Apache Ant EJB Tasks User Manual

by


Table of Contents


Introduction

Ant provides a number of optional tasks for developing 1.x and 2.x Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). In general these tasks are specific to the particular vendor's EJB Server.

The tasks support:

Vendors such as BEA and IBM now provide custom Ant tasks to work with their particular products. More importantly, EJB 3.0 renders this whole process obsolete. Accordingly, development of these tasks is effectively frozen. Bug reports and especially patches are welcome, but there is no pressing need to add support for new application servers. Nobody should be writing new EJB 2.x applications and definitely not new EJB 2.x servers.


EJB Tasks

TaskApplication Servers
blgenclientBorland Application Server 4.5 and 5.x
iplanet-ejbciPlanet Application Server 6.0
ejbjarNested Elements
borlandBorland Application Server 4.5 and 5.x
iPlanetiPlanet Application Server 6.0
jbossJBoss
jonasJOnAS 2.4.x and 2.5
weblogicWebLogic 5.1 to 7.0
websphereIBM WebSphere 4.0
orionIronFlare (Oracle) Orion Application Server 2.0.6

ddcreator

Description

ddcreator will compile a set of WebLogic text-based deployment descriptors into a serialized EJB deployment descriptor. The selection of which of the text-based descriptors are to be compiled is based on the standard Ant include and exclude selection mechanisms.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
descriptors This is the base directory from which descriptors are selected. Yes
dest The directory where the serialized deployment descriptors will be written Yes
classpath This is the classpath to use to run the underlying WebLogic ddcreator tool. This must include the weblogic.ejb.utils.DDCreator class No

Examples

<ddcreator descriptors="${dd.dir}"
           dest="${gen.classes}"
           classpath="${descriptorbuild.classpath}">
  <include name="*.txt"/>
</ddcreator>

ejbc

Description

The ejbc task will run WebLogic's ejbc tool. This tool will take a serialized deployment descriptor, examine the various EJB interfaces and bean classes and then generate the required support classes necessary to deploy the bean in a WebLogic EJB container. This will include the RMI stubs and skeletons as well as the classes which implement the bean's home and remote interfaces.

The Ant task which runs this tool is able to compile several beans in a single operation. The beans to be compiled are selected by including their serialized deployment descriptors. The standard Ant include and exclude constructs can be used to select the deployment descriptors to be included.

Each descriptor is examined to determine whether the generated classes are out of date and need to be regenerated. The deployment descriptor is de-serialized to discover the home, remote and implementation classes. The corresponding source files are determined and checked to see their modification times. These times and the modification time of the serialized descriptor itself are compared with the modification time of the generated classes. If the generated classes are not present or are out of date, the ejbc tool is run to generate new versions.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
descriptors This is the base directory from which the serialized deployment descriptors are selected. Yes
dest The base directory where the generated classes, RIM stubs and RMI skeletons are written Yes
manifest The name of a manifest file to be written. This manifest will contain an entry for each EJB processed Yes
src The base directory of the source tree containing the source files of the home interface, remote interface and bean implementation classes. Yes
classpath This classpath must include both the weblogic.ejbc class and the class files of the bean, home interface, remote interface, etc of the bean being processed. No
keepgenerated Controls whether ejbc will keep the intermediate java files used to build the class files. This can be useful when debugging. No; defaults to false

Examples

<ejbc descriptors="${gen.classes}"
           src="${src.dir}"
           dest="${gen.classes}"
           manifest="${build.manifest}"
           classpath="${descriptorbuild.classpath}">
  <include name="*.ser"/>
</ejbc>

iplanet-ejbc

Description

Task to compile EJB stubs and skeletons for the iPlanet Application Server 6.0. Given a standard EJB 1.1 XML descriptor as well as an iAS-specific EJB descriptor, this task will generate the stubs and skeletons required to deploy the EJB to iAS. Since the XML descriptors can include multiple EJBs, this is a convenient way of specifying many EJBs in a single Ant task.

For each EJB specified, the task will locate the three classes that comprise the EJB in the destination directory. If these class files cannot be located in the destination directory, the task will fail. The task will also attempt to locate the EJB stubs and skeletons in this directory. If found, the timestamps on the stubs and skeletons will be checked to ensure they are up to date. Only if these files cannot be found or if they are out of date will the iAS ejbc utility be called to generate new stubs and skeletons.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
ejbdescriptor Standard EJB 1.1 XML descriptor (typically titled ejb-jar.xml). Yes
iasdescriptor iAS-specific EJB XML descriptor (typically titled ias-ejb-jar.xml). Yes
dest The is the base directory where the RMI stubs and skeletons are written. In addition, the class files for each bean (home interface, remote interface, and EJB implementation) must be found in this directory. Yes
classpath The classpath used when generating EJB stubs and skeletons. Nested classpath elements may also be used. No; defaults to the classpath specified when Ant was started
keepgenerated Indicates whether or not the Java source files which are generated by ejbc will be saved or automatically deleted. If yes, the source files will be retained. No; defaults to no
debug Indicates whether or not the ejbc utility should log additional debugging statements to the standard output. If yes, the additional debugging statements will be generated. No; defaults to no
iashome May be used to specify the "home" directory for this iAS installation. This is used to find the ejbc utility if it isn't included in the user's system path. If specified, it should refer to the [install-location]/iplanet/ias6/ias directory. No; by default the ejbc utility must be on the user's system path

