Out of the box, it is not possible to deploy an EAR to Oracle WebLogic using Eclipse.
Environment details:
Oracle guide: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/javaee/marx-oepe-spring-095718.html
The error I receive when trying to start the server is:
java.lang.Exception: Exception received from deployment driver. See Error Log view for more detail.
at oracle.eclipse.tools.weblogic.server.internal.DeploymentProgressListener.watch(DeploymentProgressListener.java:190)
at oracle.eclipse.tools.weblogic.server.internal.WlsJ2EEDeploymentHelper.deploy(WlsJ2EEDeploymentHelper.java:486)
at oracle.eclipse.tools.weblogic.server.internal.WeblogicServerBehaviour.publishWeblogicModules(WeblogicServerBehaviour.java:1466)
at oracle.eclipse.tools.weblogic.server.internal.WeblogicServerBehaviour.publishToServer(WeblogicServerBehaviour.java:898)
at oracle.eclipse.tools.weblogic.server.internal.WeblogicServerBehaviour.publishOnce(WeblogicServerBehaviour.java:686)
at oracle.eclipse.tools.weblogic.server.internal.WeblogicServerBehaviour.publish(WeblogicServerBehaviour.java:539)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publish(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:774)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.internal.Server.publishImpl(Server.java:3027)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.internal.Server$PublishJob.run(Server.java:341)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:54)
Caused by: weblogic.management.DeploymentException: VALIDATION PROBLEMS WERE FOUND
problem: cvc-complex-type.2.4c: Expected element 'module@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee' before the end of the content in element application@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee:<null>
at weblogic.application.internal.EarDeploymentFactory.findOrCreateComponentMBeans(EarDeploymentFactory.java:193)
at weblogic.application.internal.MBeanFactoryImpl.findOrCreateComponentMBeans(MBeanFactoryImpl.java:48)
at weblogic.application.internal.MBeanFactoryImpl.createComponentMBeans(MBeanFactoryImpl.java:110)
at weblogic.application.internal.MBeanFactoryImpl.initializeMBeans(MBeanFactoryImpl.java:76)
at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.MBeanConverter.createApplicationMBean(MBeanConverter.java:89)
at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.MBeanConverter.createApplicationForAppDeployment(MBeanConverter.java:67)
at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.MBeanConverter.setupNew81MBean(MBeanConverter.java:315)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.ActivateOperation.compatibilityProcessor(ActivateOperation.java:81)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.AbstractOperation.setupPrepare(AbstractOperation.java:295)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.ActivateOperation.doPrepare(ActivateOperation.java:97)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.operations.AbstractOperation.prepare(AbstractOperation.java:217)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.handleDeploymentPrepare(DeploymentManager.java:747)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.prepareDeploymentList(DeploymentManager.java:1216)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentManager.handlePrepare(DeploymentManager.java:250)
at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.DeploymentServiceDispatcher.prepare(DeploymentServiceDispatcher.java:159)
at weblogic.deploy.service.internal.targetserver.DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.doPrepareCallback(DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.java:171)
at weblogic.deploy.service.internal.targetserver.DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.access$000(DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.java:13)
at weblogic.deploy.service.internal.targetserver.DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer$1.run(DeploymentReceiverCallbackDeliverer.java:46)
at weblogic.work.SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl$WorkAdapterImpl.run(SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.java:528)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:209)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)
Caused by: weblogic.descriptor.DescriptorException: VALIDATION PROBLEMS WERE FOUND
problem: cvc-complex-type.2.4c: Expected element 'module@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee' before the end of the content in element application@http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee:<null>
at weblogic.descriptor.internal.MarshallerFactory$1.evaluateResults(MarshallerFactory.java:245)
at weblogic.descriptor.internal.MarshallerFactory$1.evaluateResults(MarshallerFactory.java:231)
at weblogic.descriptor.internal.MarshallerFactory$1.createDescriptor(MarshallerFactory.java:155)
at weblogic.descriptor.BasicDescriptorManager.createDescriptor(BasicDescriptorManager.java:323)
at weblogic.application.descriptor.AbstractDescriptorLoader2.getDescriptorBeanFromReader(AbstractDescriptorLoader2.java:788)
at weblogic.application.descriptor.AbstractDescriptorLoader2.createDescriptorBean(AbstractDescriptorLoader2.java:409)
at weblogic.application.descriptor.AbstractDescriptorLoader2.loadDescriptorBeanWithoutPlan(AbstractDescriptorLoader2.java:759)
at weblogic.application.descriptor.AbstractDescriptorLoader2.loadDescriptorBean(AbstractDescriptorLoader2.java:768)
at weblogic.application.ApplicationDescriptor.getApplicationDescriptor(ApplicationDescriptor.java:296)
at weblogic.application.internal.EarDeploymentFactory.findOrCreateComponentMBeans(EarDeploymentFactory.java:178)
I am posting this up in the hope that someone who has been bitten by this before can simply reel off the answer - this question features heavily on Oracle and DevX forums when I post the stack into Google, and has not been answered.
Note: Company constraints insist on the use of the specific version of the software quoted at the top of the question - I am fully aware that this version of WebLogic is not Java EE 6 compliant.
Thanks for the steer guys. It appears that my application.xml file is a red herring - whilst I do have one, my Maven POM has a plugin which generates its own during build. The problem was that, for Eclipse, the Deployment Assembly (Right Click > Deployment Assembly) did not contain any references to the WAR and JAR project dependenices. I wrongly assumed that Eclipse would simply detect and use an application.xml file found in the folder hierarchy. An empty application.xml file was being created, and thus the stack trace correctly bemoans the lack of modules to deploy.