In this product, publishing involves copying files (projects, resource files, and server configurations) to the correct location for the server to find and use them. In the test environments, these files may already be in the correct location. In some cases, temporary copies of the server configurations may be created.
You can either publish your application automatically or manually. If the Automatically publish before starting servers check box on the Server preferences page ( Window > Preferences > Server) is selected, the server tools check to see if your project and files on the server are synchronized. If they are not, the project and the files are automatically updated when the server is either started or restarted.
The server tools provide several publishing methods that you can use when publishing projects and files.
The Server preferences page allows you to change which publishing method you want to use.
To publish your application manually you can complete one of the following in the Servers view:
In the WebSphere server, Tomcat local, J2EE publishing server and Static Web publishing server environments, clicking Publish to the server transfers publishable files outside the workbench. When publishing to one of these servers, you can either copy the files directly (WebSphere or Tomcat) or use File Transfer Protocol (WebSphere only).
All the projects defined in the server configuration that are associated with the selected server are published. The resources in these projects are transferred to the location that is defined by the server.
The Publishing Details dialog box appears allowing you to monitor the projects and files being published by displaying their status. Click Details to display more detailed information in a scrollable box at the bottom of this dialog. The Publishing Details dialog box automatically closes when publishing completes. If you want to leave this dialog open after publishing, select the Keep publishing dialog open after publishing check box on the Server preferences page.