General Rules:

• All exceptions and messages require a translation method in the @MessageBundle.
• All info and higher messages being logged require a translation method in the @MessageLogger.
• Messages in both the @MessageBundle and @MessageLogger should have an id*.  Note though there are cases, specifically some methods in the @MessageBundle, that do not need id's. These typically include messages that are not being used in exceptions.
• All logged messages should use a static logger from the @MessageLogger interface. This includes debug and trace messages.

* A list of id's can be found here http://community.jboss.org/wiki/LoggingIds

Passing the cause:

Both @MessageLogger's and @MessageBundle's can except a java.lang.Throwable type as a parameter to either log the exception or intialize the exception return types cause. This is done by annotating the parameter with @Cause.

StartException unableToStart(@Cause Throwable cause);

Creating Exception Return Types:

Most @MessageBundle's methods will be returing exceptions. Some exceptions require a special constructor to be used or require a property/field to be set on the exception. JBoss Logging has 3 separate annotations for these requirements.

@Param - Is used for exception constructor.

SAXParseException invalidAttribute(@Param Locator locator, String attributeName, String tagName);

@Field({name=fieldName}) - Is used to set an instance variable.

XAException invalidTransaction(@Field Integer errorCode);

@Propert({name=propertyName}) - Is used to set a property via it's setter method.

Exception createException(@Property StackTrace[] stackTrace);

Examples:

Before:

@Override
public void start(StartContext context) throws StartException {
    try {
        final JBossThreadFactory threadFactory = new JBossThreadFactory(new ThreadGroup("ServerDeploymentRepository-temp-threads"), Boolean.FALSE, null, "%G - %t", null, null, AccessController.getContext());
        tempFileProvider = TempFileProvider.create("temp", Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(2, threadFactory));
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new StartException("Failed to create temp file provider");
    }
    log.debugf("%s started", ServerDeploymentRepository.class.getSimpleName());
}

Methods added to DeploymentRepositoryMessages:

/**
 * Creates an exception indicating a failure to create a temp file provider.
 *
 * @return a {@link StartException} for the error.
 */
@Message(id = 14900, value = "Failed to create temp file provider")
StartException failedCreatingTempProvider();

After:

@Override
public void start(StartContext context) throws StartException {
    try {
        final JBossThreadFactory threadFactory = new JBossThreadFactory(new ThreadGroup("ServerDeploymentRepository-temp-threads"), Boolean.FALSE, null, "%G - %t", null, null, AccessController.getContext());
        tempFileProvider = TempFileProvider.create("temp", Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(2, threadFactory));
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw MESSAGES.failedCreatingTempProvider();
    }
    ROOT_LOGGER.debugf("%s started", ServerDeploymentRepository.class.getSimpleName());
}