JBoss AS 5 Development

Table of Contents

JBoss AS 5 Development

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Installing Core Components

Prologue

What you will get in this book

JBoss big bang

Introduction

Installing the Java environment

Installing JBoss AS 5

Starting up JBoss AS

Stopping JBoss

Stopping JBoss on a remote machine

Installing Eclipse

Plugins: The heart of Eclipse

Installing JBoss Tools plugins

Installing JBoss Tools plugins manually

Connecting Eclipse with JBoss

Summary

2. What's New in JBoss AS 5?

Application server features

The core modules of JBoss AS 5

Cutting edge EJB container

The new messaging provider

Rock solid transaction manager

Enhanced web container

JBoss Web Services 3.0

Improved clustering support

The application server structure

The next generation application server

From JMX to the Microcontainer

The new library configuration

JBoss AS 5 server configurations

The standard configuration

The web configuration

The former server configurations

Creating a custom server configuration

The starting point: JBoss AS service map

Custom configuration sample: Adding JMS to the web configuration

JBoss virtual file system

Summary

3. Customizing JBoss AS Services

How to monitor JBoss AS services

The JMX console

An example: Using the JMX console to display the JNDI tree

The admin console

The twiddle utility

JBoss AS thread pool

Application server thread pool anatomy

How many threads for your applications?

Analyze what your threads are doing

Configuring logging services

Appenders

Console file appender

Changing the configuration at runtime

File appenders

Rolling the file by size

Other appenders

Layout of logs

Logging categories

Configuring your own logger

Managing logs through JMX agents

Configuring the connection to the database

Configuring a datasource in JBoss AS

Additional datasource properties

Setting up a new datasource

Gathering connection pool statistics

Managing datasources from the admin console

Using statistics to tune the connection pool

Deploying datasources at application level

High availability datasources

Clustered RDBMS

Connecting from a remote client

Configuring the transaction service

Preserving data integrity

Global and local transactions

Configuring JBoss transactions

Monitoring transactions

Summary

4. Developing EJB 3 Session Beans

Java EE made easier

Developing Enterprise JavaBeans

Developing Session Beans

Stateless Session Beans

Life cycle of a Stateless Session Bean

Setting up a simple example

Deploying your application

Creating a test client

Adding interceptors to your Bean

Stateful Session Beans

Stateful Bean life cycle

Developing a simple Stateful Session Bean

Configuring the EJB container

Configuring Stateless Session Bean pool size

Specializing the configuration

Configuring the Stateful Session Bean cache

How to disable Stateful Bean passivation

Summary

5. Developing JPA Entities

Data persistence meets a standard

Working with JPA

Creating a sample application

Setting up the database

Rolling the EJB project

Configuring the database connection

Generating entities

Reverse engineering aftermath

Configuring persistence

Creating a Session Bean client

Creating a test client for our AppStore

Summary

6. Creating a Web Application

Developing web layout

Installing JSF on JBoss AS

Setting up navigation rules

Adding a JSF managed bean

Setting up the view

Assembling and deploying the application

Running the store

Configuring JBoss Web Server

Customizing connectors

The new Apache Portable Runtime connector

Installing the APR connector

Configuring contexts

Configuring virtual hosts

Configuring HTTP logs

Tuning advice

Disable DNS lookup

Choose the right HTTP connector

Set the correct size for your thread pool

Monitoring your thread pool

Summary

7. Developing Applications with JBoss Messaging Service

Short introduction to JMS

The building blocks of JMS

The new JBoss Messaging system

Configuring connection factories

Configuring JMS destinations

Inspecting destination attributes

Advanced message configuration

Scheduled delivery

Developing JMS applications

Message-driven beans

Configuring message-driven beans

Creating a sample application

Creating MDB singletons

Message-driven POJOs

Advanced JBoss Messaging

JBoss Messaging bridge

Adding a remote JMS provider

Configuring the persistence service

Securing destinations

MDB access control

Summary

8. Developing Applications with JBoss and Hibernate

Introducing Hibernate

Creating a Hibernate application

Setting up the database schema

A new Eclipse project

Reversing your schema into Java classes

Adding Hibernate configuration to your project

Adding a web client to your project

Packaging and deploying the application

Using the wizard to generate EJB 3

Hibernate and EJB: Friends or opponents?

