Creating and using a custom server assembly

In this section we discuss how to use the Geronimo Eclipse Plugin to create and use a custom server assembly. Before you begin, you must have Eclipse and Geronimo Eclipse Plugin installed, and define a Geronimo server and server runtime in Eclipse.

Creating a custom server assembly

In order to create a custom server assembly, you must already have a Geronimo Server installed and started.

1. Double-clicking the Geronimo server will bring up the server editor in the main window.
2. Selecting Plugin page and clicking Create Custom Assembly will bring up the New Server Custom Assembly dialog that is shown below.
3. Select relevant plugins or plugins group to be extracted from the server. Items for working with the server can be found on the Plugins Group page.
4. Enter in the pertinent information and select all the items that you desire to have in the new server. Press Ctrl key to select multiple items in the list. Note that Geronimo Assembly :: Boilerplate or Geronimo Plugin Group :: Framework MUST be selected in order to create a working server.
   
   
   
   The assembled server will be placed under the directory that you specified. A .tar ball or .zip file will also be placed under the <Geronimo_home>/var/temp directory of the running server for easy distribution.

Using the server assembly

Now we have created a customized server assembly, it is time to use it. Stop the original server and uninstall it (easiest done by selecting Windows->Preferences->Server, and removing the server runtime environment. See Defining Geronimo server runtimes and servers page for the details). Use the same approach that you used to install the original server except for one tiny difference. This time, the location of *Application Server Installation Directory * should be the one where the newly created server was extracted to.



In place of a full stack of Geronimo server that you started with, you should now have a valid and customized Geronimo Server for development.