Quick Start Guide

The purpose of this guide is to get you started on deploying applications in WSO2 Application Server (WSO2 AS) as quickly as possible. See the following topics for details: 

Introduction and key concepts

WSO2 Application Server (WSO2 AS) is a complete solution for hosting, deploying and managing applications and services. It lies as the middle tier between the backend (database layer) and the front end (consumers of WSO2 AS) of a system. The following diagram depicts how consumers (web channels and client applications) connect to an application deployed in WSO2 AS:
 

The main function of WSO2 AS is to deploy applications that are designed to perform certain tasks, such as retrieving data from a database and manipulating the data. External Web channels connect to the Web applications deployed in the AS to consume the services performed by the applications.  For example, if a user triggers a control in a Web channel (like clicking  Submit),  it sends a message to the application deployed in the AS. The application deployed in the AS defines the course of actions that need to be taken to serve the Web channel (such as retrieving data from the database and presenting it to the end-user).

WSO2 AS also comes with a list of features to help you deploy and manage Web applications easily and securely. You get the required configurations already bundled and built in the binary distribution. You can use it to start deploying applications and services immediately. When you use the AS in a production environment, you can enhance the configurations in order to obtain a more robust system that caters to your requirements.  

Installing and setting up WSO2 AS

 Follow the steps given below to download WSO2 DSS.

1. Download WSO2 AS from  here.
2. Extract the zip file to a location in your computer. This location will be referred to as <AS_HOME> from hereon.

Before you start the server, the following prerequisites should be in place:

1. Ensure that you have JDK 7/8 installed in your computer.
2. You must set your JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the directory where the Java Development Kit (JDK) is installed on the computer.

WSO2 AS is now installed with the required settings.

Deploying and managing your first application

Let's deploy a sample Web application called HelloWorldWebapp and expose it to an external Web channel. 

Step 1: Deploying an application

You are now ready to deploy your first application in WSO2 AS. You will be using the sample Web application (HelloWorldApp) for this demonstration.  Follow the steps given below.

1. Download the sample HelloWorldWebapp Web application from here and save it to a location in your computer.
2. Open a terminal and navigate to the  <AS_HOME>/bin  directory and execute the AS startup script using one of the following commands:
   
   • On Windows: wso2server.bat
   • On Linux: sh wso2server.sh
3. When the product is started, the URL of the Management Console will be shown in the terminal as follows:
   INFO {org.wso2.carbon.ui.internal.CarbonUIServiceComponent} -  Mgt Console URL  : https: //10.100.5.65:9443/carbon/ 

4. Copy this URL to your browser to open the Management Console.

5. Log in to the Management Console using the default administrator credentials: admin/admin.

6. In the left navigator, go to the Main tab and click Web Applications under the Add menu.
   

7. The Upload Web Applications page opens.
   

   1. Click Choose File and browse for the WAR file of the HelloWorldWebapp application.

   2. Enter a version for the Web application in the Version field. We will used '1.0.0' as the first version of this application. 

      By versioning the WAR file, you can add more applications with the same name later. Read more about versioning of Web applications from here.

8. Once the file is uploaded successfully, click Applications -> List. The HelloWorldWebapp Web application will be listed in the Running Applications page as shown below.

You have deployed a sample Web application in the server. Let's run it.

Step 2: Running the application

Follow the steps below to connect to the application that you deployed in the previous step.

1. In the Management Console, click Applications -> List to open the Running Applications page.
2. See that the HelloWorldWebapp Web application is listed as an application deployed in the server. 
3. Click the Go To URL link associated with the HelloWorldWebapp Web application that you deployed earlier. 
4. Now that you have the URL of the application deployed in WSO2 AS, you can connect to the application from any external Web channel such as your browser.
5. The application opens in your browser as shown below.
   

Step 3: Monitoring the application

The Management Console of WSO2 AS allows you to access the statistics of a running server instance using Application Dashboards. Follow the steps given below.

1. Click Applications -> List in the left navigator of the Management Console to open the Running Applications page.
2. Click the  HelloWorldWebapp  application that is listed there. This will take you to the dashboard dedicated for the application.
   You will see the following information displayed on the dashboard:
   1. The  Application Details  panel will show all the general information about the Web application.
      
   2. The  Session Statistics  panel will show all the statistical information about the user sessions of the applications. It also provides a graphical view of the average system response time.
      
   3. In the  Statistics  panel, you will find the following statistics of a running web application. Note that these statistics are not applicable to  Jaggery  applications.
      • Request Count  - Total number of requests received to web applications.

      • Response Count - Total number of responses served by the web applications.

      • Fault Count - Total number of requests that triggered faults.

      • Maximum Response Time - Maximum time required to serve a request

      • Minimum Response Time - Minimum time required to serve a request

      • Average Response Time - Average time required to serve a request.
      

Deep diving into the Application Server

If you have followed the use case given above, you should now be familiar with using the management console of WSO2 AS and it's basic functionality. WSO2 AS comes with many features that you can configure to support your enterprise requirements. Listed below are some of the more advance features that you can use when you manage applications in WSO2 AS.

• Enabling SaaS mode and CORS for your applications. See this link for instructions.
• Customizing logging management for your applications. See this link for instructions.
• Deploying multiple domains in a single server instance by configuring virtual hosts. See this link for instructions.
• Using Single-Sign-On with SAML for your web applications by integrating with WSO2 Identity Server. See this link for instructions.
• Using XACML fine grained authorization for your web applications by integrating with WSO2 Identity Server. See this link for instructions.
• Configuring class loading for your web applications using separate runtime environments. See this link for instructions.

For more in-depth information about WSO2 AS see the following links:

• User Guide: Explains the various types of web applications and how they can be deployed in WSO2 AS. 
• Configuration Guide: Explains the various configuration options that are available for your product, such as enhancing Security, Multitenancy support, Logging management, Database management etc.
• Administration Guide: Explains how you can further enhance the features of your product.