Classpath for Java archive within .ear file from a web application on JBoss 6.2

Question

Background

Running a J2EE application on JBoss. The Content Repository contains:

• WebApp.war
• ReportService.ear
• additional .jar files

The ReportService.ear file contains:

/ReportService-ejb.jar
/lib/*.jar

The ReportService-ejb.jar contains:

/META-INF/reports/Report.jasper
/META-INF/reports/Subreport.jasper

Environment

• Java 1.7
• NetBeans 8.0.2
• JBoss 6.2.0 GA

Problem

The following path must be on the CLASSPATH so that when the Web Application runs, the Report Service can find the root of the META-INF directory:

ReportService.ear >> ReportService-ejb.jar >> /META-INF/.

That is, Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource(filename) must be able to read the file /META-INF/reports/Report.jasper when:

filename = "/META-INF/reports/Report.jasper"

The problem is that when the reporting service tries to read the file, the following error appears, which is a custom error message that only happens if getResource fails to find the file:

java.io.IOException: Missing resource path: '/META-INF/reports/Report.jasper'.

When running the Report Service unit tests against the deployment (over RMI), the reports run successfully. This could be because NetBeans is making the local copy of the report template files (i.e., the /META-INF/reports/*.jasper files) available.

Additional Details

Regarding the Web Application:

• MANIFEST.MF is generated automatically by NetBeans using project.properties and currently does not contain a Class-Path entry.
• jboss-app.xml file contains only <jboss-app/>.
• jboss-web.xml file contains the context root, security domain, and other configuration items.
• application.xml does not exist.

The WebApp.war file could also be bundled and deployed inside WebApp.ear.

Question

What file must be updated with a CLASSPATH so that the Web Application can use the Report Service to successfully find files in the /META-INF/ directory of the ReportService.jar, which is nested within ReportService.ear?

Note: The build process (via build.xml and build-impl.xml) overwrites MANIFEST.MF each time WebApp.war is built.

Ideas

• Update Build Scripts. Change build-impl.xml to update the manifest for WebApp.war to set a Class-Path entry that references ReportServices.jar. How will it find the .jar file if it is inside the ReportService.ear file?

• Update Web App EAR Manifest. Change MANIFEST.MF inside WebApp.ear to include a Class-Path: entry.

Resources

• JBoss Service Configuration Guide
• Adding Class-Path to NetBeans Generated Manifest
• EJB 2 and J2EE Packaging
• CodeRanch Thread
• Packaging EJB 3 Applications
• EAR Class Loading in AS7

Answer 1

Change:

Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource(filename)

to:

getClass().getResource(filename)