Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server 2.1 Administration Guide

Naming References and Binding Information

A resource reference is an element in a deployment descriptor that identifies the component’s coded name for the resource. More specifically, the coded name references a connection factory for the resource. In the example given in the following section, the resource reference name is jdbc/SavingsAccountDB.

The JNDI name of a resource and the name of the resource reference are not the same. This approach to naming requires that you map the two names before deployment, but it also decouples components from resources. Because of this de-coupling, if at a later time the component needs to access a different resource, the name does not need to change. This flexibility also makes it easier for you to assemble J2EE applications from preexisting components.

The following table lists JNDI lookups and their associated references for the J2EE resources used by the Enterprise Server.

Table 6–1 JNDI Lookups and Their Associated References

JNDI Lookup Name 

Associated Reference 

java:comp/env

Application environment entries 

java:comp/env/jdbc

JDBC DataSource resource manager connection factories 

java:comp/env/ejb

EJB References 

java:comp/UserTransaction

UserTransaction references 

java:comp/env/mail

JavaMail Session Connection Factories 

java:comp/env/url

URL Connection Factories 

java:comp/env/jms

JMS Connection Factories and Destinations 

java:comp/ORB

ORB instance shared across application components