I have implemented this enhancement by modifying the Glassfish Common module and the Glassfish Java EE module.

The attached image shows the UI for the Glassfish server properties.  There is a new "Force Archive Deployment" option to force the deployment to not do directory deployment but rather upload the archive.

This is a simple change GlassishModule.java with the addition of:

    
    public static final String FORCE_ARCHIVE_DEPLOYMENT_FLAG = "forceArchiveDeployment";
    
A simple change to the InstancePanel.java to add support for the "Force Archive Deployment" checkbox.

And then a simple change FastDeploy.java to not support directory deployment if the "Force Archive Deployment" is checked:


   @Override
    public boolean canFileDeploy(Target target, J2eeModule deployable) {
        if (null == deployable){
            return false;
        }
        
        if (deployable.getType() == J2eeModule.Type.CAR) {
            return false;
        }

        final GlassfishModule commonSupport = dm.getCommonServerSupport();
// new code
        Boolean forceArchiveDeployment = Boolean.parseBoolean(commonSupport.getInstanceProperties().get(GlassfishModule.FORCE_ARCHIVE_DEPLOYMENT_FLAG));
        if (Boolean.TRUE.equals(forceArchiveDeployment)) {
            return false;
        }
//
        String url = commonSupport.getInstanceProperties().get(GlassfishModule.URL_ATTR);

        if (!url.trim().matches(".*:[0-9]+$"))  // NOI18N
            return url.trim().endsWith("server");

        return true;
    }

Created attachment 164885 [details]
Screenshot of the proposed addition

I forgot to upload what the screen would look like with the new addition.