7.5.4. Using Scoped EJB Client Contexts

Summary

To invoke an EJB In earlier versions of JBoss EAP 6, you would typically create a JNDI context and pass it the PROVIDER_URL, which would point to the target server. Any invocations done on EJB proxies that were looked up using that JNDI context, would end up on that server. With scoped EJB client contexts, user applications have control over which EJB receiver is used for a specific invocation.

Use Scoped EJB Client Context in a Remote Standalone Client

Prior to the introduction of scoped EJB client contexts, the context was typically scoped to the client application. Scoped client contexts now allow the EJB client contexts to be scoped with the JNDI contexts. The following is an example of a standalone remote client application that invokes the same bean twice using a scoped EJB client context:

public class MyApplication { 
    public static void main(String args[]) {
 
        // Use the "foo" security credential connect to the server and invoke this bean instance
        final Properties ejbClientContextPropsOne = getPropsForEJBClientContextOne():
        final javax.naming.Context ctxOne = new javax.naming.InitialContext(ejbClientContextPropsOne);
        final MyBeanInterface beanOne = ctxOne.lookup("ejb:app/module/distinct/bean!interface");
        beanOne.doSomething();
        ...
        ctxOne.close();
 
        // Use the "bar" security credential to connect to the server and invoke this bean instance
        final Properties ejbClientContextPropsTwo = getPropsForEJBClientContextTwo():
        final javax.naming.Context ctxTwo = new javax.naming.InitialContext(ejbClientContextPropsTwo);
        final MyBeanInterface beanTwo = ctxTwo.lookup("ejb:app/module/distinct/bean!interface");
        beanTwo.doSomething();
        ...
        ctxTwo.close();
    }
}

To use the scoped EJB client context, you configure EJB client properties programmatically and pass the properties on context creation. The properties are the same set of properties that are used in the standard jboss-ejb-client.properties file. To scope the EJB client context to the JNDI context, you must also specify the org.jboss.ejb.client.scoped.context property and set its value to true. This property notifies the EJB client API that it must create an EJB client context, which is backed by EJB receivers, and that the created context is then scoped or visible only to the JNDI context that created it. Any EJB proxies looked up or invoked using this JNDI context will only know of the EJB client context associated with this JNDI context. Other JNDI contexts used by the application to lookup and invoke EJBs will not know about the other scoped EJB client contexts.
JNDI contexts that do not pass the org.jboss.ejb.client.scoped.context property and aren't scoped to an EJB client context will use the default behavior, which is to use the existing EJB client context that is typically tied to the entire application.
Scoped EJB client contexts provide user applications with the flexibility that was associated with the JNP based JNDI invocations in previous versions of JBoss EAP. It provides user applications with more control over which JNDI context communicates to which server and how it connects to that server.

Note

With the scoped context, the underlying resources are no longer handled by the container or the API, so you must close the InitialContext when it is no longer needed. When the InitialContext is closed, the resources are released immediately. The proxies that are bound to it are no longer valid and any invocation will throw an Exception. Failure to close the InitialContext may result in resource and performance issues.