Using Hibernate with EJB

Injecting key Hibernate objects

Summary

9. Managing JBoss AS

Introducing Java Management Extension

Developing MBeans

A simple MBean

Testing your MBean from the JMX console

Testing your application programmatically

MBeans dependency

Sending MBeans notifications

Receiving heartbeat notifications

Sending your own notifications

Service POJOs

Creating a web test client

Exposing your service as an EJB

Service POJO dependency

JBoss AS Administration Console

Managing applications

Deploying/undeploying applications

Updating an application

Starting/stopping/restarting an application

Administering resources

Adding a new resource

Managing resources

Metrics

Summary

10. Developing Applications with JBoss Web Services

Web Service concepts

Strategies for building up Web Services

JBoss Web Services stack

A brief look at the JAX WS architecture

Coding Web Services with JBossWS

Developing a POJO Web Service

Inspecting the Web Service from the console

Using JBossWS tools

External Web Service clients

Exposing EJB as Web Services

Handling exceptions in Web Services

Generating a test client

Injecting Web Services

Web Service Handler chains

Summary

11. Clustering JBoss AS

Cluster basics

Introducing JBoss AS cluster

JBoss AS clustering architecture

Smart proxies

External load balancer

JBoss AS 5 cluster configuration

Starting JBoss AS in cluster mode

Running cluster nodes on separate machines

Running cluster nodes on the same machine

Running multiple clusters on the same network

JBoss AS clustered services

JBoss Cache (JBC)

Cache modes

Cache configuration

Configuring HTTP cache management

Configuring EJB 3.0 Stateful Session Bean cache

Configuring entity caching

JBoss cache and concurrency

The HAPartition service

Exploring HA singletons

The HA-JNDI service

Accessing HA-JNDI

HA-JNDI configuration

Clustering web applications

Configuring HTTP replication

HttpSession passivation/activation

Configuring load balancing

JMS clustering

Summary

12. Developing a Clustered Application

Clustering Stateless Session Beans

Clustering Stateful Session Beans

Deploying a clustered SFSB

Testing the clustered SFSB

Programmatic replication of the session

Clustering entities

Revisiting the AppStore example

Inside the second-level cache

Evicting entities from the cache

General guidelines for a good cache

Clustering web applications

Testing HTTP session replication

Summary

13. JBoss AS Security

Approaching Java Security API

The JAAS security model

Introducing JBossSX

Securing the JMX console

Dynamic login configuration

Stacked login configuration

Logging and auditing

Securing the transport layer

Enabling the Secure Socket Layer on JBoss AS

Certificate management tools

Securing the HTTP communication with a self-signed certificate

Securing the HTTP communication with a certificate signed by a CA

Securing the RMI transport

Adding a client truststore

Summary

14. Securing JBoss AS Applications

Securing the AppStore application

HTTP role authentication

Encrypting passwords

EJB role authorization

Java EE programmatic security

Writing secure Java SE clients

Securing applications at transport level

Running the AppStore with HTTPS

Securing the RMI-IIOP transport: SSL BlackJack

Securing Web Services

Web Services authorization

Web Services encryption

Client and server configuration files

Encrypting the POJOWebService

Securing the Web Service

Securing the client

Running the example

Signing SOAP messages

Debugging SOAP messages

Summary

Index

JBoss AS 5 Development

Francesco Marchioni

JBoss AS 5 Development

Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2009

Production Reference: 1091209

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-847196-82-8

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<vinayak.chittar@gmail.com>)

Credits

Author

Francesco Marchioni

Reviewers

Edem Morny

Peter Johnson

Acquisition Editor

Sarah Cullington

Development Editor

Amey Kanse

Technical Editors

Gaurav Datar

Smita Solanki

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Editorial Team Leader

Abhijeet Deobhakta

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Joel Goveya

Proofreader

Chris Smith

Graphics

Nilesh R. Mohite

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Francesco Marchioni is a Sun Certified Enterprise architect employed by an Italian company based in Rome. He started learning Java in 1997 and since then he has followed the path to the newest application program interfaces released by Sun. He joined the JBoss community in 2000, when the application server was running release 2.X.

