Member-only story
Loose Applications: The Secret Sauce for Faster Java Development 🚀
If you’re a Java developer working with Open Liberty, MicroProfile, or Jakarta EE, you’ve probably heard the term “loose applications”. But what exactly are loose applications, and why should you care? In this article, we’ll dive into the world of loose applications, explore their benefits, and discuss when (and when not) to use them.
Whether you’re building microservices or just looking to speed up your development cycle, loose applications might just be the game-changer you need.
What Is A Loose Application?
A Loose Application refers to an application structure where deployment artifacts — classes, libraries, and configurations — are not packaged into a single WAR or EAR file. Instead, they remain in an exploded format on the file system. Think of it as keeping your application’s files “loose” and accessible, rather than zipping them up into a single archive.
Imagine making a change to your code and seeing it reflected instantly — no waiting for long build processes, no unnecessary redeployments. This approach is commonly used in development environments to support hot deployment and faster iterations without requiring full repackaging and redeployment.
