Resource Injection

The javax.annotation.Resource annotation is used to declare a reference to a resource; @Resource can decorate a class, a field, or a method. The container will inject the resource referred to by @Resource into the component either at runtime or when the component is initialized, depending on whether field/method injection or class injection is used. With field-based and method-based injection, the container will inject the resource when the application is initialized. For class-based injection, the resource is looked up by the application at runtime.

The @Resource annotation has the following elements:

• name: The JNDI name of the resource

• type: The Java language type of the resource

• authenticationType: The authentication type to use for the resource

• shareable: Indicates whether the resource can be shared

• mappedName: A nonportable, implementation-specific name to which the resource should be mapped

• description: The description of the resource

The name element is the JNDI name of the resource and is optional for field-based and method-based injection. For field-based injection, the default name is the field name qualified by the class name. For method-based injection, the default name is the JavaBeans property name, based on the method qualified by the class name. The name element must be specified for class-based injection.

The type of resource is determined by one of the following:

• The type of the field the @Resource annotation is decorating for field-based injection

• The type of the JavaBeans property the @Resource annotation is decorating for method-based injection

• The type element of @Resource

For class-based injection, the type element is required.

The authenticationType element is used only for connection factory resources, such as the resources of a connector, also called the resource adapter, or data source. This element can be set to one of the javax.annotation.Resource.AuthenticationType enumerated type values: CONTAINER, the default, and APPLICATION.

The shareable element is used only for Object Resource Broker (ORB) instance resources or connection factory resource. This element indicates whether the resource can be shared between this component and other components and may be set to true, the default, or false.

The mappedName element is a nonportable, implementation-specific name to which the resource should be mapped. Because the name element, when specified or defaulted, is local only to the application, many Java EE servers provide a way of referring to resources across the application server. This is done by setting the mappedName element. Use of the mappedName element is nonportable across Java EE server implementations.

The description element is the description of the resource, typically in the default language of the system on which the application is deployed. This element is used to help identify resources and to help application developers choose the correct resource.

Field-Based Injection

To use field-based resource injection, declare a field and decorate it with the @Resource annotation. The container will infer the name and type of the resource if the name and type elements are not specified. If you do specify the type element, it must match the field’s type declaration.

In the following code, the container infers the name of the resource, based on the class name and the field name: com.example.SomeClass/myDB. The inferred type is javax.sql.DataSource.class:

package com.example;

public class SomeClass {
    @Resource
    private javax.sql.DataSource myDB;
...
}

In the following code, the JNDI name is customerDB, and the inferred type is javax.sql.DataSource.class:

package com.example;

public class SomeClass {
    @Resource(name="customerDB")
    private javax.sql.DataSource myDB;
...
}

Method-Based Injection

To use method-based injection, declare a setter method and decorate it with the @Resource annotation. The container will infer the name and type of the resource if the name and type elements are not specified. The setter method must follow the JavaBeans conventions for property names: The method name must begin with set, have a void return type, and only one parameter. If you do specify the type element, it must match the field’s type declaration.

In the following code, the container infers the name of the resource based on the class name and the field name: com.example.SomeClass/myDB. The inferred type is javax.sql.DataSource.class:

package com.example;

public class SomeClass {

    private javax.sql.DataSource myDB;
...
    @Resource
    private void setMyDB(javax.sql.DataSource ds) {
        myDB = ds;
    }
...
}

In the following code, the JNDI name is customerDB, and the inferred type is javax.sql.DataSource.class:

package com.example;

public class SomeClass {

    private javax.sql.DataSource myDB;
...
    @Resource(name="customerDB")
    private void setMyDB(javax.sql.DataSource ds) {
        myDB = ds;
    }
...
}

Class-Based Injection

To use class-based injection, decorate the class with a @Resource annotation, and set the required name and type elements:

@Resource(name="myMessageQueue",
                type="javax.jms.ConnectionFactory")
public class SomeMessageBean {
...
}

The @Resources annotation is used to group together multiple @Resource declarations for class-based injection. The following code shows the @Resources annotation containing two @Resource declarations. One is a Java Message Service message queue, and the other is a JavaMail session:

@Resources({
    @Resource(name="myMessageQueue",
                    type="javax.jms.ConnectionFactory"),
    @Resource(name="myMailSession",
                    type="javax.mail.Session")
})
public class SomeMessageBean {
...
}