| Date tip published: | 06/16/2003 |
| Description: | When working in WebSphere Studio (referred to as WSAD in this tip for WebSphere Studio Application Developer) you will generally be working with several different projects. Projects are the container folders that hold the components that make up the application you are working on. The Workspace is the top level container folder for your projects and it also stores how your Workspace appearance is set. WebSphere Studio can support multiple workspaces to allow you to have two or more totally different Workspaces. You may want to have one Workspace for training and experimenting and another for real production work. This tip will show you how to manage the multiple workspaces. |
To learn more about WebSphere use the following links:
Introduction to WebSphere Studio 5
Introduction to WebSphere 5 for Domino Developers
Click here to view Updated Tip about this subject for Rational Application Developer
 Multiple WebSphere Studio Workspaces
When working in WebSphere Studio (referred to as WSAD in this tip for WebSphere Studio Application Developer) you will generally be working with several different projects. Projects are the container folders that hold the components that make up the application you are working on. The Workspace is the top level container folder for your projects and it also stores how your Workspace appearance is set. WebSphere Studio can support multiple workspaces to allow you to have two or more totally different Workspaces. You may want to have one Workspace for training and experimenting and another for real production work. This tip will show you how to manage the multiple workspaces. First a few definitions. In WSAD, the application resources are organized into "projects". Projects are container objects which map directly to file folders on the file system. Projects contain all the file resources for an application. When you use WSAD to add a resource to a project, like an HTML page or a Java servlet, a file is created and added to the project's folder on your file system.
In the following image, WSAD is shown on the left and Windows Explorer is shown on the right. Notice that the project names in WSAD are the same as the folder names in Explorer. Also notice the same subfolder hierarchy under the TLCC_WSAD5DD1_Demo_Web project and folder. Note the same files listed in the pages folder for both WSAD and Explorer. Finally, notice that the TLCC_WSAD5DD1_Demo project, is comprised of two project folders, the TLCC_WSAD5DD1_Demo folder and the TLCC_WSAD5DD1_Demo_Web folder. Certain project types can contain several project modules which are stored in separate project folders. For example an Enterprise Application project type can include Web modules, Enterprise Java Bean modules, and Application Client modules. The TLCC_WSAD5DD1_Demo project is an Enterprise Application project which includes a Web project module.
Note for Domino Developers |
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 WSAD Projects are Like .NSF Databases in Domino
The Notes/Domino database (.NSF file) is the storage container for all of the resources in a Domino application. A Domino database can include forms, views, agents, framesets, pages, images and many other design components.
In WSAD, the Project serves this same purpose. A project folder can include servlets, JSPs, HTML pages, images and other file resources to deliver the application. However, unlike a Domino database, a WSAD project is not a document (data) container. |
 Selecting the Workspace
Whenever you start WSAD, you are prompted for the location of your workspace. This feature allows you to have more than one WSAD workspace on your local development environment at one time. Each time you start WSAD, you can choose which workspace you want to work on in that WSAD session. Use the [Browse...] button to select another workspace. If the directory you choose does not contain a WSAD workspace, then a new workspace folder is created at the specified location. The following image shows the prompt for the default workspace location.
You can not switch between workspaces after WSAD has loaded. To access an alternate workspace, close WSAD and start it again.
 Resetting WSAD to Prompt for a Workspace
When you check the option to 'Use this workspace as the default ...', as shown in the following image, the specified workspace is used for subsequent WSAD startups and you are not prompted to select the workspace.
Follow these steps to reset WSAD to prompt for a workspace on startup:
1. Shut down WSAD.
2. Open an MS-DOS prompt.
3. Navigate to the WSAD install directory and issue the "wsappdev -setworkspace" startup command as shown in the following image. WSAD will start and you are prompted for a workspace location.
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