Examples

<iplanet-ejbc ejbdescriptor="ejb-jar.xml"
              iasdescriptor="ias-ejb-jar.xml"
              dest="${build.classesdir}"
              classpath="${ias.ejbc.cpath}"/>


<iplanet-ejbc ejbdescriptor="ejb-jar.xml"
              iasdescriptor="ias-ejb-jar.xml"
              dest="${build.classesdir}"
              keepgenerated="yes"
              debug="yes"
              iashome="${ias.home}">
              <classpath>
                  <pathelement path="."/>
                  <pathelement path="${build.classpath}"/>
              </classpath>
</iplanet-ejbc>

wlrun

Description

The wlrun task is used to start a WebLogic server. The task runs a WebLogic instance in a separate JVM. A number of parameters are used to control the operation of the WebLogic instance. Note that the task, and hence Ant, will not complete until the WebLogic instance is stopped.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required for 4.5.1 and 5.1 Required for 6.0
BEAhome The location of the BEAhome where the server's config is stored. If this attribute is present, wlrun assumes that the server will be running under WebLogic 6.0 N/A Yes
home The location of the WebLogic "home" where WebLogic is installed. Yes Yes. Note this is the absolute location, not relative to BEAhome.
Domain The domain to which the server belongs. N/A Yes
classpath The classpath to be used with the JVM that runs the WebLogic Server. Prior to WebLogic 6.0, this is typically set to the WebLogic boot classpath. Under WebLogic 6.0 this should include all the WebLogic jars Yes
wlclasspath The WebLogic classpath used by the WebLogic Server. No N/A
properties The name of the server's properties file within the WebLogic home directory used to control the WebLogic instance. Yes
name The name of the WebLogic server within the WebLogic home which is to be run. No; defaults to myserver
policy The name of the security policy file within the WebLogic home directory that is to be used. No; defaults to weblogic.policy
username The management username used to manage the server N/A No
password The server's management password Yes
pkPassword The private key password so the server can decrypt the SSL private key file No
jvmargs Additional argument string passed to the JVM used to run the WebLogic instance. No
weblogicMainClass The name of the main class for WebLogic No

Parameters specified as nested elements

The wlrun task supports nested <classpath> and <wlclasspath> elements to set the respective classpaths.

Examples

This example shows the use of wlrun to run a server under WebLogic 5.1

    <wlrun taskname="myserver"
           classpath="${weblogic.boot.classpath}"
           wlclasspath="${weblogic.classes}:${code.jars}"
           name="myserver"
           home="${weblogic.home}"
           properties="myserver/myserver.properties"/>

This example shows wlrun being used to run the petstore server under WebLogic 6.0

<wlrun taskname="petstore"
       classpath="${weblogic.classes}"
       name="petstoreServer"
       domain="petstore"
       home="${weblogic.home}"
       password="petstorePassword"
       beahome="${bea.home}"/>

wlstop

Description

The wlstop task is used to stop a WebLogic instance which is currently running. To shut down an instance you must supply both a username and a password. These will be stored in the clear in the build script used to stop the instance. For security reasons, this task is therefore only appropriate in a development environment.

This task works for most versions of WebLogic, including 6.0. You need to specify the BEAHome to have this task work correctly under 6.0

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
BEAHome This attribute selects WebLogic 6.0 shutdown. No
classpath The classpath to be used with the JVM that runs the WebLogic Shutdown command. Yes
user The username of the account which will be used to shutdown the server Yes
password The password for the account specified in the user parameter. Yes
url The URL which describes the port to which the server is listening for T3 connections. For example, t3://localhost:7001 Yes
delay The delay in seconds after which the server will stop. No; default is 0 (immediate shutdown)

Parameters specified as nested elements

The classpath of the wlstop task can be set by a <classpath> nested element.

Examples

This example show the shutdown for a WebLogic 6.0 server

<wlstop classpath="${weblogic.classes}"
        user="system"
        url="t3://localhost:7001"
        password="foobar"
        beahome="${bea.home}"/>

ejbjar

Description

This task is designed to support building of EJB jar files (EJB 1.1 & 2.0). Support is currently provided for 'vanilla' EJB jar files—i.e. those containing only the user generated class files and the standard deployment descriptor. Nested elements provide support for vendor specific deployment tools. These currently include:

The task works as a directory scanning task, and performs an action for each deployment descriptor found. As such the includes and excludes should be set to ensure that all desired EJB descriptors are found, but no application server descriptors are found. For each descriptor found, ejbjar will parse the deployment descriptor to determine the necessary class files which implement the bean. These files are assembled along with the deployment descriptors into a well formed EJB jar file. Any support files which need to be included in the generated jar can be added with the <support> nested element. For each class included in the jar, ejbjar will scan for any super classes or super interfaces. These will be added to the generated jar.

