Embedding Glassfish v2.1.1 - glassfish

Question

I have an application running on Glassfish v2.1.1 on a server and I'm looking to generate a portable (read: no-installation-required) version of it. I don't want to move to another container (Glassfish 3, Tomcat, etc.) because it will introduce new problems and bugs. I prefer to stick to the same container.
I've started taking apart the Glassfish distribution and there are some references there to paths which hint that installation is required. Has anyone been successful at generating a portable Glassfish based on v2.1.1?

Answer 1

Basic examples of embedding GlassFish and deploying applications to embedded GlassFish:
These examples are can be run with either of the following jars in your CLASSPATH:
Full profile uber jar : http://download.java.net/maven/glassfish/org/glassfish/extras/glassfish-embedded-all/3.1/glassfish-embedded-all-3.1.jar
Web profile uber jar: http://download.java.net/maven/glassfish/org/glassfish/extras/glassfish-embedded-web/3.1/glassfish-embedded-web-3.1.jar
Installed GlassFish's shell jar : $GF_INSTALLATION/lib/embedded/glassfish-embedded-static-shell.jar
Once you have ANY ONE of the above jar file with you, GlassFish can be embedded in your application by simply doing:
import org.glassfish.embeddable.*;
/** Create and start GlassFish */
GlassFish glassfish = GlassFishRuntime.bootstrap().newGlassFish();
glassfish.start();
Let us say that you would like 8080 web container port to be started while embedding GlassFish, then you have to do this:
import org.glassfish.embeddable.*;
/** Create and start GlassFish which listens at 8080 http port */
GlassFishProperties gfProps = new GlassFishProperties();
gfProps.setPort("http-listener", 8080); // refer JavaDocs for the details of this API.
GlassFish glassfish = GlassFishRuntime.bootstrap().newGlassFish(gfProps);
glassfish.start();
Once you have the GlassFish embedded and is running, you may like to deploy a pre-built Java EE archive using the code below:
import org.glassfish.embeddable.*;
// Obtain the deployer from the glassfish which is embedded via the piece of code above.
Deployer deployer = glassfish.getDeployer();
// syntax of deployment params are same as how they are passed to 'asadmin deploy' command.
deployer.deploy(new File("simple.war"), "--contextroot=test", "--name=test", "--force=true");
// if you have no deployment params to pass, then simply do this:
deployer.deploy(new File("simple.war"));
If your archive is not pre-built, instead it's components are scattered in multiple directories, then you may be interested in using the scattered archive APIs:
import org.glassfish.embeddable.*;
import org.glassfish.embeddable.archive.*;
Deployer deployer = glassfish.getDeployer();
// Create a scattered web application.
ScatteredArchive archive = new ScatteredArchive("testapp", ScatteredArchive.Type.WAR);
// target/classes directory contains my complied servlets
archive.addClassPath(new File("target", "classes"));
// resources/sun-web.xml is my WEB-INF/sun-web.xml
archive.addMetadata(new File("resources", "sun-web.xml"));
// resources/MyLogFactory is my META-INF/services/org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory
archive.addMetadata(new File("resources", "MyLogFactory"), "META- INF/services/org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory");
deployer.deploy(archive.toURI())
Similarly, the scattered enterprise application (EAR type) can be deployed like this:
import org.glassfish.embeddable.*;
import org.glassfish.embeddable.archive.*;
Deployer deployer = glassfish.getDeployer();
// Create a scattered web application.
ScatteredArchive webmodule = new ScatteredArchive("testweb", ScatteredArchive.Type.WAR);
// target/classes directory contains my complied servlets
webmodule.addClassPath(new File("target", "classes"));
// resources/sun-web.xml is my WEB-INF/sun-web.xml
webmodule.addMetadata(new File("resources", "sun-web.xml"));
// Create a scattered enterprise archive.
ScatteredEnterpriseArchive archive = new ScatteredEnterpriseArchive("testapp");
// src/application.xml is my META-INF/application.xml
archive.addMetadata(new File("src", "application.xml"));
// Add scattered web module to the scattered enterprise archive.
// src/application.xml references Web module as "scattered.war". Hence specify the name while adding the archive.
archive.addArchive(webmodule.toURI(), "scattered.war");
// lib/mylibrary.jar is a library JAR file.
archive.addArchive(new File("lib", "mylibrary.jar"));
// target/ejbclasses contain my compiled EJB module.
// src/application.xml references EJB module as "ejb.jar". Hence specify the name while adding the archive.
archive.addArchive(new File("target", "ejbclasses"), "ejb.jar");
deployer.deploy(archive.toURI())
Finally, towards the end of your application, you would like to stop/dispose your embedded GlassFish:
import org.glassfish.embeddable.*;
/** Stop GlassFish */
glassfish.stop(); // you can start it again.
/** Dispose GlassFish */
glassfish.dispose(); // you can not start it again. But you can embed a fresh glassfish with GlassFishRuntime.bootstrap().newGlassFish()