JACL Script - Update Application in WebSphere and Keep Existing Bindings

The link that you provide is to version 6.0 of the Application Server product.
The link for version 7.0 is:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v7r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.express.doc/info/exp/ae/rxml_taskoptions.html

Is there a particular reason that you are using Jacl as your scripting language?

I can understand if any/all of following are true:
- You have an existing collection of administrative scripts written in Jacl
- You already have knowledge of Jacl (Tcl), and are comfortable reading/writing in this language

The reason that I ask this question is that Jacl was announced as a deprecated scripting language in the version 6.1 document.  Subsequently, the version 7.0 statement was revised as documented here:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v7r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.base.doc/info/aes/ae/cxml_jacl.html

So, you might want to consider using Jython as your WSAS scripting language.

A book is available from IBM Press that describes / explains how to do this:

http://www.ibmpressbooks.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=9780137009527

An article about writing Jython scripts from scratch was recently published on the IBM developerWorks site:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/1004_gibson/1004_gibson.html

Let me look into the deployment parameters to see if I can provide a more complete answer to your question.

It looks like you are going to need to use/specify the virtualHost field of the MapWebModToVH option.

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v7r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.base.doc/info/aes/ae/rxml_adminapp.html

Hi HonorGod,

Let me answer your questions below.

** Is there a particular reason that you are using Jacl as your scripting language?
The only reason is because we have existing scripts from way back when and they still work. I realize that Jacl is being deprecated, but am in a time crunch and just need something that works.

** You already have knowledge of Jacl (Tcl), and are comfortable reading/writing in this language
Well, it would be more accurate to say that I know enough to get around, mostly by looking at simple examples in IBM infocenter many years ago.  Most of our newer scripts were done in jython by an experienced developer, which is no longer here.  I would attempt to use those, but they are written against ND installs and work through the deployment manager, vs. a base install.

I certainly am not opposed to using jython if you can provide a script that I can call from my shell script.

I can pass the virtual host if needed it, as I already have it set as a variable in the shell script.

Thanks so much for responding.

Lisa

HonorGod - sorry for the late response last time, did not have my email configured to go to both addresses.  I corrected this and can respond quicker in the future.

Not a problem.

Here is another developerWorks link to some existing, and updated Administrative scripts for WebSphere.  Some are in Jacl, some are in Jython.

Take a look, your answer may be immediately available here:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/samples/SampleScripts.html

Yes, I actually downloaded the deployment scripts from here a while back and was going through them this morning.  The scripts are pages long and I never found where I could do the update while keeping existing bindings.

ah.  ok, let me see what I can find out...

HonorGod,

I have the following two simple Jython scripts (forget Jacl at this point) working.  All they do is update/install the app.  If you can get either one of them to keep existing bindings then that would be wonderful.  I have tried several attempts at stuff I find out on the net, but no luck so far.

Thanks,

Lisa


**********************************************
AdminApp.update Jython Script
**********************************************
# app info
appName = "CL01ASRCacheEAR"
contentType = "app"

#
# options
#
installOpts = "update"
updatedContentLoc = "/tmp/ASRCache_vsb4-6-6.ear"
options = ["-operation", installOpts, "-contents", updatedContentLoc]

AdminApp.update(appName, contentType, options)
AdminConfig.save()

**********************************************
AdminApp.install Jython Script
**********************************************
# EAR file name
earFileName = "/tmp/ASRCache_vsb4-6-6.ear"

#
# Installation target options
#
node = "ASRShipPRD01"
server = "CL01ASRShipCachePRD"

AdminApp.install(earFileName, ["-node", node, "-server", server])
AdminConfig.save()

Since you want to "keep existing bindings", it would seem that you are most interested in the update scenario.

So, to do this, I would use the AdminApp.list() method, and pass:

- The name of the application
- and the option to request the current Virtual Host mappings.

For example:

bindings = AdminApp.view( appName, '-MapWebModToVH' );

Unfortunately, this results in a multiple line string, something along the lines of:

--------------------------------------------------


MapWebModToVH: Selecting virtual hosts for Web modules

Specify the virtual host where you want to install the Web modules that are contained in your application. You can install Web m
odules on the same virtual host or disperse them among several hosts.

Web module:  Default Web Application
URI:  DefaultWebApplication.war,WEB-INF/web.xml
Virtual host:  default_host


--------------------------------------------------

  Yes, there are lots of blank lines.

  So, it would appear that the best way to determine the existing Virtual host definition from this text would be to use a regular expression (RegExp, or re),
to locate, and extract this information from the call.

  Does that make sense?

