Difference war and ear

[Mike Himstead]

Hi,

what is the difference between a war file and an ear file? They are both normal zip files format-wise (right?), but what are the differences regarding their purpose?

[Paul Sturrock]

No difference in their compression format, just their purpose. An EAR is an enterprise application that may include a number of web applications, ejb applications etc. A WAR is specifically a web application. There are rules about how the contents of each should be structured in the JEE specification.

[Mike Himstead]

So a war file can be a subset of a ear file but still be able to stand alone (if the application provides for it)?

[Mike Himstead]

I just realized that my question was worded badly: is there any diagram (I'm a visual guy, I'm afraid) that shows an EAR's structure with possible content?

[Mark Spritzler]

Or check out https://coderanch.com/t/319377/EJB-JEE/java/differences-between-WAR-file-EAR

The thread that is only three threads below this one right now.


Mark