He has spent many years as a software consultant, where he has envisioned many successful software migrations from vendor platforms to open source products such as JBoss AS, fulfilling the tight budget requirements of current times.

In the past five years, he has authored technical articles for O'Reilly Media and is running an IT portal focused on JBoss products (http://www.mastertheboss.com).

I'd like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me this unique opportunity to write a book about a great product like JBoss. All the staff I have worked with has been very cooperative at giving their time in the arduous publishing process. I'd also like to thank the external reviewers Peter Johnson and Edem Morny who have offered their professional expertise for many parts of this book. And last but not the least, I want to pay my tribute to my family, my father in particular who has transmitted me the virus of programming when I was just a boy, my wife Linda who was so patient with my late nights and with my missing housework, and my 2 years old baby Alessandro who hasn't actually helped in writing this book but has been the inspiration of it.

About the Reviewers

Edem Morny has been involved in Enterprise Java technologies since he got introduced to Java in 2005, using tools and technologies encompassing both the standard Java EE stack and non-standard ones such as Hibernate and Spring. His experience with JBoss AS has also included porting clustered, fault-tolerant deployments of applications, from proprietary application servers to the open source alternative.

He has been an active promoter of Java EE, speaking at workshops and seminars on a national scale in Ghana. He is the cofounder of Ghana's first Java User Group, JAccra (http://groups.google.com/group/jaccra).

He is a senior developer at the application development center in Accra, Ghana, of an international biometric security solutions company, leading the development of Biocryptic Identity Management Systems for the global market.

Edem was a technical reviewer of JBoss Tools 3 Developer Guide, published by Packt Publishing in the year 2009. You'll find him blogging at http://edemmorny.wordpress.com.

Peter Johnson started his computer career in August, 1980, working for Burroughs, programming mainframes in COBOL and ALGOL. He started working with Java in 1998, and was a lead designer on projects such as a JDBC driver for the DMSII database that runs on Unisys mainframes.

For the past several years, he has been the chief architect of a team that does performance analysis of Java applications on large scale Intel-based machines (8 to 32 CPUs), and evaluates various open source software for Enterprise readiness.

In addition, Peter is a JBoss committer and is the coauthor of the book JBoss In Action, published by Manning. Peter often speaks on Java performance and various open source topics at industry conferences such as JBoss World and the annual Computer Measurement Group International Conference.

Preface

The JBoss Application Server is a Java EE-certified platform for developing and deploying Java Enterprise applications. JBoss Application Server provides the full range of J2EE 1.5 features as well as extended Enterprise services including clustering, caching, and persistence. This book will show Java EE developers how to develop their applications using the JBoss Application Server. It covers topics such as:

Setting up a development environment

Customization

Java EE programming modules

Clustering

Security

All these features will be explored by developing sample and intuitive applications built using the friendly interface of Eclipse and JBoss Tools.

What this book covers

Chapter 1: Installing Core Components covers the installation of the key components that will be needed throughout the rest of the book. The installation process will be completed by using intuitive wizards that will lead even inexperienced users through it.

Chapter 2: What's New in JBoss AS 5.0 introduces the reader to the most significant changes brought by release 5.0 of the application server. The new server directory tree is analyzed in detail and possible variants in the server configuration are discussed in the latter part of this chapter.

Chapter 3: Customizing JBoss Services discusses the core configuration of the application server. The highlights of it include an introduction to JBoss AS monitoring services, the inner details about JBoss thread pool, how to configure logging services, and a detailed description of the transaction and Datasource service.

Chapter 4: Developing EJB 3 Session Bean introduces the reader to some concrete Java EE programming examples developed on JBoss AS 5. The focus of this chapter is on EJB 3 session Beans, including a section about their configuration for optimal results.

Chapter 5: Developing JPA Entities covers the development of an example based on the Java Persistence API (JPA). Here, we introduce an enterprise application named the Appstore, which will be a central theme of this book.

