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CDI Injection and JPA EntityManager

I am seeing two classes:
/**
* This class uses CDI to alias Java EE resources, such as the persistence context, to CDI beans
*
*/
public class Resources {
#Produces
#PersistenceContext
private EntityManager em;
#Produces
public Logger produceLog(InjectionPoint injectionPoint) {
return Logger.getLogger(injectionPoint.getMember().getDeclaringClass().getName());
}
#Produces
#RequestScoped
public FacesContext produceFacesContext() {
return FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
}
}
and
// The #Stateless annotation eliminates the need for manual transaction demarcation
#Stateless
public class MemberRegistration {
#Inject
private Logger log;
#Inject
private EntityManager em;
#Inject
private Event<Member> memberEventSrc;
public void register(Member member) throws Exception {
log.info("Registering " + member.getName());
em.persist(member);
memberEventSrc.fire(member);
}
}
I have 2 questions on this:
1) MemberRegistration can inject "log" and "em" directly, is that because the Resources already define them by using #Produces annotation? Without the Resources class, would the MemberRegistration class still work? I am trying to understand whether or how the two classes are related, and how the CDI works.
2) In MemberRegistration's register method, there is only a "em.persist()" method used. A complete flow of using EntityManager looks like the following. In the example application, I didn't see methods "commit()" and "close()" are used. So how the transaction is committed and closed?
EntityManager entityManager = entityManagerFactory.createEntityManager();
entityManager.getTransaction().begin();
entityManager.persist( SomeObject );
entityManager.getTransaction().commit();
entityManager.close();

Answering your questions:
1) MemberRegistration can inject "log" and "em" directly, is that because the Resources already define them by using #Produces annotation?
Yes. #Inject will work only for types that are known to CDI (are discovered via class-path scanning or declared manually via #Produces). So without your Resources class, which defines EntityManager and Logger as a CDI managed beans, injection via #Inject would not work.
BTW. For details you can read cdi-spec-1.2 - PDF version is 170 pages long, not that big, but also not so short.
2) So how the transaction is committed and closed?
... you even have a valid comment in your code: the #Stateless annotation eliminates the need for manual transaction demarcation. For details read something about CMT transactions in EJB.
Honestly, I agree with #JBNizet. It is disappointing to see you asking such questions (especially the first one) which can be answered immediately by yourself with just a quick test.

CDI bean producer inside EJB stateless session bean

Let's suppose I have a simple lib named db-utils, which has a CrudService CDI bean (requestScoped) that's used by my web applications to perform CRUD operations.
I also have an EJB project named grad-db, which has the entities mapped from database. Grad-db also has the producer used to set the entityManager in db-utils' CrudService.
I already tried it and apparently it works fine. My question is: is that a bad practice? Is there any consequence of producing a CDI bean inside a stateless session bean and passing the EJB stateless bean as a parameter to the CrudService?
My code:
EJB Bean (grad-db):
#Stateless
public class CrudServiceCae extends AbstractCrud implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
#PersistenceContext(unitName = "cae-pu")
EntityManager em;
#Override
public EntityManager getEntityManager() {
return em;
}
#Produces
#Database(Schema.CAE)
public CrudService createCrudServiceCou() {
return new CrudService(this);
}
}
CrudService (db-utils):
#Named("crudService")
public class CrudService implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = -2607003150201349553L;
private AbstractCrud crud;
public CrudService(AbstractCrud abstractCrud) {
this.crud = abstractCrud;
}
...
}
Edit:
Actually it worked only for queries. When I tried to insert data I got javax.persistence.TransactionRequiredException. Apparently I'm going to have to use inheritance instead of CDI in this case.

