2.1 Creating the parent project - ejb3-remove-stateless

We will start by creating the parent project (main project) from the point of view of organizing the project run by Apache Maven 2 (hereafter called m2). This will be a pom-type project which will include two sub-projects - the EJB bean module and the remote client module.

We can either create the project by hand - with the help of the mvn command, or using the NetBeans Maven2 project support plugin. Using the plugin made the process of creating the environment and working with m2 much easier. Thanks to the plugin we are able to perform most management functions from the IDE level. Until now these functions were performed from the command line level.

Assuming that the NetBeans Maven2 project support plugin has been installed correctly, select the File > New Project menu, and then the Maven category and the Maven Project.

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Click Next >

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Click Next > again, staying within the selection of the Maven Quickstart Project archetype.

On the next screen select the following project settings:

• Project Name: ejb3-remove-stateless
• Project Location: C:\
• Group Id: pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee
• Version: 1.0
• Package: pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee

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These settings may differ from those given but the rest of this article assumes that they are the same as those listed above.

Click Finish to complete the creation of the project.

Finally a jar-type project is created. We will change the configuration of this project in order for it to fulfill the role of parent project. Select the new ejb3-remove-stateless project, right click the mouse and choose the Properties option from the drop-down menu. Change the Packaging field from jar to pom.

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We will also modify the property of the project since we are using the Java version.

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Agree to the changes by clicking OK.

We will finish preparing the project by deleting the src directory which is created by default when the project is created, but which we will not need. To remove the directory go to the Files tab, select the src directory and choose Delete from the drop-down menu.

Remove the test library junit-3.8.1 from the project (we will later change this to version 4.2)

Creating the sub-project - ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3

To create the ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3 sub-project we will again use NetBeans IDE 6.0. We will follow similar steps to those we took when we created the ejb3-remove-stateless parent project, just changing the location of the target sub-project so that it appears in the directory containing the parent project (this is similar to performing the command mvn create:archetype in the parent catalogue).

Select the following project settings:

• Project Name: ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3
• Project Location: C:\ejb3-remove-stateless
• Group Id: pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee
• Version: 1.0
• Package: pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee

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Click Finish to complete the creation of the project.

Successful creation of the project will cause the pom.xml file of the parent project to be modified due to the registration of module ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3.

<modules>
   <module>ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3</module>
</modules>

Just as we did with the parent project, we will remove the junit-3.8.1 test library. We will also remove the Test Packages directory for individual tests (select the Files tab, expand the ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3 (jar) > src folder and remove the test directory marked with a red exclamation mark).

We will configure the project by changing Packaging to ejb. Right-click the mouse, select the Properties menu and in the dialogue box change the Packaging field from jar to ejb.

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Agree to the changes by clicking OK.

Remove the pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee.App category (from the Source Packages section). Finally we will configure the project to include the EJB 3.0 bean. This change requires the direct editing of the pom.xml file. We will add the maven-ejb-plugin to the configuration of this file.

<plugin>
   <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
   <artifactId>maven-ejb-plugin</artifactId>
   <configuration>
      <ejbVersion>3.0</ejbVersion>
   </configuration>
</plugin>

After modifying the pom.xml file you should see the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project>
   <parent>
      <artifactId>ejb3-remove-stateless</artifactId>
      <groupId>pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee</groupId>
      <version>1.0</version>
   </parent>
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee</groupId>
   <artifactId>ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3</artifactId>
   <name>ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3</name>
   <packaging>ejb</packaging>
   <version>1.0</version>
   <url>http://www.JacekLaskowski.pl</url>
   <build>
      <plugins>
         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-ejb-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
               <ejbVersion>3.0</ejbVersion>
            </configuration>
         </plugin>
      </plugins>
   </build>
</project>

Creating the sub-project - ejb3-remove-stateless-client

We will create the ejb3-remove-stateless-client project in the same way as we created the previous sub-project. It is very important that the Project Location is the ejb3-remove-stateless parent project directory.

Select the following project settings

• Project Name: ejb3-remove-stateless-client
• Project Location: C:\ejb3-remove-stateless
• Group Id: pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee
• Version: 1.0
• Package: pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee

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We will complete the preparation of the project by removing the junit-3.8.1.jar test library (Test Libraries), the pl.jaceklaskowski.javee.App category (Source Packages) as well as pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee.AppTest (Test Packages).

Complete project structure

The project structure is presented as follows:

Declaration of dependence of the EJB 3.0 library

We will begin creating the EJB bean by defining the project dependency.

We will add the EJB 3.0 library supplied as org.apache.geronimo.specs:geronimo-ejb_3.0_spec:1.0.

