The SpringSource dm Server provides out-of-the-box support for deploying standard Java EE WAR files. In addition support for Shared Libraries and Shared Services WAR formats provides a logical migration path away from standard, monolithic WARs toward OSGi-enable Web applications. The PAR packaging and deployment format enables truly fine-grained, loosely-coupled, and efficient application development. In general, the migration steps presented in this chapter are fairly straightforward, but developers should set aside time for some up-front design of the bundles themselves.

It is recommended that you take another sample application or indeed your own small application and go through this migration process yourself. This will help you better understand the concepts and principles at work. In addition, it is highly recommended that you familiarize yourself with the Eclipse-based SpringSource dm Server Tools support which is discussed in Chapter 7, Tooling.