Every container running in the application server has a internal registry, we call it Naming Directory. In Java this is called Enterprise Naming Context or in short ENC. The naming directory is something like an object store, the container registers references to its resources. Resources can be beans or contexts provided by an application. All that resources are registered in the Naming-Directory which allows you the access them if needed.

Configure directories to be parsed


When the application server starts, by default, it parses the META-INF/classes and WEB-INF/classes folders of your application to find components with supported annotations.

What directories are parsed to locate annotated components can be configured in your applications configuration file. If you don't bundle a specific configuration file with your application, the default configuration will be used. The default application configuration is located under etc/appserver/conf.d/context.xml and should NEVER be edited. The nodes /context/managers/manager[@name="BeanContextInterface" or @name="ServletContextInterface"] are responsible for parsing and initializing the components.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<context 
  name="globalBaseContext"
  type="AppserverIo\Appserver\Application\Application"
  xmlns="http://www.appserver.io/appserver">
  ...
  <managers>
    ...
    <manager
      name="BeanContextInterface"
      type="AppserverIo\Appserver\PersistenceContainer\BeanManager"
      factory="AppserverIo\Appserver\PersistenceContainer\BeanManagerFactory">
      <directories>
        <directory>/META-INF/classes</directory>
      </directories>
    </manager>
    <manager
      name="ServletContextInterface"
      type="AppserverIo\Appserver\ServletEngine\ServletManager"
      factory="AppserverIo\Appserver\ServletEngine\ServletManagerFactory">
      <directories>
        <directory>/WEB-INF/classes</directory>
      </directories>
    </manager>
    ...
  </managers>
</context>

You can bundle your application with a customized context.xml file. This MUST be placed in your applications META-INF directory. The file MUST NOT be a full copy of the default one, it allows you to override the nodes you want to customize or extend. To add an additional directory like common/classes for example, your context.xml file could simply look like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<context 
  name="globalBaseContext"
  type="AppserverIo\Appserver\Application\Application"
  xmlns="http://www.appserver.io/appserver">
  <managers>
    <manager
      name="BeanContextInterface"
      type="AppserverIo\Appserver\PersistenceContainer\BeanManager"
      factory="AppserverIo\Appserver\PersistenceContainer\BeanManagerFactory">
      <directories>
        <directory>/common/classes</directory>
        <directory>/META-INF/classes</directory>
      </directories>
    </manager>
  </managers>
</context>

Keep in mind, that the directory MUST be relative to your applications root directory and start with a /.

More detailed information about the how to configure an application can be found in the section Application Configuration of the documentation.

Register Resources


If a class is found, it'll be registered in the application servers naming directory under the name you specify in the annotations name attribut. As the name attribute is optional, the bean will be registered in the naming directory with the short class name, if not specified.

To inject a bean later, the developer needs to know the name it has been registered with. In the following example, the bean will be registered in the naming directory under php:global/example/AStatelessSessionBean whereas example is the name of the application.

The name of your application is ALWAYS the directory it'll be deployed to. As the document root is by default webapps, which, for example on a Linux system, will result in /opt/appserver/webapps, the name of your application will be example and will be located under /opt/appserver/webapps/example.

When using annotations to inject components, you don't have to know the fully qualified name, because the application server knows the context you're in, tries to lookup the bean and injects it.

<?php

namespace AppserverIo\Example\SessionBeans;

/**
 * @Stateless
 */
class AStatelessSessionBean
{

  /**
   * Creates and returns a new md5 hash for the passed password.
   * 
   * @param string $password The password we want to hash
   * 
   * @return string The md5 hash representation of the password
   */
  public function hashPassword($password)
  {
    return md5($password);
  }

  /* Creates a new user, hashes the password before.
   *
   * @param string $username The username of the user to create
   * @param string $password The password bound to the user
   *
   * @return void
   */
  public function createUser($username, $password)
  {

    // hash the password
    $hashedPassword = $this->hashPassword($password);

    /*
     * Implement functionality to create user in DB
     */
  }
}

Annotations


Using annotations to configure your components will probably be the easiest way. We provide several annotations that allows you to register and configure your components on the one side and inject them during runtime on the other.

Stateless Session Bean (@Stateless)

The @Stateless annotation defines a component als Stateless session bean. The annotation only supports the optional name attribute. If the name attribute is specified, the given value will be used to register the component in the Naming-Directory instead of the short class name.

Stateful Session Bean (@Stateful)

The @Stateful annotation defines a component als Stateful session bean. The annotation only supports the optional name attribute. If the name attribute is specified, the given value will be used to register the component in the Naming-Directory instead of the short class name. The annotation has to be set at the classes DocBlock.

Singleton Session Bean (@Singleton)

The @Singleton annotation defines a component als Singleton session bean. The annotation only supports the optional name attribute. If the name attribute is specified, the given value will be used to register the component in the Naming-Directory instead of the short class name. The annotation has to be set at the classes DocBlock.