If no nested vendor-specific deployment elements are present, the task will simply generate a generic EJB jar. Such jars are typically used as the input to vendor-specific deployment tools. For each nested deployment element, a vendor specific deployment tool is run to generate a jar file ready for deployment in that vendor's EJB container.

The jar files are only built if they are out of date. Each deployment tool element will examine its target jar file and determine if it is out of date with respect to the class files and deployment descriptors that make up the bean. If any of these files are newer than the jar file the jar will be rebuilt otherwise a message is logged that the jar file is up to date.

The task uses the BCEL library to extract all dependent classes. This means that, in addition to the classes that are mentioned in the deployment descriptor, any classes that these depend on are also automatically included in the jar file.

Naming convention

Ejbjar handles the processing of multiple beans, and it uses a set of naming conventions to determine the name of the generated EJB jars. The naming convention that is used is controlled by the naming attribute. It supports the following values
descriptor

This is the default naming scheme. The name of the generated bean is derived from the name of the deployment descriptor. For an Account bean, for example, the deployment descriptor would be named Account-ejb-jar.xml. Vendor specific descriptors are located using the same naming convention. The WebLogic bean, for example, would be named Account-weblogic-ejb-jar.xml. Under this arrangement, the deployment descriptors can be separated from the code implementing the beans, which can be useful when the same bean code is deployed in separate beans.

This scheme is useful when you are using one bean per EJB jar and where you may be deploying the same bean classes in different beans, with different deployment characteristics.

ejb-name

This naming scheme uses the <ejb-name> element from the deployment descriptor to determine the bean name. In this situation, the descriptors normally use the generic descriptor names, such as ejb-jar.xml along with any associated vendor specific descriptor names. For example, If the value of the <ejb-name> were to be given in the deployment descriptor as follows:

<ejb-jar>
    <enterprise-beans>
        <entity>
            <ejb-name>Sample</ejb-name>
            <home>org.apache.ant.ejbsample.SampleHome</home>

then the name of the generated bean would be Sample.jar

This scheme is useful where you want to use the standard deployment descriptor names, which may be more compatible with other EJB tools. This scheme must have one bean per jar.

directory

In this mode, the name of the generated bean jar is derived from the directory containing the deployment descriptors. Again the deployment descriptors typically use the standard filenames. For example, if the path to the deployment descriptor is /home/user/dev/appserver/dd/sample, then the generated bean will be named sample.jar

This scheme is also useful when you want to use standard style descriptor names. It is often most useful when the descriptors are located in the same directory as the bean source code, although that is not mandatory. This scheme can handle multiple beans per jar.

basejarname

The final scheme supported by the <ejbjar> task is used when you want to specify the generated bean jar name directly. In this case the name of the generated jar is specified by the basejarname attribute. Since all generated beans will have the same name, this task should be only used when each descriptor is in its own directory.

This scheme is most appropriate when you are using multiple beans per jar and only process a single deployment descriptor. You typically want to specify the name of the jar and not derive it from the beans in the jar.

Dependencies

In addition to the bean classes, ejbjar is able to ad additional classes to the generated EJB jar. These classes are typically the support classes which are used by the bean's classes or as parameters to the bean's methods.

In versions of Ant prior to 1.5, ejbjar used reflection and attempted to add the super classes and super interfaces of the bean classes. For this technique to work the bean classes had to be loaded into Ant's JVM. This was not always possible due to class dependencies.

Since Ant 1.5 the task uses the BCEL library to analyze the bean's class files directly, rather than loading them into the JVM. This also allows ejbjar to add all of the required support classes for a bean and not just super classes.

Since Ant 1.5, a dependency attribute allows the buildfile to control what additional classes are added to the generated jar. It takes three possible values

The super and full values require the BCEL library to be available. If it is not, ejbjar will drop back to the behaviour corresponding to the value none.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
descriptordir The base directory under which to scan for EJB deployment descriptors. If this attribute is not specified, then the deployment descriptors must be located in the directory specified by the srcdir attribute. No
srcdir The base directory containing the .class files that make up the bean. Included are the home-, remote-, pk- and implementation- classes and all classes that these depend on. Note that this can be the same as the descriptordir if all files are in the same directory tree. Yes
destdir The base directory into which generated jar files are deposited. Jar files are deposited in directories corresponding to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Note that this attribute is only used if the task is generating generic jars (i.e. no vendor-specific deployment elements have been specified). Yes, unless vendor-specific deployment elements have been specified.
cmpversion Either 1.0 or 2.0.
A CMP 2.0 implementation exists currently only for JBoss.
No; default is 1.0
naming Controls the naming convention used to name generated EJB jars. Please refer to the description above. No
basejarname The base name that is used for the generated jar files. If this attribute is specified, the generic jar file name will use this value as the prefix (followed by the value specified in the genericjarsuffix attribute) and the resultant EJB jar file (followed by any suffix specified in the nested element). No
basenameterminator String value used to substring out a string from the name of each deployment descriptor found, which is then used to locate related deployment descriptors (e.g. the WebLogic descriptors). For example, a basename of . and a deployment descriptor called FooBean.ejb-jar.xml would result in a basename of FooBean which would then be used to find FooBean.weblogic-ejb-jar.xml and FooBean.weblogic-cmp-rdbms-jar.xml, as well as to create the filenames of the jar files as FooBean-generic.jar and FooBean-wl.jar. This attribute is not used if the basejarname attribute is specified. No; defaults to -
genericjarsuffix String value appended to the basename of the deployment descriptor to create the filename of the generic EJB jar file. No; defaults to -generic.jar
classpath This classpath is used when resolving classes which are to be added to the jar. Typically nested deployment tool elements will also support a classpath which will be combined with this classpath when resolving classes No
flatdestdir Set this attribute to true if you want all generated jars to be placed in the root of the destdir, rather than according to the location of the deployment descriptor within the descriptordir hierarchy. No
dependency This attribute controls which additional classes and interfaces are added to the jar. Please refer to the description above No
manifest the manifest file to use, if any. No

