The WebSphere Application Server – Configure Plug-in stores WebSphere Application Server configuration information in a series of JSON files. You can divide the JSON files into smaller, more manageable pieces and use the small JSON files, or snippets, to create and modify configuration data.

Concept

Configuration information for WebSphere Application Server is stored in JSON files. The JSON files can then be stored as component version artifacts in IBM UrbanCode Deploy. For example, the artifacts for a component version of a cell might be stored as shown in the following screen capture:

The demo application that is provided with the WebSphere Application Server – Configure plug-in includes components and component processes. The Apply process includes steps that merge all JSON files in a directory to a single JSON file.

Starting in version 49 of the plug-in, a step named WebSphere – Merge Configuration Files was introduced, which can be used in place of Run Groovy Script steps.

Because JSON files are combined when the process runs, you can split large JSON files into smaller files that might be more manageable, and you can use JSON snippet files to add or modify WebSphere Application Server objects. In the screen shot that follows, two JDBC Providers have been added to the Cell configuration.

To learn how to create snippets, see one of these documents:

• For plug-in version 41 and later: WebSphere – Create Configuration Snippet (Plug-in version 41 and later).
• For plug-in version 40 and earlier: Creating configuration snippets for plug-in version 40 and earlier.

To learn how to manage your configuration by using components that contain snippet collections, see Managing configurations with snippet collections.