Deployment Descriptor
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A Deployment Descriptor (DD) is a component in Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition applications that describes how a web application should be deployed. It directs a deployment tool to deploy a module or application with specific container options and describes specific configuration requirements that a deployer must resolve.
In Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition applications, XML is used for the syntax of the Deployment Descriptor file. It must be called web.xml, and it must be placed in a sub directory called WEB-INF, directly under the web application root.
The term Deployment Descriptor is also used as a general reference to a configuration file for an artifact that is deployed to some container/engine (e.g. process deployment descriptor for the BPEL-Engine ActiveBPEL).