Parameters specified as nested elements

In addition to the vendor specific nested elements, the ejbjar task provides three nested elements.

classpath

The <classpath> nested element allows the classpath to be set. It is useful when setting the classpath from a reference path. In all other respects the behaviour is the same as the classpath attribute.

dtd

The <dtd> element is used to specify the local location of DTDs to be used when parsing the EJB deployment descriptor. Using a local DTD is much faster than loading the DTD across the net. If you are running ejbjar behind a firewall you may not even be able to access the remote DTD. The supported vendor-specific nested elements know the location of the required DTDs within the vendor class hierarchy and, in general, this means <dtd> elements are not required. It does mean, however, that the vendor's class hierarchy must be available in the classpath when Ant is started. If your want to run Ant without requiring the vendor classes in the classpath, you would need to use a <dtd> element.

Attribute Description Required
publicId The public Id of the DTD for which the location is being provided Yes
location The location of the local copy of the DTD. This can either be a file or a resource loadable from the classpath. Yes

support

The <support> nested element is used to supply additional classes (files) to be included in the generated jars. The <support> element is a FileSet, so it can either reference a fileset declared elsewhere or it can be defined in-place with the appropriate <include> and <exclude> nested elements. The files in the support fileset are added into the generated EJB jar in the same relative location as their location within the support fileset. Note that when ejbjar generates more than one jar file, the support files are added to each one.

Vendor-specific deployment elements

Each vendor-specific nested element controls the generation of a deployable jar specific to that vendor's EJB container. The parameters for each supported deployment element are detailed here.

Jboss element

The jboss element searches for the JBoss specific deployment descriptors and adds them to the final EJB jar file. JBoss has two deployment descriptors:

The JBoss server uses hot deployment and does not require compilation of additional stubs and skeletons.

Attribute Description Required
destdir The base directory into which the generated JBoss ready jar files are deposited. Jar files are deposited in directories corresponding to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Yes
genericjarsuffix A generic jar is generated as an intermediate step in build the JBoss deployment jar. The suffix used to generate the generic jar file is not particularly important unless it is desired to keep the generic jar file. It should not, however, be the same as the suffix setting. No; defaults to -generic.jar
suffix String value appended to the basename of the deployment descriptor to create the filename of the JBoss EJB jar file. No; defaults to .jar
keepgeneric This controls whether the generic file used as input to ejbc is retained. No; defaults to false

WebLogic element

The weblogic element is used to control the weblogic.ejbc compiler for generating WebLogic EJB jars. Prior to Ant 1.3, the method of locating CMP descriptors was to use the ejbjar naming convention. So if your EJB jar was called, Customer-ejb-jar.xml, your WebLogic descriptor was called Customer-weblogic-ejb-jar.xml and your CMP descriptor had to be Customer-weblogic-cmp-rdbms-jar.xml. In addition, the <type-storage> element in the WebLogic descriptor had to be set to the standard name META-INF/weblogic-cmp-rdbms-jar.xml, as that is where the CMP descriptor was mapped to in the generated jar.

There are a few problems with this scheme. It does not allow for more than one CMP descriptor to be defined in a jar and it is not compatible with the deployment descriptors generated by some tools.

In Ant 1.3, ejbjar parses the WebLogic deployment descriptor to discover the CMP descriptors, which are then included automatically. This behaviour is controlled by the newCMP attribute. Note that if you move to the new method of determining CMP descriptors, you will need to update your WebLogic deployment descriptor's <type-storage> element. In the above example, you would define this as META-INF/Customer-weblogic-cmp-rdbms-jar.xml.

