Hi Marcel,
I had suspected that the deployment descriptor would only show deployed webapps/ejbs. However, there is a way to add jar modules to the deployment descriptor as well (ex: <java>ComCommon.jar</java>). But the plugin doesn't seem to do this.
Essentially, I have WebAppB which has a non-explicit dependence on classes/config files that are defined in modules (ComConfig and ComCommon - both normal non-EJB jars) found in WebAppA. Consequently, if I want to package the EAR using "fat" wars (ie: normal, regular wars), I need to give WebAppB some form of access to the modules in WebAppA. The only "clean" way I can think of doing this is to put the necessary modules in the EAR/lib folder such that WebAppB's classloader automatically has access to them. The only way I can think of doing this is to declare them as <jarModule>, expecting them to be placed in the EAR/lib folder.
I also found problems with the libs that were duplicated between the WEB-INF/lib and the EAR/lib folder, but I attributed that to m2e-wtp not supporting <skinnyWars> attribute. Consequently, the packager does not know to eliminate them from the WEB-INF/lib folder and they get published twice. I'd love to see the PMR though, and see if it is the same problem.
I didn't check the looseconfig.xmi file when the projects were closed, but I suppose they aren't even listed as the m2e plugin updates the deployment assembly to point to published JAR files instead of making reference to open projects/target folders. So I suspect that they won't even be listed.
Thanks,
Eric