Java EE EAR debugging with source tree

I've recently been assigned to work on a Java project. I don't have a lot of experience with this kind of development, so I'm kind of struggling.
The typical development process for this project is:

1. Make changes in source code
2. Run ant build script to create EAR
3. Deploy EAR to development server (Weblogic 12.1.2)
4. Run application and see if the changes you've made fix the issue you're working on.

So, I am taking it as my personal goal to make it possible to do local development, so debugging will actually work and such.

After spending time googling and playing around, I'm able to get at least part of the way, but am having trouble towards the end of the process.

I've tried some different methods to try to get things working.

First, I checked out the source code via Eclipse, so it shows up as a Project and is correctly linked to subversion. I can bring the build.xml file into the Ant view and build the target I'm interested in. This gives me a EAR file (and a WAR file). But when I try to debug the project, via the right-click on the project and selecting Debug As... I get three options: Java Applet, Java Application, JUnit Test.

If I choose Java Applet, I then get a Select Java Applet popup. After choosing what I think is the right applet I get Errors exist in required project(s), Proceed with launch? If I proceed, I get an Applet Viewer and a bajillion errors and nothing else. If I don't proceed, then the Error log fills up with a bajillion other errors.

If I choose Java Application I get a list of a bunch of different entries, none of which is what I'm trying to debug.

So, after trying all that, I decided to see if I could just import the generated EAR file and debug that way. So, I went through the Import wizard, found the EAR file that I build via Ant. After selecting that and proceeding through the dialog, I get two projects in my Project Explorer: the application (we'll call it AppX) and the AppX_WEB project.

Now, if I select the AppX project and choose Debug As, I get Debug On Server, which is promising. The Console tells me that the server is listening on 127.0.0.1:7001, and the built-in browser actually starts bringing up the page. So I'm feeling pretty good about all that.

The problem is, though, I don't know how to attach that EAR file to the source tree that I've got already so I can actually step through the code.

And going deeper, how do I set it up so that I can develop in my source tree and have them automatically propagated into the EAR file and redeployed?

Or, even better, can I get this working without having to build the EAR file and deploy it? Meaning, can I just run straight from the source tree?

Anyway, any help you can give will be much appreciated.

Thanks!