I guess that I could dig through the JMX console looking at various MBeans and seeing if I can determine what you mean by the "JTA state parameter", but it would be easier it you listed the exact MBean name and the attribute you are looking at.

com.arjuna.ats.jbossatx.jta.TransactionManagerService is the name of the class, not the MBean name. What is the MBean name? (I looked at MBean "com.arjuna.ats.properties:module=jta", but that used a different class)

Looks like the State attribute is inherited from the ServiceMBean. That mbean also has a StateString attribute which provides the state as a string. The states are document in the source, which can be found in the source download at system/src/main/org/jboss/system/ServiceMBean.java

Are you saying that the value you are getting for State for your JTA-related MBean (you still have not told me the name of the mbean you are looking at) does not match any of the values given in the source file I mentioned?