In my previous post I discussed how to install the 11.1.1.6.0 ADF Runtimes into a standalone WLS 10.3.6 server by using the ADF Runtime installer, not the JDeveloper installer.  Yet there's still a problem for developers here because JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.0 comes coupled with a WLS 10.3.5 server.  What if you want to develop, deploy and test with a 10.3.6 server?  Have we lost the ability to integrate the IDE and the WLS server where we can run and stop the server, deploy our apps automatically the server and more?

JDeveloper actually solved this issue sometime back but not many people will have recognized the feature for what it does as it wasn't needed until now.

Via the Application Server Navigator you can create 2 types of connections, one to a remote "standalone WLS" and another to an "integrated WLS".  It's this second option that is useful because what we can do is install a local standalone WLS 10.3.6 server on our developer PC, then create a separate "integrated WLS" connection to the standalone server.  Then by accessing your Application's properties through the Application menu -> Application Properties -> Run -> Bind to Integration Application Server option we can choose the newly created WLS server connection to work with our application.

In this way JDeveloper will now treat the new server as if it was the integrated WLS.  It will start when we run and deploy our applications, terminate it at request and so on.  Of course don't forget you still need to install the ADF Runtimes for the server to be able to work with ADF applications.

Note there is bug 13917844 lurking in the Application Server Navigator for at least JDev 11.1.1.6.0 and earlier.  If you right click the new connection and select "Start Server Instance" it will often start one of the other existing connections instead (typically the original IntegratedWebLogicServer connection).  If you want to manually start the server you can bypass this by using the Run menu -> Start Server Instance option which works correctly.