Remote business interface - RemovableRemote

We will create the remote business interface RemovableRemote (category pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee.RemovableRemote) in the ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3 project.

package pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee;

import javax.ejb.Remote;

@Remote
public interface RemovableRemote {
   public void remove(String message);
}

Bean type - RemovableBean

We will create the bean type RemovableBean (category pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee.RemovableBean) by realizing the RemovableRemote business interface.

package pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee;

import javax.ejb.Stateless;

@Stateless(mappedName="Removable")
public class RemovableBean implements RemovableRemote {
    public void remove(String msg) {
        System.out.println(msg);
    }
}

Using the @Stateless annotation mappedName attribute allows you to assign names which you can use to search the EJB bean through the remote client (more information can be found in How are Global JNDI names assigned to Session / Entity beans?).

package pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee;

import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;

public class RemovableClient {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Context ctx = new InitialContext();
        RemovableRemote removable = (RemovableRemote) ctx.lookup("Removable");
        removable.remove("Look at the server's log");
    }
}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project>
    <parent>
        <artifactId>ejb3-remove-stateless</artifactId>
        <groupId>pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee</groupId>
        <version>1.0</version>
    </parent>
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee</groupId>
    <artifactId>ejb3-remove-stateless-client</artifactId>
    <name>ejb3-remove-stateless-client</name>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <properties>
        <glassfish.home>c:/apps/glassfish</glassfish.home>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>glassfish</groupId>
            <artifactId>appserv-rt.jar</artifactId>
            <version>LATEST</version>
            <scope>system</scope>
            <systemPath>${glassfish.home}/lib/appserv-rt.jar</systemPath>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>glassfish</groupId>
            <artifactId>javaee.jar</artifactId>
            <version>LATEST</version>
            <scope>system</scope>
            <systemPath>${glassfish.home}/lib/javaee.jar</systemPath>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee</groupId>
            <artifactId>ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3</artifactId>
            <version>1.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.2</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <includes>
                        <include>none</include>
                    </includes>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>run RemovableClientTest</id>
                        <phase>integration-test</phase>
                        <configuration>
                            <includes>
                                <include>**/RemovableClientTest.java</include>
                            </includes>
                        </configuration>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>test</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

package pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee;

import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import org.junit.Test;

public class RemovableClientTest {

    @Test
    public void runRemoteClient() throws Exception {
        Context ctx = new InitialContext();
        RemovableRemote removable = (RemovableRemote) ctx.lookup("Removable");
        removable.remove("Look at the server's log");
    }
}

GlassFish server startup

Before we move on to the installation of the bean, we will startup GlassFish with the command asadmin start-domain (I earlier defined the variable PATH to include the GlassFish bin directory).

$ asadmin.bat start-domain domain1
Starting Domain domain1, please wait.
Log redirected to c:\apps\glassfish\domains\domain1\logs\server.log.
Redirecting output to C:/apps/glassfish/domains/domain1/logs/server.log
Domain domain1 is ready to receive client requests. Additional services are being started in background.
Domain [domain1] is running [Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 (build b58d-fcs)]
with its configuration and logs at: [c:\apps\glassfish\domains].
Admin Console is available at [http://localhost:4848].
Use the same port [4848] for "asadmin" commands.
User web applications are available at these URLs:
[http://localhost:8080 https://localhost:8181 ].
Following web-contexts are available:
[/web1  /__wstx-services ].
Standard JMX Clients (like JConsole) can connect to JMXServiceURL:
[service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://dev:8686/jmxrmi] for domain management purposes.
Domain listens on at least following ports for connections:
[8080 8181 4848 3700 3820 3920 8686 ].
Domain does not support application server clusters and other standalone instances.

Installing the EJB bean - Removable

The installation of the bean should come before its creation. However, this step was effectively completed during the definition of the client dependency (ejb3-remove-stateless-client project). In the ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3 project target directory there is a file called ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3-1.0.jar. This is the bean distribution file. This will be installed with the help of the asadmin deploy command.

$ asadmin.bat deploy --user admin ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3/target/ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3-1.0.jar
Command deploy executed successfully.

In the administration console of the server (accessible by default through the address http://localhost:4848) we will check that the EJB Removable bean has been installed correctly.

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Remote client startup - RemovableClient

We will begin by building the entire ejb3-remove-stateless project by selecting the Build option from the menu.

Once the command has been started successfully you will see the following notification:

...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reactor Summary:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ejb3-remove-stateless ................................. SUCCESS [1.500s]
ejb3-remove-stateless-ejb3 ............................ SUCCESS [0.610s]
ejb3-remove-stateless-client .......................... SUCCESS [0.921s]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

Of course by choosing the Build option we start the install step in the m2 nomenclature, which at the same time signifies the completion of the integration-test stage as well as the completion of our test.

The immediate startup of the client is effectively the performance of the mvn integration-test command, which in our case uses NetBeans IDE 6.0 as the graphic tool for starting the m2 command - this boils down to selecting the ejb3-remove-stateless-client project, right-clicking the mouse and selecting the Custom > Goals... option from the menu .

A list of m2 stages can be found on the Build Lifecycle Phases page.

Next we will perform the integration-test stage.

Once the test has been started successfully you will see the following notification in the NetBeans IDE:

...
-------------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running pl.jaceklaskowski.javaee.RemovableClientTest
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.203 sec
Results :
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

as well as in the GlassFish diary of events (domains/domain1/logs/server.log file in the GlassFisha home directory)

[#|2007-09-03T22:41:59.750+0200|INFO|sun-appserver9.1|javax.enterprise.system.stream.out|_ThreadID=16;_ThreadName=p:
thread-pool-1; w: 8;|
Look at the server's log|#]

Despite the successful startup of the remote client this is not the final step of the solution. This requires the startup of a test to install the bean. If we try to perform the Build option before its installation we will receive an error message. Suggestions for improvements are welcomed. The next part of the article accompanies the Apache OpenEJB 3.0-SNAPSHOT server.