# War file removed from reference application distribution **URL:** \ **Category:** Development\ **Created:** [October 27, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442 "2015-10-27T09:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/raff/32/11894_2.png) [@raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/raff)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/1 "2015-10-27T09:27:47Z")
I’m not sure why, but war file has been removed from the distro zip in > It breaks the SDK, which downloads a zip and deploys a war and modules to a server. Once the war is removed we need a new way to determine the version of OpenMRS Platform to be deployed for the modules to work. I would simply leave the war file in the zip, but if there is a good reason to remove it we need at least a property file in the zip indicating the version of platform to be downloaded separately. ---
**Author:** ![michael](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/michael/32/15070_2.png) [@michael](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/michael)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/2 "2015-10-27T13:23:20Z")
Since I made that pull request: > I’ll provide a synopsis/background here, [based on our conversations in IRC](https://botbot.me/freenode/openmrs/2015-10-26/?msg=52787973&page=3): 1. Our [OpenMRS.org](http://OpenMRS.org) download page offers two main choices for downloading OpenMRS 2.3: Either download the 2.3 Standalone edition, or download Platform 1.(latest) **and** a ZIP file of modules. 2. Since for the OpenMRS 2.2 and 2.3 releases, that “ZIP file of modules” as deployed to our Sourceforge file repository has not only contained the 2.x modules, but also the platform itself. 3. As a result, people are downloading Platform twice and not only were downloading an extra 100 MB, but also were confused about how to proceed. Based on that IRC conversation and a direct conversation with @wyclif, he requested that I make the commit/PR above. Before merging the PR, we wondered and assessed about any unforeseen dependencies (apparently, like this one!) but did not identify the SDK as being impacted or any other issues. I am by no means “committed” to that change (sorry, bad pun!) so feel free to respond in whatever way works for all the dependency. ---
**Author:** ![raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/raff/32/11894_2.png) [@raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/raff)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/3 "2015-10-27T13:32:26Z")
I see! Personally I wouldn’t distribute war and modules separately. The distribution is war + modules so why to ask people to download them separately. Also if they happen to download a wrong war file then the modules will most likely fail. Maybe instead of removing the war we should change the instructions and include them in some readme file in the zip file as well? ---
**Author:** ![wyclif](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/wyclif/32/19607_2.png) [@wyclif](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/wyclif)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/4 "2015-10-27T16:19:51Z")
Some users may already have the war file and only need just the modules or some of the modules but am not sure if such users are many. But also why can’t the SDK download the 2 separately? ---
**Author:** ![willa](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/willa/32/256_2.png) [@willa](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/willa)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 8:34am UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/5 "2015-10-28T08:34:32Z")
May be there could be another zip that bundle only the required modules for a particular version of reference application. ---
**Author:** ![raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/raff/32/11894_2.png) [@raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/raff)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/6 "2015-10-29T16:33:31Z")
SDK needs to know which version of war to get. The version could be stored in some property file in the zip of modules. It adds complexity, but it can be done. ---
**Author:** ![darius](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/darius/32/8082_2.png) [@darius](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/darius)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/7 "2015-10-29T20:05:32Z")
Could we implement this by publishing the catalog under [OpenMRS.org](http://OpenMRS.org) (or just a github text file I suppose) and querying that from the SDK, rather than coding it into the SDK? This seems like a generally useful set of information you might want to access in other scripts also! ---
**Author:** ![raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/user_avatar/talk.openmrs.org/raff/32/11894_2.png) [@raff](https://talk.openmrs.org/u/raff)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://talk.openmrs.org/t/war-file-removed-from-reference-application-distribution/3442/8 "2015-11-10T12:54:02Z")
FYI created: >