The fundamentals of developing on Liferay DXP and customizing it are perhaps best learned in the context of projects. It’s in projects that you configure access to Liferay DXP’s API, extend and override Liferay DXP features, and package your software for deployment. Projects are developed as WARs or OSGi JARs, but are all installed to Liferay’s OSGi framework as OSGi bundles. These bundles can depend on external Java packages, share Java packages, and be manipulated at run time via Apache Gogo Shell. The fundamentals are explained in the context of projects so that you understand them in a practical sense and can apply them right away. Here are the fundamental topics:
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WARs Versus OSGi JAR explains fundamental differences between the WAR and OSGi JAR structures and how they’re deployed in Liferay DXP.
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Configuring Dependencies demonstrates how to identify and configure Liferay artifacts and third-party artifacts to use their Java packages in your projects.
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Importing and Exporting Packages shows how to import the packages your projects need and export packages your projects provide. Liferay’s tooling detects package use and specifies package imports automatically.
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Semantic Versioning shows how Liferay DXP uses a standard for ascribing meaning to major, minor, and micro versions of modules and Java packages.
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Deploying WARs (WAB Generator) explains how Liferay’s WAB Generator deploys WAR applications as OSGi Web Application Bundles (WABs).
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Gogo Shell enables you to examine components, debug issues, and manage deployments.
Start with understanding how WAR and OSGi JAR project structures are used in development.