servlet in one ear referencing ejb in another ear

[nobel]

Given the following taken from chapter j2ee.8, "Application Assembly and Deployment":

app1.ear:
ejb1.jar Class-Path: ejb1_client.jar
deployment descriptor contains:
<ejb-client-jar>ejb1_client.jar</ejb-client-jar>
ejb1_client.jar
app2.ear
ejb1_client.jar
ejb2.jar Class-Path: ejb1_client.jar
webapp.war
webapp.war
WEB-INF/lib/servlet.jar
WEB-INF/lib/ejb1_client.jar

A servlet class in servlet.jar is then trying to "JNDI look up" the home interface of a component in the ejb1.jar module which gives javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: ejb not bound.

Adding an <ejb-local-ref> entry in web.xml will instead give a deploytime error saying that the ejb/component could not be found.

If I package the whole shebang into one ear it works. What am I missing?

/Niklas

[adrian.brock]

A strict reading of the spec (although the wording is
not clear) requires you to use an <ejb-ref>
not an <ejb-local-ref> for access outside
the ear. That is how JBoss interprets it.

Also, because it is outside the ear, you cannot use an
<ejb-link> you must specify a <jndi-name> for the
<ejb-ref> in jboss-web.xml

Look at docs/dtd/jboss-web_3_0.dtd for more info.

Regards,
Adrian

[nobel]

Ok, adding an ejb-ref to the ejb of interest in web.xml and then pointing out the JNDI name of that ejb in jboss-web.xml does the trick.

To my surprise I noticed that my servlet in app1.ear could reference an ejb component in a module in app2.ear if I "JNDI look up" the last part of the complete JNDI name. Just use "ejb/component" instead of "java:comp/env/ejb/component". Is that behaviour something you may count on?

/Niklas

[adrian.brock]

Yes,

But it is not the recommended method.

In principle the war should reference
java:comp/env/ejb/component

Then you can later change the dds to point at
ejb/someOtherComponentThatDoesTheJobBetter
without recompiling the web component.

Regards,
Adrian