  So, we could use something like:

wsadmin>import re

wsadmin>print AdminApp.list()
DefaultApplication
PlantsByWebSphere
SamplesGallery

wsadmin>appName = AdminApp.list().splitlines()[ 0 ]

wsadmin>result = AdminApp.view( appName, '-MapWebModToVH' );
wsadmin>print result


MapWebModToVH: Selecting virtual hosts for Web modules

Specify the virtual host where you want to install the Web modules that are contained in your application. You can install Web m
odules on the same virtual host or disperse them among several hosts.

Web module:  Default Web Application
URI:  DefaultWebApplication.war,WEB-INF/web.xml
Virtual host:  default_host


wsadmin>vhost = re.compile( '^Virtual host: (.*)$', re.MULTILINE ).search( result )

wsadmin>hostname = vhost.group( 1 ).strip()
wsadmin>print hostname
default_host

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Hi HonorGod,

You are over estimating my ability to grasp everything you did above.  8^)
I need to keep this as simple as possible so I understand what's going on.  Just so you know for each application we have there is a properties file that has all the info needed and is used by the scripts.  The shell script reads all those variables in and then we pass them to the jython/jacl scripts.  In the script examples below I have things hard coded for now, but will be substituting the variables once I have things working.  If you could just help me get the update working with the MapWebModToVH with the update script below then we'll be done.  I believe it's just a syntax error, me not putting the right brackets, etc.


This script is working - it installs the application and sets the virtual host as desired.  You are correct, we don't want to install everytime, we do need to update.
#===================================================================
# START installEntApp
#===================================================================
# EAR file name
earFileName = "/tmp/ASRCache_vsb4-6-6.ear"

#
# Installation target options
#
node = "ASRShipPRD01"
server = "CL01ASRShipCachePRD"

#
# "MapWebModToVH" task options
#
webModule = "ASRCacheServer"
uri = "ASRCacheServer.war,WEB-INF/web.xml"
virtualHost = "VHASRShip"
mapWebOptions = [[webModule, uri, virtualHost]]

AdminApp.install(earFileName, ["-node", node, "-server", server, "-MapWebModToVH", mapWebOptions])
AdminConfig.save()
#===================================================================
# STOP installEntApp
#===================================================================


The problem with the update I'm having right now is I can't get the syntax right to MapWebModToVH.  The following script works for the update, and I commented out the line I was trying to get to work with the MapWebModToVH.
#===================================================================
# START updateEntApp
#===================================================================
#
# app info
#
appName = "CL01ASRCacheEAR"
contentType = "app"
installOpts = "update"
updatedContentLoc = "/tmp/ASRCache_vsb4-6-6.ear"
options = ["-operation", installOpts, "-contents", updatedContentLoc]

#
# "MapWebModToVH" task options
#
webModule = "ASRCacheServer"
uri = "ASRCacheServer.war,WEB-INF/web.xml"
virtualHost = "VHASRShip"
mapWebOptions = [[webModule, uri, virtualHost]]

AdminApp.update(appName, contentType, options)
#AdminApp.update(appName, contentType, options "-MapWebModToVH", mapWebOptions)
AdminConfig.save()
#===================================================================
# STOP updateEntApp
#===================================================================

hi Honor God,

I've still been trying to get this but no luck.  Do you have any insight?  In the updateEntApp.py script above it works if I don't MapWebModToVH.  I'm pretty sure my only issue is I can't get the syntax correct when adding that option.  Any ideas when looking at the above?

If you could just show me an example that you get working using your own app and using the script above, modifiying it get it to work I'm sure I can take it from there.  Please let me know.

Thanks,

Lisa

So, all you need is the MapWebModToVH parameter?

I would like it in the format that would work within the script above.  I know the parameters to pass, but it complains.  If you could suggest the format to use with the above and it works I'll be happy.  Thanks for your help.

What parameters would you like to pass?

well that option requires the three parms defined below:

webModule = "ASRCacheServer"
uri = "ASRCacheServer.war,WEB-INF/web.xml"
virtualHost = "VHASRShip"

I thought the AdminApp.update statement commented out below should have worked, but it did not.

#===================================================================
# START updateEntApp
#===================================================================
#
# app info
#
appName = "CL01ASRCacheEAR"
contentType = "app"
installOpts = "update"
updatedContentLoc = "/tmp/ASRCache_vsb4-6-6.ear"
options = ["-operation", installOpts, "-contents", updatedContentLoc]

#
# "MapWebModToVH" task options
#
webModule = "ASRCacheServer"
uri = "ASRCacheServer.war,WEB-INF/web.xml"
virtualHost = "VHASRShip"
mapWebOptions = [[webModule, uri, virtualHost]]

AdminApp.update(appName, contentType, options)
#AdminApp.update(appName, contentType, options "-MapWebModToVH", mapWebOptions)
AdminConfig.save()
#===================================================================
# STOP updateEntApp
#===================================================================