Attribute Description Required
destdir The base directory into which the generated WebLogic ready jar files are deposited. Jar files are deposited in directories corresponding to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Yes
genericjarsuffix A generic jar is generated as an intermediate step in build the WebLogic deployment jar. The suffix used to generate the generic jar file is not particularly important unless it is desired to keep the generic jar file. It should not, however, be the same as the suffix setting. No; defaults to -generic.jar
suffix String value appended to the basename of the deployment descriptor to create the filename of the WebLogic EJB jar file. No; defaults to .jar
classpath The classpath to be used when running the WebLogic ejbc tool. Note that this tool typically requires the classes that make up the bean to be available on the classpath. Currently, however, this will cause the ejbc tool to be run in a separate JVM No
wlclasspath WebLogic 6.0 will give a warning if the home and remote interfaces of a bean are on the system classpath used to run weblogic.ejbc. In that case, the standard WebLogic classes should be set with this attribute (or equivalent nested element) and the home and remote interfaces located with the standard classpath attribute No
keepgeneric This controls whether the generic file used as input to ejbc is retained. No; defaults to false
compiler This allows for the selection of a different compiler to be used for the compilation of the generated Java files. This could be set, for example, to jikes to compile with the Jikes compiler. If this is not set and the build.compiler property is set to jikes, the Jikes compiler will be used. If this is not desired, the value default may be given to use the default compiler No
rebuild This flag controls whether weblogic.ejbc is always invoked to build the jar file. In certain circumstances, such as when only a bean class has been changed, the jar can be generated by merely replacing the changed classes and not rerunning ejbc. Setting this to false will reduce the time to run ejbjar. No; defaults to true
keepgenerated Controls whether WebLogic will keep the generated Java files used to build the class files added to the jar. This can be useful when debugging No; defaults to false
args Any additional arguments to be passed to the weblogic.ejbc tool. No
weblogicdtd Deprecated. Defines the location of the ejb-jar DTD in the WebLogic class hierarchy. This should not be necessary if you have WebLogic in your classpath. If you do not, you should use a nested <dtd> element, described above. If you do choose to use an attribute, you should use a nested <dtd> element. No
wldtd Deprecated. Defines the location of the weblogic-ejb-jar DTD which covers the WebLogic specific deployment descriptors. This should not be necessary if you have WebLogic in your classpath. If you do not, you should use a nested <dtd> element, described above. No
ejbdtd Deprecated. Defines the location of the ejb-jar DTD in the WebLogic class hierarchy. This should not be necessary if you have WebLogic in your classpath. If you do not, you should use a nested <dtd> element, described above. No
newCMP If this is set to true, the new method for locating CMP descriptors will be used. No; defaults to false
oldCMP Deprecated This is an antonym for newCMP which should be used instead. No
noEJBC If this attribute is set to true, WebLogic's ejbc will not be run on the EJB jar. Use this if you prefer to run ejbc at deployment time. No
ejbcclass Specifies the classname of the ejbc compiler. Normally ejbjar determines the appropriate class based on the DTD used for the EJB. The EJB 2.0 compiler featured in WebLogic 6 has, however, been deprecated in version 7. When using with version 7 this attribute should be set to weblogic.ejbc to avoid the deprecation warning. No
jvmargs Any additional arguments to be passed to the JVM running weblogic.ejbc tool. For example to set the memory size, this could be jvmargs=-Xmx128m No
jvmdebuglevel Sets the weblogic.StdoutSeverityLevel to use when running the JVM that executes ejbc. Set to 16 to avoid the warnings about EJB Home and Remotes being in the classpath No
outputdir If set ejbc will be given this directory as the output destination rather than a jar file. This allows for the generation of "exploded" jars. No

The weblogic nested element supports three nested elements. The first two, <classpath> and <wlclasspath>, are used to set the respective classpaths. These nested elements are useful when setting up classpaths using reference Ids. The last, <sysproperty>, allows Java system properties to be set during the compiler run. This turns out to be necessary for supporting CMP EJB compilation in all environments.

TOPLink for WebLogic element

Deprecated

The toplink element is no longer required. Toplink beans can now be built with the standard weblogic element, as long as the newCMP attribute is set to true

The TopLink element is used to handle beans which use Toplink for the CMP operations. It is derived from the standard weblogic element so it supports the same set of attributes plus these additional attributes

Attribute Description Required
toplinkdescriptor This specifies the name of the TOPLink deployment descriptor file contained in the descriptordir directory. Yes
toplinkdtd This specifies the location of the TOPLink DTD file. This can be a file path or a file URL. This attribute is not required, but using a local DTD is recommended. No; defaults to DTD file at www.objectpeople.com.

Examples

This example shows ejbjar being used to generate deployment jars using a WebLogic EJB container. This example requires the naming standard to be used for the deployment descriptors. Using this format will create a EJB jar file for each variation of *-ejb-jar.xml that is found in the deployment descriptor directory.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classes}"
        descriptordir="${descriptor.dir}">
  <weblogic destdir="${deploymentjars.dir}"
            classpath="${descriptorbuild.classpath}"/>
  <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
  <exclude name="**/*weblogic*.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

If WebLogic is not in the Ant classpath, the following example shows how to specify the location of the WebLogic DTDs. This example also show the use of a nested classpath element.