Message Driven Bean (@MessageDriven)

The @MessageDriven annotation defines a component als Message Driven bean. The annotation only supports the optional name attribute. If the name attribute is specified, the given value will be used to register the component in the Naming-Directory instead of the short class name. The annotation has to be set at the classes DocBlock.

Explicit Startup (@Startup)

The @Startup annotation configures a Singleton session bean to be initialized on application startup and can explicitly be used on Singleton session beans. The annotation doesn't accept any attributes and has to be set at the classes DocBlock.

Post-Construct Callback (@PostConstruct)

This annotation marks a method as post-construct lifecycle callback and has to be set at the methods DocBlock. The annotation can be used on all Server Side Component Types and doesn't accept any attributes.

Pre-Destroy Callback (@PreDestroy)

This annotation marks a method as pre-destroy lifecycle callback and has to be set at the methods DocBlock. The annotation can be used on all Server Side Component Types and doesn't accept any attributes.

Enterprise Beans (@EnterpriseBean)

This annotation is used to inject components into other components.

The @EnterpriseBean annotation can be used in two scopes. First scope is in the DocBlock of a components class member, second of a class method. In both cases, the member or the method is marked as target for Dependency Injection.

In the simplest case NO attribute is needed. If so, the member or parameter name MUST exactly match the components name that should be injected. Otherwise you have to specify the name attribute and optionally the beanName and beanInterface or lookup attribute.

Node Name Type Description
description string Short description for the created reference.
name string Name the reference will be registered in the Naming-Directory.
beanName string The name of the component we want to reference.
beanInterface string The business interface we want to reference. This has to be the name, suffixed with either one of Local or Remote.
lookup string The fully qualified name the component that has to be referenced has been registered in the Naming-Directory.

Resources (@Resource)

This annotation is used to inject resources into components.

As resources are classes, that are initialized during application server startup to handle the main application functionality, they are not accessed by a proxy. When adding a @Resource annotation to inject a resource, a simple reference to the resource, using a callback, will be registered in the Naming-Directory.

The @Resource annotation can be used in two scopes. First scope is in the DocBlock of a components class member, second of a class method. In both cases, the member or the method is marked as target for Dependency Injection.

In the simplest case NO attribute is needed. If so, the member or parameter name MUST exactly match the resource name that should be injected. Otherwise you have to specify the name attribute and the type attribute.

Node Name Type Description
description string Short description for the created reference.
name string Name the reference will be registered in the Naming-Directory.
type string The name of the resource we want to reference.

Example

The following example implementation of a Singleton session bean contains nearly all available annotations and demonstrates how they can be used.

<?php

namespace AppserverIo\Example\SessionBeans;

/**
 * Example implementation of a singleton session bean using that'll be initialized
 * on application startup, uses post-construct and pre-destroy lifecycle callbacks
 * and dependency injection.
 *
 * @Singleton
 * @Startup
 */
class ASingletonSessionBean
{

  /**
   * The application instance that provides the entity manager.
   *
   * @var \AppserverIo\Psr\Application\ApplicationInterface
   * @Resource(name="ApplicationInterface")
   */
  protected $application;

  /**
   * A stateless session bean instance that using property injection.
   *
   * @var \AppserverIo\Example\SessionBeans\AStatelessSessionBean
   * @EnterpriseBean
   */
  protected $aStatelessSessionBean;

  /**
   * A stateful session bean instance injected by method injection.
   *
   * @var \AppserverIo\Example\SessionBeans\AStatefulSessionBean
   */
  protected $aStatefulSessionBean;

  /**
   * Injects a stateful session bean instance.
   *
   * @param \AppserverIo\Example\SessionBeans\AStatefulSessionBean
   *
   * @return void
   * @EnterpriseBean
   */
  public function injectAStatelessSessionBean($aStatefulSessionBean)
  {
    $this->aStatefulSessionBean = $aStatefulSessionBean;
  }

  /**
   * Post-Construct lifecycle callback implementation.
   *
   * @return void
   * @PostConstruct
   */
  public function postConstruct()
  {
    // to something after initialization here
  }

  /**
   * Pre-Destroy lifecycle callback implementation.
   *
   * @return void
   * @PreDestroy
   */
  public function preDestroy()
  {
    // to something before destruction here
  }
}

Deployment Descriptor


Beside the possibility to configure nearly everything by annotations, it is also possible to resign annotations and use a XML based deployment descriptor called epb.xml. As we think that annotations are the way, that most developers will prefer, we'll only give a short overview of a deployment descriptors structure here.

