Best practice for calling application module methods and plsql code

Question

In my application I am experiencing problems with connection pooling, I seem to be using a lot of connections in my application when only a few users are using the system. As part of our application we need to call database procedures for business logic.
Our backing beans, call methods on the application module which in turn call a database procedure. For instance in the backing bean we have code like this to call the application module method.
// Calling Module to generate new examination/test.
CIGAppModuleImpl appMod = (CIGAppModuleImpl)Configuration.createRootApplicationModule("ky.gov.exam.model.CIGAppModule", "CIGAppModuleLocal");
String testId = appMod.createTest( userId, examId, centerId).toString();
AdfFacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getPageFlowScope().put("tid",testId);
// Close the call
System.out.println("Calling releaseRootApplicationModule remove");
Configuration.releaseRootApplicationModule(appMod, true);
System.out.println("Completed releaseRootApplicationModule remove");
return returnResult;
In the application module method we have the following code.
System.out.println("CIGAppModuleImpl: Call the database and use the value from the iterator");
CallableStatement cs = null;
try{
cs = getDBTransaction().createCallableStatement("begin ? := macilap.user_admin.new_test_init(?,?,?); end;", 0);
cs.registerOutParameter(1, Types.NUMERIC);
cs.setString(2, p_userId);
cs.setString(3, p_examId);
cs.setString(4, p_centerId);
cs.executeUpdate();
returnResult=cs.getInt(1);
System.out.println("CIGAppModuleImpl.createTest: Return Result is " + returnResult);
}catch (SQLException se){
throw new JboException(se);
finally {
if (cs != null) {
try {
cs.close();
catch (SQLException s) {
throw new JboException(s);
I have read in one of Steve Muench presentations (Oracle Fusion Applications Team' Best Practises) that calling the createRootApplicationModule method is a bad idea, and to call the method via the binding interface.
I am assuming calling the createRootApplicationModule uses much more resources and database connections that calling the method through the binding interface such as
BindingContainer bindings = getBindings();
OperationBinding ob = bindings.getOperationBinding("customMethod");
Object result = ob.execute()
Is this the case? Also is using getDBTransaction().createCallableStatement the best way of calling database procedures. Would it be better to expose plsql packages as webservices and then call them from the applicationModule. Is this more efficient?
Regards
Orlando

Answer 1

Thanks Shay, this is now working.
I successfully got the binding to the application method in the pagedef.
I used the following code in my backing bean.
package view.backing;
import oracle.binding.BindingContainer;
import oracle.binding.OperationBinding;
public class Testdatabase {
private DCBindingContainer bindingContainer;
public void setBindingContainer (DCBindingContainer bc) {this.bindingContainer = bc;}
public DCBindingContainer getBindingContainer() {return bindingContainer;}
public static String validateUser()
// Calling Module to validate user and return user role details.
System.out.println("Getting Binding Container from Home Backing Bean");
BindingContainer bindings = BindingContext.getCurrent().getCurrentBindingsEntry();
System.out.println("Obtain binding");
OperationBinding operationBinding = bindings.getOperationBinding("calldatabase");
System.out.println("Set username parameter");
operationBinding.getParamsMap().put("p_userId",userId);
System.out.println("Set password parameter");
operationBinding.getParamsMap().put("p_testId",examId);
Object result = operationBinding.execute();
System.out.println("Obtain result");
String userRole = result.toString();
System.out.println("Result is "+userRole);
}