How can I access a file in EJB

[julian_hu]

Hi Everyone,
I need access a xml file to read some config for my session bean. but i knew, the spec of ejb said,it can not access the file system. How can i resolve this problem? Is there another solution?
thanks a lot.
Julian

[milowe]

Simon Brown speaking :

"So then, how are we supposed to access files from EJB? Many people advocate the use of an intermediary Java class to wrap up the file access, believing that the EJB specification only disallows access from the bean class itself. Is this true? I'm not convined because all the same reasons apply. The specification itself presents an answer, and that answer is to use a resource manager so that we can treat file access as a secure, transactional, pooled resource. One such implementation is a J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) adapter that you write, deploy and configure to access your filing system. In fact, some vendors have already built JCA adapters that access flat files and these are particularly useful if you have to access the outputs of legacy, mainframe systems.

Of course, many types of file access can be worked around. For example, configuration information can be placed in LDAP, JNDI, a database, or even properties files delivered inside your JAR files that get loaded as a resource through the classloader. In those circumstances where accessing files is a requirement, then other solutions include loading the file through the servlet container, having it sent to the EJB tier via messaging, downloading the file from a webserver through a socket connection and so on.

These are all workarounds for the programming restriction but at the end of the day I think you have to be pragmatic. Many projects do utilise file access from within the EJB tier and their solutions work. Although the EJB specification imposes a restriction, in reality many vendors choose not to enforce this, meaning that using the java.io package for accessing files is possible. Whatever solution you come up with, you should ideally keep the specification in mind. It's there to help you build portable and upgradable applications, but pragmatism should be employed. Hopefully a future version of the EJB specification will address this issue in more detail and this controversy will become a thing of the past. "

/micke