EJB2Home

The EJB2Home activity connects to an EJB server for EJB 2.x, performs a JNDI lookup operation to obtain a reference to a home object, and obtains a reference to a remote object from the home object. Use this activity to invoke any method defined by the home object.

You can also use this activity to invoke a method on the EJB home. Once this activity is executed, use the EJB2Remote activity to invoke methods on the remote object without performing additional remote lookups.

It is optional to cache the home object and the stateless remote objects to reuse them across process instances. However, this improves the performance because further remote lookups are not necessary.

General

The General tab contains the following fields:

Field	Module Property?	Description
Name	No	Name to be displayed as the label for the activity in the process.
EJB Connection	Yes	An EJB Configuration shared resource defines a set of relationships and their participating entities. Click to select an EJB Configuration shared resource. See Creating an EJB Connection Shared Resource for detailed instructions.
JNDI Name	Yes	The name registered with the JNDI server for the EJB.
Home Interface Class	No	Name of the home interface for the EJB (the interface which extends javax.ejb.EJBHome). Click to display the available classes for enterprise beans.
Home Interface Method	No	Method of the home interface to call. The list provides the methods contained in the selected interface class in the Home Interface Class field.

Description

The Description tab provides a short description for the activity.

Advanced

The Advanced tab contains the following fields:

Field	Module Property?	Description
Cache Home Object	No	Specifies whether the home object is to be cached for use by process instances. If unchecked, each process instance performs a JNDI lookup to obtain the home object reference. If checked, process instances reuse the cached home object reference. Choosing to cache the home or remote object improves performance over time. However, the home or remote object might become "stale". That is, the object changes on the EJB server, and the cached object no longer matches the object on the server. If the EJB2Home activity encounters a stale home object in the cache, the activity attempts to recreate the home object. The Connection Retries field of the EJB Configuration shared resource specifies the number of retries that the EJB2Home activity will attempt before failing to recreate the home object. If the EJB2Home activity is successful in recreating the home object, the activity succeeds and a new home object is placed in the cache. If the activity cannot recreate the home object after the maximum number of retries, the activity fails and takes the error transition.
Cache Stateless Remote Object	No	Specifies whether the remote object is to be cached for use by process instances. The remote object is only cached for stateless session enterprise beans. If unchecked, each process instance obtains a new remote object reference. If checked, process instances reuse the cached remote object reference. If the process instance encounters a stale cached remote object, the object is removed from the cache, an error is returned, and the activity fails. However, subsequent process instances will attempt to recreate the remote object.

Field

Module Property?

Description

Cache Home Object

Specifies whether the home object is to be cached for use by process instances. If unchecked, each process instance performs a JNDI lookup to obtain the home object reference. If checked, process instances reuse the cached home object reference.

Choosing to cache the home or remote object improves performance over time. However, the home or remote object might become "stale". That is, the object changes on the EJB server, and the cached object no longer matches the object on the server.

If the EJB2Home activity encounters a stale home object in the cache, the activity attempts to recreate the home object. The Connection Retries field of the EJB Configuration shared resource specifies the number of retries that the EJB2Home activity will attempt before failing to recreate the home object. If the EJB2Home activity is successful in recreating the home object, the activity succeeds and a new home object is placed in the cache. If the activity cannot recreate the home object after the maximum number of retries, the activity fails and takes the error transition.

Cache Stateless Remote Object

Specifies whether the remote object is to be cached for use by process instances. The remote object is only cached for stateless session enterprise beans. If unchecked, each process instance obtains a new remote object reference. If checked, process instances reuse the cached remote object reference.

If the process instance encounters a stale cached remote object, the object is removed from the cache, an error is returned, and the activity fails. However, subsequent process instances will attempt to recreate the remote object.

Input

The following is the input for the activity:

Input Item	Data Type	Description
MethodParameters	complex	An object containing the parameters required by the home interface method (shown only if the method is selected in the General tab requires parameters).

Output

The following is the output for the activity:

Output Item	Data Type	Description
MethodReturnValue	complex	The value returned by the home interface method. Shown only if the home interface method selected in the General tab returns a value.

Fault

The Fault tab lists exceptions that are thrown by this activity:

Error Schema Element	Data Type	Description
errorCode	string	The error code returned by the plug-in.
errorMessage	string	The error message returned by the plug-in.
errorStackTrace	string	The complete stack trace that causes the exception.
exceptionClassName	string	The class name of the root exception that causes the exception.