EAR (file format)
Enterprise Archive, or Enterprise Application Archive ( EAR short, " enterprise application archive" ) is a term from the software in the environment of the Java programming language. The term refers to both a data format for the storage of programs and each realization of this storage format.
There is a file in the JAR or ZIP format, a complete application program - contains according to the standard Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) - usually a web application. These files have the file extension ". Ear".
Enterprise Application Archives make it possible to package complex applications in a file. This file format is understood by any Java application server that satisfies the Java EE standard, eg wildfly, Bea Weblogic or WebSphere.
Structure
Each Enterprise Application Archive contains a deployment descriptor named " application.xml ". This XML file describes the components of the application:
- Web Application Archive (WAR ) files which contain servlets
- Java archive ( JAR ) files that contain Enterprise JavaBeans ( EJBs), so-called " EJB JARs "
- Other JAR files with Java class libraries