WebLogic Server 12.1.3: weblogic.jar Archive File

Prior to the  release of WebLogic 10.0, the weblogic.jar file could be bundled with a client application to provide WebLogic Server specific value added features, such as:^[1]

• Enhanced JDBC and WLS specific JMX interfaces
• WLS T3 Client
• WLS-IIOP Client

Modularity

To boost modularity, WebLogic Server’s file structure have been reorganized for greater flexibility since WLS 10.0. Many WebLogic Server components that were formerly included in the weblogic.jar archive file are now included in separate modules. The weblogic.jar archive now refers to these components in the modules directory from its manifest classpath.

For instance, the weblogic.jar in WLS 12.1.3 includes relative manifest classpath references to:

• $WL_HOME/modules
• $(dirname $WL_HOME)/oracle_common/modules

directories.

Because of this, weblogic.jar can no longer simply be moved to any new location without complications.

META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

As a consequence of the weblogic.jar reorganization, weblogic.jar is simply a container for the manifest file (i..e, META-INF/MENIFEST.MF).

Here is the contents of manifest file in weblogic.jar of WLS 12.1.3:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.9.2
Created-By: 1.7.0_15-b33 (Oracle Corporation)
Main-Class: weblogic.Server
Implementation-Vendor: BEA Systems
Implementation-Title: WebLogic Server 12.1.3.0.0  Fri Dec 27 03:55:01
 PST 2013 1570920
Implementation-Version: 12.1.3.0.0
Class-Path: weblogic-classes.jar ../../../oracle_common/modules/featur
 es/com.oracle.db.jdbc7-no-dms.jar ../../modules/features/weblogic.ser
 ver.merged.jar ../../modules/features/weblogic.server.merge.modules_1
 2.1.3.0.jar ../../../oracle_common/common/lib/config-launch.jar schem
 a/weblogic-domain-binding.jar schema/weblogic-domain-binding-compatib
 ility.jar schema/diagnostics-binding.jar schema/diagnostics-image-bin
 ding.jar aqapi.jar ../../../oracle_common/modules/mysql-connector-jav
 a-commercial-5.1.22/mysql-connector-java-commercial-5.1.22-bin.jar cr
 yptoj.jar  ../../../oracle_common/modules/datadirect/wlsqlserver.jar
 ../../../oracle_common/modules/datadirect/wldb2.jar ../../../oracle_c
 ommon/modules/datadirect/wlsybase.jar ../../../oracle_common/modules/
 datadirect/wlinformix.jar ../../../oracle_common/modules/datadirect/f
 mwgenerictoken.jar osgi.jar wlw-langx.jar jcom.jar weblogic-L10N.jar
 wljaccutil.jar   ../../modules/features/weblogic.server.modules_12.1.
 3.0.jar

References

1. WebLogic Server 10.0
2. Packaging Programs in JAR Files