EJB InitialContext Factory

[JeanLouis Marechaux]

Hi guus,
In order to call an EJB from a Java client, is it mandatory to use : com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory to build my context factory or can I use something less "proprietary"
The bottom line is I don't want my customer to have to use ibm classes if he does not want to.

[Kyle Brown]

Well, you can simply use the no-arg constructor of InitialContext() and let it use the IBM class, which is the default.
Or, alternatively, look up the factory name from an environment variable or properties file.
Kyle

[JeanLouis Marechaux]

Thanks for the answer Kyle, but I guess I missexplained myself.
I have an EJB deployed onto WAS.
I want to call this EJB from a Java client.
Can this client use a WebLogic ContextFactory, or a Sun ContextFactory or whatver to call my EJB instead of the IBM ContextFactory ?
I hope so, but someone assure me it is not possible

[gagaghost]

hi,
try following settings.
//////////////////////////////////////
p.setProperty(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,"com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory");
p.setProperty(Context.PROVIDER_URL,"corbaloc:iiop:127.0.0.1:2809");
///////////////////////////////////

[Kyle Brown]

Originally posted by Jean-Louis Marechaux:
Thanks for the answer Kyle, but I guess I missexplained myself.
I have an EJB deployed onto WAS.
I want to call this EJB from a Java client.
Can this client use a WebLogic ContextFactory, or a Sun ContextFactory or whatver to call my EJB instead of the IBM ContextFactory ?
I hope so, but someone assure me it is not possible

No, they can't.
Kyle

[JeanLouis Marechaux]

Kyle, you mean a WebLogic client cannot reach a IBM EJB ?
Actually, I never thought about this scenario... And frankly, I'm not sure whether it could be useful or not :-)

Question 1
So let's talk about a possible one.
Imagine I have a TomCat deployed on a machine A and A WebSphere on a machine B.
What is the .jar file I have to deploy with my webapp on A in order to be able to obtain a IBM InitialContextFactory and to work with my IBM EJBs ???
Question 2
I'm not sure to figure out why a generic ContextFactory is not possible. If the way to build JNDI trees is normalized, what is the technical issue that prevent from having a generic API ?
Do you have any docs to help me to understand that ?
Is this something expected in a future J2EE Spec, or is there really a technicall issue I miss here ?

[Kyle Brown]

Originally posted by Jean-Louis Marechaux:
Kyle, you mean a WebLogic client cannot reach a IBM EJB ?
Actually, I never thought about this scenario... And frankly, I'm not sure whether it could be useful or not :-)

Question 1
So let's talk about a possible one.
Imagine I have a TomCat deployed on a machine A and A WebSphere on a machine B.
What is the .jar file I have to deploy with my webapp on A in order to be able to obtain a IBM InitialContextFactory and to work with my IBM EJBs ???

There's actually a round dozen or so jar files you'd have to deploy. Look in the InfoCenter about the "Thin Application Client" and you should find out how to make this work.

Question 2
I'm not sure to figure out why a generic ContextFactory is not possible. If the way to build JNDI trees is normalized, what is the technical issue that prevent from having a generic API ?
[/QB

The problem is that the JNDI specification does not state what SPI JNDI is placed on top of. That's why you need different factories; every vendor has their own SPI. See the JNDI spec for details.

Do you have any docs to help me to understand that ?
Is this something expected in a future J2EE Spec, or is there really a technicall issue I miss here ?[/QB]

[JeanLouis Marechaux]

Thanks a lot Kyle