent"
deploy-path="/"/>
<wb-resource source-path="/src"
deploy-path="/WEB-INF/classes"/>
<dependent-module deploy-path="/WEB-INF/lib"
handle="module:/resource/JUP/JUP">
<dependency-type>uses</dependency-type>
</dependent-module>
<property name="context-root" value="WP"/>
<property name="java-output-path" value="build/classes"/>
</wb-module>
</project-modules>
That is it!
Hope it helps, I would like to hear your comments