<ejbjar descriptordir="${src.dir}" srcdir="${build.classes}">
   <weblogic destdir="${deployment.webshop.dir}"
             keepgeneric="true"
             args="-g -keepgenerated ${ejbc.compiler}"
             suffix=".jar"
             oldCMP="false">
     <classpath>
       <pathelement path="${descriptorbuild.classpath}"/>
     </classpath>
   </weblogic>
   <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
   <exclude name="**/*-weblogic-ejb-jar.xml"/>
   <dtd publicId="-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Enterprise JavaBeans 1.1//EN"
        location="${weblogic.home}/classes/weblogic/ejb/deployment/xml/ejb-jar.dtd"/>
   <dtd publicId="-//BEA Systems, Inc.//DTD WebLogic 5.1.0 EJB//EN"
        location="${weblogic.home}/classes/weblogic/ejb/deployment/xml/weblogic-ejb-jar.dtd"/>
</ejbjar>

This example shows ejbjar being used to generate a single deployment jar using a WebLogic EJB container. This example does not require the deployment descriptors to use the naming standard. This will create only one EJB jar file—TheEJBJar.jar.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classes}"
        descriptordir="${descriptor.dir}"
        basejarname="TheEJBJar">
  <weblogic destdir="${deploymentjars.dir}"
            classpath="${descriptorbuild.classpath}"/>
  <include name="**/ejb-jar.xml"/>
  <exclude name="**/weblogic*.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

This example shows ejbjar being used to generate deployment jars for a TOPLink-enabled entity bean using a WebLogic EJB container. This example does not require the deployment descriptors to use the naming standard. This will create only one TOPLink-enabled EJB jar file—Address.jar.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.dir}"
        destdir="${solant.ejb.dir}"
        descriptordir="${descriptor.dir}"
        basejarname="Address">
        <weblogictoplink destdir="${solant.ejb.dir}"
                classpath="${java.class.path}"
                keepgeneric="false"
                toplinkdescriptor="Address.xml"
                toplinkdtd="file:///dtdfiles/toplink-cmp_2_5_1.dtd"
                suffix=".jar"/>
        <include name="**/ejb-jar.xml"/>
        <exclude name="**/weblogic-ejb-jar.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

This final example shows how you would set-up ejbjar under WebLogic 6.0. It also shows the use of the <support> element to add support files

<ejbjar descriptordir="${dd.dir}" srcdir="${build.classes.server}">
   <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
   <exclude name="**/*-weblogic-ejb-jar.xml"/>
   <support dir="${build.classes.server}">
        <include name="**/*.class"/>
   </support>
   <weblogic destdir="${deployment.dir}"
             keepgeneric="true"
             suffix=".jar"
             rebuild="false">
     <classpath>
        <pathelement path="${build.classes.server}"/>
     </classpath>
     <wlclasspath>
        <pathelement path="${weblogic.classes}"/>
     </wlclasspath>
   </weblogic>
</ejbjar>

WebSphere element

The websphere element searches for the WebSphere specific deployment descriptors and adds them to the final EJB jar file. WebSphere has two specific descriptors for session beans:

and another two for container managed entity beans:

In terms of WebSphere, the generation of container code and stubs is called deployment. This step can be performed by the websphere element as part of the jar generation process. If the switch ejbdeploy is on, the ejbdeploy tool from the WebSphere toolset is called for every EJB jar. Unfortunately, this step only works, if you use the IBM JDK. Otherwise, the rmic (called by ejbdeploy) throws a ClassFormatError. Be sure to switch ejbdeploy off, if Ant runs with Oracle JDK or OpenJDK.

For the websphere element to work, you have to provide a complete classpath, that contains all classes, that are required to reflect the bean classes. For ejbdeploy to work, you must also provide the classpath of the ejbdeploy tool and set the websphere.home property (look at the examples below).

Attribute Description Required
destdir The base directory into which the generated WebSphere ready jar files are deposited. Jar files are deposited in directories corresponding to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Yes
ejbdeploy Decides whether ejbdeploy is called. When you set this to true, be sure to run Ant with the IBM JDK. No; defaults to true
suffix String value appended to the basename of the deployment descriptor to create the filename of the WebSphere EJB jar file. No; defaults to .jar
keepgeneric This controls whether the generic file used as input to ejbdeploy is retained. No; defaults to false
rebuild This controls whether ejbdeploy is called although no changes have occurred. No; defaults to false
tempdir A directory, where ejbdeploy will write temporary files No; defaults to _ejbdeploy_temp
dbName
dbSchema
These options are passed to ejbdeploy. No
dbVendor This option is passed to ejbdeploy. Valid options can be obtained by running the following command:
<WAS_HOME>/bin/EJBDeploy.[sh/bat] -help
This is also used to determine the name of the Map.mapxmi and Schema.dbxmi files, for example Account-DB2UDBWIN_V71-Map.mapxmi and Account-DB2UDBWIN_V71-Schema.dbxmi.
No
codegen
quiet
novalidate
noinform
trace
use35MappingRules
These options are all passed to ejbdeploy. No; default is false (except for quiet)
rmicOptions This option is passed to ejbdeploy and will be passed on to rmic. No

This example shows ejbjar being used to generate deployment jars for all deployment descriptors in the descriptordir:

<property name="websphere.home" value="${was4.home}"/>
<ejbjar srcdir="${build.class}" descriptordir="etc/ejb">
  <include name="*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
  <websphere dbvendor="DB2UDBOS390_V6"
             ejbdeploy="true"
             oldCMP="false"
             tempdir="/tmp"
             destdir="${dist.server}">
    <wasclasspath>
      <pathelement location="${was4.home}/deploytool/itp/plugins/org.eclipse.core.boot/boot.jar"/>
      <pathelement location="${was4.home}/deploytool/itp/plugins/com.ibm.etools.ejbdeploy/runtime/batch.jar"/>
      <pathelement location="${was4.home}/lib/xerces.jar"/>
      <pathelement location="${was4.home}/lib/ivjejb35.jar"/>
      <pathelement location="${was4.home}/lib/j2ee.jar"/>
      <pathelement location="${was4.home}/lib/vaprt.jar"/>
    </wasclasspath>
    <classpath>
      <path refid="build.classpath"/>
    </classpath>
  </websphere>
  <dtd publicId="-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Enterprise JavaBeans 1.1//EN"
       location="${lib}/dtd/ejb-jar_1_1.dtd"/>
</ejbjar>

iPlanet Application Server (iAS) element

The <iplanet> nested element is used to build iAS-specific stubs and skeletons and construct a JAR file which may be deployed to the iPlanet Application Server 6.0. The build process will always determine if the EJB stubs/skeletons and the EJB jar file are up to date, and it will do the minimum amount of work required.

Like the weblogic element, a naming convention for the EJB descriptors is most commonly used to specify the name for the completed JAR file. For example, if the EJB descriptor ejb/Account-ejb-jar.xml is found in the descriptor directory, the iplanet element will search for an iAS-specific EJB descriptor file named ejb/Account-ias-ejb-jar.xml (if it isn't found, the task will fail) and a JAR file named ejb/Account.jar will be written in the destination directory. Note that when the EJB descriptors are added to the JAR file, they are automatically renamed META-INF/ejb-jar.xml and META-INF/ias-ejb-jar.xml.

Of course, this naming behaviour can be modified by specifying attributes in the ejbjar task (for example, basejarname, basenameterminator, and flatdestdir) as well as the iplanet element (for example, suffix). Refer to the appropriate documentation for more details.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
destdir The base directory into which the generated JAR files will be written. Each JAR file is written in directories which correspond to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Yes
classpath The classpath used when generating EJB stubs and skeletons. If specified, classpath will be prepended to the classpath specified in the parent ejbjar task. Note that nested classpath elements may also be used. No; defaults to the classpath specified in the ejbjar parent task
keepgenerated Indicates whether or not the Java source files which are generated by ejbc will be saved or automatically deleted. If yes, the source files will be retained. No; defaults to no
debug Indicates whether or not the ejbc utility should log additional debugging statements to the standard output. If yes, the additional debugging statements will be generated. No; defaults to no
iashome May be used to specify the "home" directory for this iAS installation. This is used to find the ejbc utility if it isn't included in the user's system path. If specified, it should refer to the [install-location]/iplanet/ias6/ias directory. No; by default, the ejbc utility must be on the user's system path.
suffix String value appended to the JAR filename when creating each JAR. No; defaults to .jar

As noted above, the iplanet element supports additional <classpath> nested elements.

Examples

This example demonstrates the typical use of the <iplanet> nested element. It will name each EJB jar using the "basename" prepended to each standard EJB descriptor. For example, if the descriptor named Account-ejb-jar.xml is processed, the EJB-JAR will be named Account.jar

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classesdir}"
        descriptordir="${src}">

    <iplanet destdir="${assemble.ejbjar}"
             classpath="${ias.ejbc.cpath}"/>
    <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
    <exclude name="**/*ias-*.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

This example demonstrates the use of a nested classpath element as well as some of the other optional attributes.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classesdir}"
        descriptordir="${src}">

    <iplanet destdir="${assemble.ejbjar}"
             iashome="${ias.home}"
             debug="yes"
             keepgenerated="yes">
        <classpath>
            <pathelement path="."/>
            <pathelement path="${build.classpath}"/>
        </classpath>
    </iplanet>
    <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
    <exclude name="**/*ias-*.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

This example demonstrates the use of basejarname attribute. In this case, the completed EJB jar will be named HelloWorld.jar. If multiple EJB descriptors might be found, care must be taken to ensure that the completed JAR files don't overwrite each other.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classesdir}"
        descriptordir="${src}"
        basejarname="HelloWorld">

    <iplanet destdir="${assemble.ejbjar}"
             classpath="${ias.ejbc.cpath}"/>
    <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
    <exclude name="**/*ias-*.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

This example demonstrates the use of the dtd nested element. If the local copies of the DTDs are included in the classpath, they will be automatically referenced without the nested elements. In iAS 6.0 SP2, these local DTDs are found in the [iAS-install-directory]/APPS directory. In iAS 6.0 SP3, these local DTDs are found in the [iAS-install-directory]/dtd directory.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classesdir}"
        descriptordir="${src}">
    <iplanet destdir="${assemble.ejbjar}">
             classpath="${ias.ejbc.cpath}"/>
    <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
    <exclude name="**/*ias-*.xml"/>

    <dtd publicId="-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Enterprise JavaBeans 1.1//EN"
         location="${ias.home}/APPS/ejb-jar_1_1.dtd"/>
    <dtd publicId="-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD iAS Enterprise JavaBeans 1.0//EN"
         location="${ias.home}/APPS/IASEjb_jar_1_0.dtd"/>
</ejbjar>

JOnAS (Java Open Application Server) element

The <jonas> nested element is used to build JOnAS-specific stubs and skeletons thanks to the GenIC specific tool, and construct a JAR file which may be deployed to the JOnAS Application Server. The build process will always determine if the EJB stubs/skeletons and the EJB jar file are up to date, and it will do the minimum amount of work required.