The following example is a simplyfied copy of the deployment descriptor of our example application and provides a brief overview of the structure.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<epb xmlns="http://www.appserver.io/appserver">
  <enterprise-beans>
    <session>
      <session-type>Singleton</session-type>
      <epb-name>ASingletonProcessor</epb-name>
      <epb-class>AppserverIo\Apps\Example\Services\ASingletonProcessor</epb-class>
      <init-on-startup>true</init-on-startup>
      <post-construct>
        <lifecycle-callback-method>initialize</lifecycle-callback-method>
      </post-construct>
    </session>
    <session>
      <session-type>Stateful</session-type>
      <epb-name>UserProcessor</epb-name>
      <epb-class>AppserverIo\Apps\Example\Services\UserProcessor</epb-class>
      <pre-destroy>
        <lifecycle-callback-method>destroy</lifecycle-callback-method>
      </pre-destroy>
    </session>
    <session>
      <session-type>Stateless</session-type>
      <epb-name>SampleProcessor</epb-name>
      <epb-class>AppserverIo\Apps\Example\Services\SampleProcessor</epb-class>
      <post-construct>
        <lifecycle-callback-method>initialize</lifecycle-callback-method>
      </post-construct>
      <pre-destroy>
        <lifecycle-callback-method>destroy</lifecycle-callback-method>
      </pre-destroy>
      <epb-ref>
        <epb-ref-name>UserProcessor</epb-ref-name>
        <lookup-name>php:global/example/UserProcessor</lookup-name>
        <injection-target>
          <injection-target-class>
       AppserverIo\Apps\Example\Services\SampleProcessor
          </injection-target-class>
          <injection-target-property>userProcessor</injection-target-property>
        </injection-target>
      </epb-ref>
      <res-ref>
        <description>Reference to the application</description>
        <res-ref-name>ApplicationInterface</res-ref-name>
        <injection-target>
          <injection-target-class>
            AppserverIo\Apps\Example\Services\AbstractProcessor
          </injection-target-class>
          <injection-target-method>injectApplication</injection-target-method>
        </injection-target>
      </res-ref>
    </session>
  </enterprise-beans>
</epb>

The structure should be self-explanatory, as it nearly reflects the annotation @EnterpriseBean and Resource annotations. The following table describes all possible nodes and gives a short description about meaning and options.

/epb/enterprise-beans/session

Either defines a SLSB, SFSB or a SSB.

Node Name Type Description
session-type string Can be one of Stateless, Stateful or Singleton.
epb-name string Short name of the component used for registration in naming directory.
epb-class string Fully qualified class name of the components class.
init-on-startup boolean true if the component should be instanciated on application startup. This can only be set to true if session-type is Singleton.

/epb/enterprise-beans/message-driven

Defines a MDB.

Node Name Type Description
epb-name string Short name of the component used for registration in naming directory.
epb-class string Fully qualified class name of the components class.

/epb/enterprise-beans/[session or message-driven]/post-construct

Adds a post-construct lifecycle callback to the component.

Node Name Type Description
lifecycle-callback-method string Name of a class method that will be invoked after the component been initialized.

/epb/enterprise-beans/[session or message-driven]/pre-destroy

Adds a pre-destroy lifecycle callback to the component.

Node Name Type Description
lifecycle-callback-method string Name of a class methode that will be invoked before the class will be destroyed.

/epb/enterprise-beans/[session or message-driven]/epb-ref

Creates a reference to the remote or local business interface of the defined session bean in the naming directory under php:global/example/env/[epb-ref-name][Local or Remote]. This reference can be used by other components or for DI purposes.

Node Name Type Description
description string A short description of the reference that will be created.
epb-ref-name string The name of the reference created in the naming directory.
epb-link string Name of referenced component. This name is by default the short class name or can be overwritten by the name attribute of the Stateless, Stateful or Singleton annotations.
lookup-name string Optionally to the epb-link this value contains the fully qualified name of the referenced component.
remote boolean If a value has been specified, a reference to the remote proxy will be created instead of a local one.

/epb/enterprise-beans/[session or message-driven]/res-ref

Creates a reference the defined resource in the naming directory under php:global/example/env/[res-ref-name]. This reference can be used by other components or for DI purposes.

Node Name Type Description
description string A short description of the reference that will be created.
res-ref-name string The name of the reference created in the naming directory.
res-ref-type string The type of the reference resource.

/epb/enterprise-beans/[session or message-driven]/[ebp-ref or res-ref]/injection-target

Injects the reference by either using the method or property defined. The class name will be of interest, if there exists a hierarchy and the target class has to be specified explictly.

Node Name Type Description
injection-target-class string The class we want to inject the reference.
injection-target-method string Use this method to inject the reference on runtime.
injection-target-property string Inject the reference to this property, whereas either this node or injection-target-method can be specified.

Annotations can be seen as default values, whereas a deployment descriptor enables a developer or a system administrator to override values specified in annotations. So keep in mind, that a deployment descriptor will always override the values specified by annotations.

Summary


The Naming-Directory is the central registry of the application server, and knows all about application components. In most cases, it is NOT necessary for a developer to know what happens behind the scenes, but it is necessary to know how components can be configured and reference in an application. After a component has been configured by using annotations or a deployment descriptor, the next blog post is all about Dependency Injection in the application server context and how it can make a developers life easier.

Actually the Naming Directory only provides basic functionalities but have restrictions when a developer tries to bind components to it or search for them. We'll improve the Naming Directory with the next releases to make handling more comfortable.

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