The EJBs are responsable for business processes/logic (i.e: methods), and are able to orchestrating others CDI controllers, is not so common let the EJB create objects, for that you would prefer a CDI POJO Producer.
In your case is leaner to use a CDI object and produce the object that you need from there, looks like a DAO and could be used (i mean, injected) into the EJB.
Think of EJBs on terms of a Boundary Pattern, using specialized controllers.
Notes:
#Stateless is not required to implements Serializable, these are pooled, and its lifecycle does not allow serialization.
In general you dont want to use a getter to the entity manager of an EJB, you should prefer write a method and use the em internally.
The persistence context is easier to manipulate if uses JTA
Your #Stateless should begins the transactions and let them propagated along the controllers
The em with package visibility is a good idea, lets you mock your facade / boundary easily

#EJB workflowDao is null in service layer

I'm trying to figure out how to setup a Service/Dao layer in my application. I've found a few dozen resources all with different ways on how to do it and decided to follow the model found here: How should EntityManager be used in a nicely decoupled service layer and data access layer?
I can't figure out what I'm missing that's causing this NPE.
Usage:
#Path("/helloworld")
public class MyController {
#GET
#Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN)
public String TestRequest() {
Workflow workflow = new Workflow();
workflow.setName("test");
WorkflowService workflowService = new WorkflowService();
workflowService.save(workflow);
return "Workflow ID:";
}
}
My Dao:
#Stateless
public class WorkflowDao {
#PersistenceContext(unitName = "unit")
private EntityManager entityManager;
public int save(Workflow workflow) {
entityManager.persist(workflow);
return workflow.getId();
}
}
My Service:
#Stateless
public class WorkflowService {
#EJB
WorkflowDao workflowDao;
public int save(Workflow workflow) {
int id = workflowDao.save(workflow); //throws NullPointerException because workflowDao is null
return id;
}
}
This is my first time setting up a Java project (only have worked on 1 before and it used Spring) so please keep that in mind if this looks horribly wrong.

WorkflowDao is not an EJB, it's a POJO with a#Stateless annotation. So naturally, injecting it with #EJB fails, creating a null workflowDao attribute and eventually producing a NullPointerException.
To make WorkflowDao into a full-fledged EJB, besides having a #Stateless or #Stateful annotation it needs to implement a local, remote or both interfaces, and those interfaces must be annotated respectively with #Local and #Remote. Please refer to the tutorial for details.
Also, quite possibly (this can be application server-dependent) you'll have to register the EJB in the application's xml descriptor files - for instance, in web.xml's <ejb-local-ref> element.
As a side note - it's not a good idea to use an EJB as a DAO, an EJB is typically used for implementing business logic (true, persist/merge operations can be called from here) but the actual persistence layer nowadays is implemented using JPA. In other words, WorkflowService should be the EJB service, there's no need to inject an EJB into it, and there's no need for a separate DAO layer - JPA entities fulfill this role.

If you instantiate your WorkflowService manually, the container wont perform any injection, since your WorkflowService is not managed by the Container.
I suggest you:
Annotate your Jax-RS Resource #Stateless
Inject your WorkfloService via #EJB as a member
Implementing a Local or Remote Interface is not necessary anymore
#Path("workflows")
#Stateless
public class WorkFlowResource{
#EJB
WorkflowService workflowService;
#GET
#Produces(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN)
public String TestRequest() {
Workflow workflow = new Workflow();
workflow.setName("test");
workflowService.save(workflow);
return "Workflow ID:";
}
}

How can implement an Interface from a Remote stateless session bean?

im programming a project and im trying to apply multitier architecture.
Right now ive got 2 EJB, business and persistence and a shared jar. Due a funcional requirment, persistence must be replaceable. I made an Interface called IPersistence.
Then I crated a remote session bean called "persistence" inside the persistence EJB and put the remote interface in the shared library. Now, i need to call an IPersitence using injection from the business. How can i do that? Maybe the whole idea is wrong. I need some advice.
Thanks!

