Configuring Deployments with Deployment Plans

One of the biggest challenges in developing and deploying Java EE applications is in the transition from development to test and into production. Each of these environments has its own unique demands and requirements. Fortunately, WebLogic Server provides a sophisticated scheme for isolating the places where customization is needed and defining the environment-specific details.

Developers create Java EE and WebLogic deployment descriptors for configuring applications for the development environment. Developers can export the deployment configuration of an application to a deployment plan when they release an application for testing, staging, or production deployment, though this isn't mandatory. The deployment plan, which is an XML-formatted file named plan.xml, consists of all or some of the configuration properties contained in the deployment descriptor files. Using a deployment plan makes it easy to configure changes before deploying the application into a different target environment.