Like the WebLogic element, a naming convention for the EJB descriptors is most commonly used to specify the name for the completed JAR file. For example, if the EJB descriptor ejb/Account-ejb-jar.xml is found in the descriptor directory, the <jonas> element will search for a JOnAS-specific EJB descriptor file named ejb/Account-jonas-ejb-jar.xml and a JAR file named ejb/Account.jar will be written in the destination directory. But the <jonas> element can also use the JOnAS naming convention. With the same example as below, the EJB descriptor can also be named ejb/Account.xml (no base name terminator here) in the descriptor directory. Then the <jonas> element will search for a JOnAS-specific EJB descriptor file called ejb/jonas-Account.xml. This convention do not follow strictly the EJB jar naming convention recommendation but is supported for backward compatibility with previous version of JOnAS.

Note that when the EJB descriptors are added to the JAR file, they are automatically renamed META-INF/ejb-jar.xml and META-INF/jonas-ejb-jar.xml.

Of course, this naming behavior can be modified by specifying attributes in the ejbjar task (for example, basejarname, basenameterminator, and flatdestdir) as well as the iplanet element (for example, suffix). Refer to the appropriate documentation for more details.

This task creates a directory for scratch data inside of the temporary directory.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required
destdir The base directory into which the generated JAR files will be written. Each JAR file is written in directories which correspond to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Yes
jonasroot The root directory for JOnAS. Yes
classpath The classpath used when generating EJB stubs and skeletons. If specified, classpath will be prepended to the classpath specified in the parent ejbjar task (see also the ORB attribute documentation below). Note that nested classpath elements may also be used. No; defaults to the classpath specified in the ejbjar parent task
keepgenerated true if the intermediate Java source files generated by GenIC must be deleted or not. No; defaults to false
nocompil true if the generated source files must not be compiled via the Java and RMI compilers. No; defaults to false
novalidation true if the XML deployment descriptors must be parsed without validation. No; defaults to false
javac Java compiler to use. No; defaults to the value of build.compiler property
javacopts Options to pass to the Java compiler. No
rmicopts Options to pass to the RMI compiler. No
secpropag true if the RMI skeletons and stubs must be modified to implement the implicit propagation of the security context (the transactional context is always provided). No; defaults to false
verbose Indicates whether or not to use -verbose switch. No; defaults to false
additionalargs Add additional args to GenIC. No
keepgeneric true if the generic JAR file used as input to GenIC must be retained. No; defaults to false
jarsuffix String value appended to the JAR filename when creating each JAR. No; defaults to .jar
orb Choose your ORB: RMI, JEREMIE, DAVID. If specified, the corresponding JOnAS JAR is automatically added to the classpath. No; defaults to the one present in classpath
nogenic If this attribute is set to true, JOnAS's GenIC will not be run on the EJB jar. Use this if you prefer to run GenIC at deployment time. No; defaults to false

As noted above, the jonas element supports additional <classpath> nested elements.

Examples

This example shows ejbjar being used to generate deployment jars using a JOnAS EJB container. This example requires the naming standard to be used for the deployment descriptors. Using this format will create a EJB jar file for each variation of *-jar.xml that is found in the deployment descriptor directory.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classes}"
        descriptordir="${descriptor.dir}">
  <jonas destdir="${deploymentjars.dir}"
       jonasroot="${jonas.root}"
       orb="RMI"/>
  <include name="**/*.xml"/>
  <exclude name="**/jonas-*.xml"/>
  <support dir="${build.classes}">
       <include name="**/*.class"/>
  </support>
</ejbjar>

This example shows ejbjar being used to generate a single deployment jar using a JOnAS EJB container. This example does require the deployment descriptors to use the naming standard. This will create only one EJB jar file—TheEJBJar.jar.

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classes}"
        descriptordir="${descriptor.dir}"
        basejarname="TheEJBJar">
  <jonas destdir="${deploymentjars.dir}"
            jonasroot="${jonas.root}"
            suffix=".jar"
            classpath="${descriptorbuild.classpath}"/>
  <include name="**/ejb-jar.xml"/>
  <exclude name="**/jonas-ejb-jar.xml"/>
</ejbjar>

Orion element

The orion element searches for the Orion Application Server specific deployment descriptors and adds them to the final EJB jar file. Orion has one deployment descriptor:

Attribute Description Required
destdir The base directory into which the generated jar files are deposited. Jar files are deposited in directories corresponding to their location within the descriptordir namespace. Yes

Example

<ejbjar srcdir="${build.classes}"
        descriptordir="${descriptor.dir}"
        basejarname="TheEJBJar"
        flatdestdir="true"
        dependency="super"
        genericjarsuffix=".jar">
  <include name="**/*-ejb-jar.xml"/>
  <orion destdir="${deploymentjars.dir}"\>
</ejbjar>