Chapter 6: Creating a Web Application is about developing and configuring web applications on JBoss AS 5.0 using the JSF cutting-edge technology. In the first part of this chapter we will enhance the Appstore Enterpirse application by adding a web layer to it. In the latter part, we explain in detail how to properly configure JBoss Web Server.

Chapter 7: Developing Applications with JBoss Messaging Service discusses JBoss Messaging provider by giving a short introduction to the new messaging system. The chapter then helps us set up some proof of concept programming examples.

Chapter 8: Developing Applications with JBoss and Hibernate covers the de facto standard object relational mapping tool, Hibernate, showing how to quickly set up a Hibernate project using the facilities provided by the JBoss tools interface.

Chapter 9: Managing JBoss AS covers the Java Management Extension (JMX), which still plays a vital role in the application server infrastructure. The chapter includes many examples that show how to write traditional MBeans services and the new POJO Services.

Chapter 10: Developing Applications with JBoss Web Services focuses on the JBoss Web Service implementation, JBossWS, showing how to create, deploy, and test Web Services on JBoss AS along with some advanced concepts such as Handler chains and SOAP debugging.

Chapter 11: Clustering JBoss AS covers the facts about JBoss AS clustering configuration, moving from cluster basics to detailed configuration of the individual services of the application server.

Chapter 12: Developing a Clustered Application continues the journey in the clustering arena by adding some concrete examples based on the abstract concepts covered in the earlier chapter.

Chapter 13: JBoss AS Security provides a systematic guide to JBoss security framework and the cryptographic interfaces available in the Java EE framework. This supplies the basis for concrete examples, which are delivered in the next chapter.

Chapter 14: Securing JBoss AS Applications continues the in-depth exploration of the JBoss security framework, adding concrete programming examples applied on the EJB and Web Services technologies.

Who this book is for

If you are a Java architect or developer who wants to get the most out of the latest release of the JBoss application server or a JBoss administrator who wants a clear and simple reference for JBoss services, this book is for you. You are not expected to have accumulated experience on the application server though you must know the basic concepts of Java EE.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: Since release 5.1.0 of the application server, the admin console is bundled as a web application in the deploy folder of JBoss AS.

A block of code will be set as follows:

org.jboss.util.threadpool.BasicThreadPool

      name=jboss.system:service=ThreadPool>

      Name>JBoss System Threads

      ThreadGroupName>System Threads

      KeepAliveTime>60000

      MaximumPoolSize>10

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be shown in bold sometimes with numbers in square brackets referring to notes in the text:

Log4jQuietMode>true       RefreshPeriod>60 [1]

      DefaultJBossServerLogThreshold>DEBUG

an>

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

twiddle -s localhost invoke jboss.system:type=ServerInfo listThreadCpuUtilization > threadCpu.txt

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: In the left frame expand the Resources | Datasources leaf and choose the suitable transaction option.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Note

Downloading the example code for the book

Visit http://www.packtpub.com/files/code/6828_Code.zip to directly download the example code.

The downloadable files contain instructions on how to use them.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our contents, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in text or code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration, and help us to improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the let us know link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata added to any list of existing errata. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

You can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.

Chapter 1. Installing Core Components

Prologue

From: Acme Head Offices

To: Francesco Marchioni

Hi Francesco,

Can you meet at 4 PM in the boardroom? We are going to interview a few guys for the new JBoss Enterprise project.

Regards,

Monty Burns

JBoss Application Server has been around since the beginning of the new millennium and, in personal resumes, it is common to find people who have acquired some experience on it.

Before every job interview, I have the expectation that high caliber Java/Java EE candidates surely know the core concepts of JBoss AS. Often, companies don't consider hiring just the best techie guy, but a well-rounded profile with a situation-action-result mind.

One thing I personally like to ask to identify smart developers is: Why have you chosen to learn JBoss and not XYZ? How does it differentiate from the competitors? The most habitual answer is: JBoss is free, so I chose to learn Java EE on this platform. Although there is some truth in this answer, I think it's a partial truth and the concept needs to be elaborated.