Here is a simple example where you have a car repository/DAO that abstracts the persistence from the business logic by not exposing if it is stored in a database, file, XML etc. The business class then injects an instance to be able to - in this case - save to an database. However you could have made other classes that implemented the CarRepository and provide other means for saving data in your application without touching other parts of your code.
Persistence layer
Interface for the repository/DAO
#Local
public interface CarRepository {
List<Car> findAllCars();
// Many other methods
}
Repository (Domain driven design) or Data Access Object
#Stateless
public class CarSqlRepository implements CarRepository {
#PersistenceContext(unitName = "MyUnit")
private EntityManager entityManager;
public List<Car> findAllCars() {
}
// Many other methods
}
Service/business layer
#Stateless
public class CarService {
#Inject
private CarRepository carRepository;
public List<Car> findAllCars() {
return carRepository.findAllCars();
}
// Many other methods
}

Best way to interact with EJBs in Java EE

I have a moderate sized Java EE 6 project that uses several EJBs, including one which sole purpose is managing database calls through JPA. My question is what is the best way to add a new class that does some random bit of functionality and then calls the database access EJB to persist the data from this class.
Does this new class have to be an EJB if it needs access to annotations and injections? Does it have to be an EJB if it has to be deployed with the rest of the project?
I was told that if you want to add a new logic class to the project it either has to be an EJB or you can remotely integrate it using JNDI to access EJB elements and create some kind of client interface. Right now my new class is just a POJO but it's not able to access the EJB functionality.
What should I do in general?
EDIT: Please note my question IS NOT about database access. That's just an example I'm using. My guestion is more broad. I want to know how to access EJB methods from other classes I create. From one EJB to another you can simply inject the other EJB since they're both container managed. But say I create another class in the same package as the EJBs how might How can I access those methods? Is it possbile? What is the best practices here.
Right now I have a class that is taking twitter feed data from a URL it then parses the JSON and returns a string of the top 10 entries. I want to call my EJB that manages database access and pass that string to its corresponding method but I cannot do that because my class is not also an EJB.

EJBs are generally used to implement services of any kind. They integrate really well with JPA so are often used for DB access, but that's not their only usage.
What EJBs are typically not suited for is modeling data. I.e. they should be the verbs in your application, not the nouns. The following is thus wrong:
#Stateless
#Entity
public class CreditCard { // silly, don't do this!
#Id
Long id; + getters/setters
Data expiration date; + getters/setters
}
The following is better, it's a service that when your application starts up fetches some quote data from somewhere:
#Singleton
#Startup
public class QuoteFetcher {
private List<Quote> quotes; // + getter
#PostConstruct
public fetchQuote()
quotes = SomeUrlBuilder.someUrl().getQuotes();
}
}
The following is the obligatory DAO example:
#Stateless
public class JPAInvoiceDAO implements InvoiceDAO {
#PersistenceContext
private EntityManager entityManager;
public Invoice getById(Long invoiceId) {
return entityManager.find(invoiceId, Invoice.class);
}
// More DAO methods
}
The following shows how declarative security is used, and how a bean looks up something that has been externally mapped into its private context (ENC):
#Stateless
public class TokenFetcher
#Resource
private SessionContext sessionContext;
#RolesAllowed("SYSTEM")
public Token getToken() {
return (Token) sessionContext.lookup("token");
}
}
The second part of the question seems to be how to use these beans in your code. There are basically four methods:
Injection in managed beans
Bootstrapping via JNDI
Automatically called at startup
Automatically via a timer
Injection is the easiest way, but only managed beans are injection candidates (basically meaning the Java EE framework creates the bean, and you don't use new() to instantiate it).
E.g. Injection:
#ManagedBean
public class InvoiceBacking {
private Long invoiceId; // + getter/setter
private Invoice invoice; // + getter
#EJB
private InvoiceDAO invoiceDAO;
#PostConstruct
public void init() {
invoice = invoiceDAO.getById(invoiceId);
}
}
(also see Communication in JSF 2.0#Processing GET request parameters)
Bootstrapping via JNDI:
public class SomeQuartzJob implements Job {
public void execute(JobExecutionContext jobExecutionContext) throws JobExecutionException {
InvoiceDAO invoiceDAO = (InvoiceDAO) new InitialContext().lookup("java:global/myApp/myEJB/InvoiceDAO");
List<Invoice> openInvoices = invoiceDAO.getAllByOpenStatus();
// verbose exception handling and closing JNDI context omitted for brevity
}
}
The #Singleton bean showed earlier was an example of how the Java EE framework calls your code itself at startup. For the automatic timer you would use the #Schedule annotation on a bean's method.