EJB Remote on JBoss AS 7.1 / 6.1EAP

I met many, many, many confusion posted on JBoss forums and Stack overflow about this topic. I hope the contents here will save your time.

The main purpose of this post is to deploy an ejb remote in JBoss and connect from a static main Test - from the 'outside'.
And a the secondary goal is to present the maven structure I use in my projects.

Steps 1..9 :

1. Define application user on JBoss

    Use the add-user.sh utility : https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS71/add-user+utility

2. Install a JBoss server plugin in your IDE

    JBoss developer studio is not a bad thing : http://www.jboss.org/tools

3. Start with a maven project / modules structure

    I would recomand this design :
    A parent pom project hosting

• api module (interfaces) 
• war module depending on api module.

NOTE :

You must add  JEE6 api on parent level or on war level :
                <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.openejb</groupId>
            <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
            <version>6.0-4</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>


and see here after point 7. note2 why you should NOT add the 'original' javax jee6 api dependency.

4. Define the remote interface within the api module

	public interface IRecipeService{
	public RecipeRef findByPk(long pk);
	public Recipe prepare(long pk, int count);
	}

view raw gistfile1.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Note : the interface is EJB-agnostic.

5. Implement the Stateless within the war module

	@Stateless
	@Remote(IRecipeService.class)
	public class RecipeServiceBean implements IRecipeService {
	public RecipeRef findByPk(long pk) {
	RecipeRef r = new RecipeRef();
	r.setPk(1);
	r.setName("Georgetown Cupkcake recipe");
	return r;
	}
	public Recipe prepare(long pk, int count) {
	Recipe recipe = new Recipe(findByPk(pk));
	recipe.setDirections("directions");
	return recipe;
	}
	}

view raw gistfile1.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Just avoiding hello world pattern ;)

6. Start JBoss and check JNDI deployment log

    java:global/cupcake-engine/RecipeServiceBean!ch.ectropy.cupcake.service.IRecipeService
    java:app/cupcake-engine/RecipeServiceBean!ch.ectropy.cupcake.service.IRecipeService
    java:module/RecipeServiceBean!ch.ectropy.cupcake.service.IRecipeService
    java:jboss/exported/cupcake-engine/RecipeServiceBean!ch.ectropy.cupcake.service.IRecipeService
    java:global/cupcake-engine/RecipeServiceBean
    java:app/cupcake-engine/RecipeServiceBean
    java:module/RecipeServiceBean

NOTE :
The java:jboss/exported prefix is our exported remote EJB.

7. Create test ejb client with correct module dependencies

You may add your test client directly within /test sources of the api module or somewhere else.
This and only this dependency is necessary for a testing main class connecting to a JBoss 6.1EAP AS:

    <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jboss.as</groupId>
            <artifactId>jboss-as-ejb-client-bom</artifactId>
            <version>7.2.0.Final</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

NOTE 1 : For JBoss 7.1.1 "Brontes" - use
<version>7.1.0.Final</version>

NOTE 2 : KICK OUT any dependancy on 

<groupId>javax</groupId> 
<artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId> 
<version>6.0</version>

WHY : This will cause errors on client side like:

ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class..

 

8. Create some static main Test class

	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	// lookup string : without java:jboss/exported/
	String ls = "/cupcake-engine/RecipeServiceBean!ch.ectropy.cupcake.service.IRecipeService";
	final Hashtable<Object, Object> jndiProperties = new Hashtable<Object, Object>();
	jndiProperties.put(InitialContext.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
	"org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory");
	jndiProperties.put(InitialContext.PROVIDER_URL,
	"remote://localhost:4447");
	jndiProperties.put("jboss.naming.client.ejb.context", true);
	jndiProperties.put(InitialContext.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL,
	"user");
	jndiProperties.put(InitialContext.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS,
	"password");
	final Context context = new InitialContext(jndiProperties);
	IRecipeService ri = (IRecipeService) context
	.lookup(ls);
	RecipeRef rr=ri.findByPk(0);
	System.out.println("name=" + rr.getName());
	}

view raw gistfile1.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

 

NOTE

This was the 'hardest' step : look at the jndi name :
a. The java:jboss/exported has been truncated.
b. The lookup string is formed as followed :

<app-name>/<module-name>/<distinct-name>/<bean-name>!<fully-qualified-classname-of-the-remote-interface>
<app-name> is the ear name - here empty as we are deploying directly from a war.

<module-name> is the war name.

The resulting string begins with /cupcake-engine

Documentation

https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS71/Remote+EJB+invocations+via+JNDI+-+EJB+client+API+or+remote-naming+project

 

9. Enjoy
janv. 14, 2014 11:29:16 PM org.xnio.Xnio <clinit>
INFO: XNIO Version 3.0.7.GA
janv. 14, 2014 11:29:16 PM org.xnio.nio.NioXnio <clinit>
INFO: XNIO NIO Implementation Version 3.0.7.GA
janv. 14, 2014 11:29:16 PM org.jboss.remoting3.EndpointImpl <clinit>
INFO: JBoss Remoting version 3.2.14.GA
janv. 14, 2014 11:29:16 PM org.jboss.ejb.client.remoting.VersionReceiver handleMessage
INFO: EJBCLIENT000017: Received server version 2 and marshalling strategies [river]
janv. 14, 2014 11:29:16 PM org.jboss.ejb.client.remoting.RemotingConnectionEJBReceiver associate
INFO: EJBCLIENT000013: Successful version handshake completed for receiver context EJBReceiverContext{clientContext=org.jboss.ejb.client.EJBClientContext@29fdf006, receiver=Remoting connection EJB receiver [connection=Remoting connection <2222537a>,channel=jboss.ejb,nodename=hp-envy]} on channel Channel ID a2134a0c (outbound) of Remoting connection 40e09d8b to localhost/127.0.0.1:4447
name=Georgetown Cupkcake recipe