0.43: What are references?
References are logical names used to locate external resources for enterprise applications.
References are defined in the application's deployment descriptor file. At deployment, the references
are bound to the physical location (JNDI name) of the resource in the target operational
environment. WebSphere Application Server supports the following types of references:
- An EJB reference is a logical name used to locate the home interface of an enterprise bean.
- A resource reference is a logical name used to locate a connection factory object. These objects
define connections to external resources such as databases and messaging systems.
The container makes references available in a JNDI naming subcontext. By convention, references are organized
as follows:
- EJB references are made available in the java:comp/env/ejb subcontext.
- Resource references are made available as follows:
- JDBC DataSource references are declared in the java:comp/env/jdbc subcontext.
- JMS connection factories are declared in the java:comp/env/jms subcontext.
- JavaMail connection factories are declared in the java:comp/env/mail subcontext.
- URL connection factories are declared in the java:comp/env/url subcontext.