First, let's define what is free. Today there's a common misconception of open source products being like free lunch. They can be so for a student who's learning these technologies, but for the real world, open source means you don't pay a license fee to develop/roll in production certain software.

This obviously doesn't mean that the software hasn't got a cost. Moreover, if you don't want to risk breaking your service level agreement, you usually sign a contract with the owner of the open source software so that it guarantees quick and decisive support.

From the financial point of view, this is the first important difference with a commercial product. If you start a project, running a product such as JBoss AS, you don't have an immediate entrance fee. You can even dispense with commercial assistance if you are confident that your technicians will be able to solve any issue. Whatever you choose, this policy is much more flexible than a commercial contract, which requires an immediate financial commitment.

That's better than simply saying: I like JBoss because it's free.

The second and, in my opinion, the most important reason is the worldwide spread of the product. Today JBoss is the most used application server and it has been not only built with the collaborative efforts of many developers around the world, but also with simple contributions of users who request new features. This boils down to the actual nature of the success of JBoss. The real driving force of this product is its community of users, while vendor products are usually designed around commercial or marketing schemas.

As an example of this, you can see that JBoss Application Server is a Java EE compatible server, but you can freely add or remove modules from the application server, thus creating a customized product for your specific needs. It is the flexibility and willingness to adapt that has brought JBoss AS this far, and it will be this trait that will drive the application server full speed into the future.

What you will get in this book

This book is an intense guide to creating professional Java EE applications with JBoss AS 5.0. Packed with example code and written in a friendly, earthy style, this book will act as a handy guide to take you from the basics to the skills that will make you a JBoss developer to be reckoned with.

We think that studying good code samples is one of the best ways to learn, so we included as many as we could. We also wanted this book to be a quick reference to solve most common issues—a book you can have on your desk and turn to when you have a doubt.

JBoss big bang

JBoss AS is an open source Java EE-based application server. The project's first milestone dates back to early 1999, when Marc Fleury developed an open source product named JBoss that was a simple EJB 1.0 container. Since then, the project has been incorporated in a company named JBoss Group. In April 2006 the company was acquired by Red Hat Inc., which started providing professional services to the product. As a matter of fact, you now have two main references for JBoss products—http://www.jboss.org, which is the community of developers where you can freely download products and join forums, and the commercial site http://www.jboss.com, which is targeted at commercial support for the product.

Introduction

This is where our journey begins. In this chapter, we'll learn how to set up our environment for developing applications on JBoss AS correctly. Installation of the components is not particularly tricky, but it needs a few steps to be performed and quite a lot of Kbytes to be downloaded.

This is our checklist:

Install the appropriate Java Development Kit (JDK) for running JBoss AS

Install JBoss AS 5.0

Install the Eclipse development environment

Install the JBoss Tools plugins needed for developing applications

The products listed in this chapter are the latest versions at the time of writing and we diligently updated it at every new release. Don't worry if a new stable release of these products is released in the next months; all you have to do is adapt the chapter instructions to the newest file names.

Installing the Java environment

JBoss is a pure Java application server, so as you might imagine it needs a virtual machine for the Java Platform to run on.

At the time of writing, JBoss AS 5 is distributed in two flavors, one that is suited for Java 1.5 and another version that has been specifically designed for Java 1.6.

The choice of Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is yours otherwise, but we do recommend considering the Java 1.6, that has just undergone the 16th update at the time of writing. Most benchmarks available on the Internet exhibit a roughly 40 percent performance improvement by upgrading from Java 1.5 to Java 1.6. Additionally, Java SE 5.0 reached its End of Service Life (EOSL) on November 3, 2009, which is the date of the final publicly available update of version 5.0. So you are highly encouraged to design your applications with Java 1.6.

Note

Java 1.6 has enhanced performance in many areas of the platform. Improvements include synchronization, performance optimizations, compiler performance optimizations, the new Parallel Compaction Collector, better ergonomics for the Concurrent Low Pause Collector, and application startup performance.

(http://java.sun.com/performance/reference/whitepapers/6_performance.html)

So let's move on to the Sun download page: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp.

Choose to download the latest JDK/JRE, which is for JDK 1.6 Update 16.

Tip