JBoss comes in different flavors. We have used the one with Tomcat built in (to handle servlets). Eventually we will want to hook this up to Apache.
We have NOT had much success in getting Tomcat to work well with Apache. I would advice against going down that path (especially if you are on Linux). Someday we will probably try to get JBoss to work with Apache and I dread the day. I am hoping the JBoss documentation and support people will be helpful. Unfortunately, the Jakarta Tomcat group is one of the worst open source efforts I have seen. My guess is that the do-ocracy has turned into a political mess there, with the most ineffective people providing the interface to the (developer) public.
There are lots of commercial alternatives to JBoss. For developer purposes, you can download and utilize just about any J2EE app server for free. The following companies provide developer versions of their app servers: BEA (Weblogic), Macromedia (JRun), and Oracle (iAS). The appealing thing about using one of these, is that you can say that you have experience on them. Since they seem to be used by larger, more established companies, that may translate into some dollars for you when seeking a new job (unless JBoss can break into these markets).
If you are doing EJBs, then you'll need more than Eclipse. We have used the MyEclipse plugin and it is very nice. It is a commercial product and we licensed it for something like $29 per user (about 1/100th the cost of JBuilder!). It includes all the stuff (XDoclet, etc...) for deploying a bean (setting up the deplopyment descriptors) and doing servlets/JSPs. I have heard good things about another J2EE pluging called Lomboz. You may want to check that out.
The thing I like about Eclipse is that it hides a lot of Java technologies from you. Thinks like Ant and XDoclet are a feat to learn on their own. However, the development environment hides most of these items from you.
Good luck. Mike
Hi everybody
Short version: Anybody have suggestions for: IDE HTTP Server App Server (with EJB support)
Long version: At work we use IBM Visual Age for Java (VAJ), Domino as an HTTP server (don't ask) and Websphere as an application server.
We've been investigating the possibility of switching Eclipse for VAJ instead of upgrading to the next version. We imported our site into Eclipse and it compiled well, we deployed it to a test Domino/Websphere successfully.
I've been investigating setting up a variation at home, an IDE, HTTP server, App server, that could be used for our developing/maintaining/running our site, for the purpose of learning more and perhaps coming up with better/cheaper alternatives to VAJ / Websphere. Beginning with Apache, I discovered Tomcat as an app server (as Apache is only an HTTP server). But I understand that Tomcat doesn't do EJB's and I've encountered JBoss.
I'm looking for Open Source software, it's cheap. But also, software that's well established in the community, so that it's not likely to fade away.
Anybody have suggestions for nice, robust, not too difficult, etc. software?
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