Launching J2EE client applications

Target Audience and Content

The target audience for this guide is the Client Component provider, i.e. the person in charge of developing the client components on the client side.

The content of this guide is the following:

  1. Target Audience and Content
  2. Launching clients
  3. Configuring client container
  4. Examples

Launching clients

The J2EE client application is a .jar file which can be

All the files required to launch the client container are in the JONAS_ROOT/lib/client.jar file. This jar includes a manifest file with the name of the class to launch. To launch the client container, simply type:

java -jar $JONAS_ROOT/lib/client.jar -?. This will launch the client container and display usage information about this client container.

To launch the client container on a remote computer, copy the client.jar and invoke the client container by typing java -jar path_to_your/client.jar.

The client that must be launched by the client container is given as an argument of the client container.
example : java -jar client.jar myApplication.ear
or java -jar client.jar myClient.jar.

Configuring client container

JNDI access

Defining the JNDI access and the protocol to use is an important part of configuration.
The JOnAS server, as well as the ClientContainer, uses the values specified in the carol.properties file.
This file can be used at different levels.
The carol.properties is searched with the following priority (high to low):

A convenient way is to update the carol.properties of your client.jar with your customized carol.properties file.
ie : jar -uf client.jar carol.properties

Trace configuration

The client container client.jar includes a traceclient.properties file. This is the same file as the one in JONAS_ROOT/conf directory.
A different configuration file can be used for the traces by specifying the parameter -traceFile when invoking the client container.
The file in the client.jar can also replaced with the command jar -uf client.jar traceclient.properties

Specifying the client to use (EAR case)

An ear can contain many java clients, which are described in the application.xml file inside the <module><java> elements.
To invoke the client container with an ear, such as java -jar client.jar my.ear, specify the java client to use if there are many clients. Otherwise, it will take the first client.
To specify the jar client to use from an ear, use the argument -jarClient and supply the name of the client to use.
The earsample example in the JOnAS examples has two java clients in its ear.

Specifying the directory for unpacking the ear (EAR case)

By default, the client container will use the system property java.io.tmpdir.
To use another temporary directory, specify the path by giving the argument -tmpDirto the client container.

Examples

The earsample and jaasclient examples of the JOnAS examples are packaged for use by the client container.
The first example demonstrates the client inside an ear. The second example demonstrates the use of a standalone client.