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Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 Application Development Guide
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Document Information

Preface

Part I Development Tasks and Tools

1.  Setting Up a Development Environment

2.  Class Loaders

3.  Debugging Applications

Part II Developing Applications and Application Components

4.  Securing Applications

5.  Developing Web Services

6.  Using the Java Persistence API

7.  Developing Web Applications

8.  Using Enterprise JavaBeans Technology

9.  Using Container-Managed Persistence

10.  Developing Java Clients

Introducing the Application Client Container

ACC Security

ACC Naming

Application Client Annotation

Java Web Start

Application Client JAR File

Developing Clients Using the ACC

To Access an EJB Component From an Application Client

To Access a JMS Resource From an Application Client

Using Java Web Start

Enabling and Disabling Java Web Start

Downloading and Launching an Application Client

The Application Client URL

Signing JAR Files Used in Java Web Start

Error Handling

Vendor Icon, Splash Screen, and Text

Creating a Custom JNLP File

Using the Embeddable ACC

Running an Application Client Using the appclient Script

Using the package-appclient Script

The client.policy File

Using RMI/IIOP Over SSL

Connecting to a Remote EJB Module Through a Firewall

Specifying a Splash Screen

Setting Login Retries

Using Libraries with Application Clients

Developing Clients Without the ACC

To access an EJB component from a stand-alone client

To access an EJB component from a server-side module

To access a JMS resource from a stand-alone client

11.  Developing Connectors

12.  Developing Lifecycle Listeners

13.  Developing OSGi-enabled Java EE Applications

Part III Using Services and APIs

14.  Using the JDBC API for Database Access

15.  Using the Transaction Service

16.  Using the Java Naming and Directory Interface

17.  Using the Java Message Service

18.  Using the JavaMail API

Index

Introducing the Application Client Container

The Application Client Container (ACC) includes a set of Java classes, libraries, and other files that are required for and distributed with Java client programs that execute in their own Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The ACC manages the execution of Java EE application client components (application clients), which are used to access a variety of Java EE services (such as JMS resources, EJB components, web services, security, and so on.) from a JVM outside the Oracle GlassFish Server.

The ACC communicates with the GlassFish Server using RMI-IIOP protocol and manages the details of RMI-IIOP communication using the client ORB that is bundled with it. Compared to other Java EE containers, the ACC is lightweight.

For information about debugging application clients, see Application Client Debugging.


Note - Interoperability between application clients and GlassFish Servers running under different major versions is not supported.


ACC Security

The ACC determines when authentication is needed. This typically occurs when the client refers to an EJB component that requires authorization or when annotations in the client's main class trigger injection which, in turn, requires contact with the GlassFish Server's naming service. To authenticate the end user, the ACC prompts for any required information, such as a username and password. The ACC itself provides a very simple dialog box to prompt for and read these values.

The ACC integrates with the GlassFish Server’s authentication system. It also supports SSL (Secure Socket Layer)/IIOP if configured and when necessary; see Using RMI/IIOP Over SSL.

You can provide an alternate implementation to gather authentication information, tailored to the needs of the application client. To do so, include the class to perform these duties in the application client and identify the fully-qualified name of this class in the callback-handler element of the application-client.xml descriptor for the client. The ACC uses this class instead of its default class for asking for and reading the authentication information. The class must implement the javax.security.auth.callback.CallbackHandler interface. See the Java EE specification, section 9.2, Application Clients: Security, for more details.

Application clients can use Programmatic Login.

ACC Naming

The client container enables the application clients to use the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) to look up Java EE services (such as JMS resources, EJB components, web services, security, and so on.) and to reference configurable parameters set at the time of deployment.

Application Client Annotation

Annotation is supported for the main class and the optional callback handler class in application clients. For more information, see Deployment Descriptors and Annotations in Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 Application Deployment Guide.

Java Web Start

Java Web Start allows your application client to be easily launched and automatically downloaded and updated. It is enabled for all application clients by default. For more information, see Using Java Web Start.

Application Client JAR File

In GlassFish Server 3.1, the downloaded appclient JAR file is smaller than in previous releases, with dependent classes in separate JAR files. When copying the downloaded appclient to another location, make sure to include the JAR files containing the dependent classes as well. You can also use the asadmin get-client-stubs command to retrieve the appclient and all associated application JAR files and place them in another location.