Enterprise Explorer view and Web development

The Enterprise Explorer view is the default view in the Web perspective. This view provides the following notable features:

 

Organization of the Enterprise Explorer view

The Enterprise Explorer view shows a custom view of all projects with added J2EE extensions. The following are some of the notable top-level objects that appear beneath the project node (based on default folder names).

Web Deployment Descriptor - This file corresponds to the WebContent/WEB-INF/web.xml file, which is used to specify deployment information for modules created in the Web development environment. You can edit this file using the Web Deployment Descriptor Editor, or you can select

Open With from its pop-up menu to open the file with a different editor.

Web Site Navigation - Opens Web Site Designer, which is used to specify the site structure as a hierarchy based on the home page. This can be used to automatically create navigation bars in your web pages.

Java Resources - This node displays Java resources within the project. If the project contains a single Java source folder, the packages and classes (for example, servlets, beans) within the source folder will be shown directly beneath the Java Resources folder node. If the project contains multiple source folders, each source folder will appear beneath the Java Resources folder and can be expanded to show their packages and classes.

Web Diagram - A Web application diagram, or Web diagram, is a file that helps you visualize and change the flow of a Web application such as a Faces or Struts-based application. This file and associated wizard enables you to construct a diagram of a Web application by clicking on objects in a palette.

Underneath the Deployment Descriptor are placeholders object that are reserved for the creation of Servlets, Servlet Mappings, Filters, Filter Mappings, References, Security (constraints and roles) and Listeners. You can create instances of these objects by right clicking on an object and selecting New from the pop-up menu.

Web content folder - This folder contains items to be published to the server. By default, this folder will be named WebContent for newly created static and dynamic Web projects.

Note: You can change the name in the creation wizard on the Web facet page.

Security Editor - Opens the Security Editor, which is used to set and test security in a dynamic Web application. The Security Editor consolidates the security settings in the Web deployment descriptor editors, enabling you to set and modify Web site security from a single interface.