Connecting to Remote EJB from Servlet in same application

Question

Please help!
I was able to connect to SessionBeans and EJB from my sample java client in OCJ4 but when I try to do same thing from my web application using servlets, I get the below NullPointerException error.
The JNDI lookup works fine using java client but difficult from a servlet.
I am sure there is something I am missing.
Thanks
This is what I do in the servlet:
public void init() throws ServletException, NamingException, CreateException, RemoteException
Context jndiContext = getInitialContext();
SessionCartEJBHome home = (SessionCartEJBHome)jndiContext.lookup("SessionCartEJBBean");
sessionEJB = null;
try{
sessionEJB = (SessionCartEJB) home.create();
}catch (Exception e)
e.printStackTrace();
private static Context getInitialContext() throws NamingException
Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
// Standalone OC4J connection details
env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.evermind.server.rmi.RMIInitialContextFactory");
env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "admin");
env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "admin");
env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ormi://Princeton/ejb1");
return new InitialContext(env);
And when I call the following procedure, it blow up at the line sessionEJB.getLineItem(new Long(1304));
sessionEJB is a class variable.
void processCatalogPage(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response,
ActionMapping mapping,
HttpSession session
throws ServletException, IOException , Exception, FinderException{
try {
ActionForward actFor = null;
String itemId = request.getParameter("id");
if ( itemId != null ) {
String[] itemIds = new String[1];
itemIds[0] = itemId;
sessionEJB.getLineItem(new Long(1304));
actFor = mapping.findForward("catalog");
return (mapping.findForward("success"));
} catch (Exception ex)
ex.printStackTrace();
System.err.println(ex.toString());
throw new EJBException(ex.toString());
04/12/11 23:45:24 java.lang.NullPointerException
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.alashoofi.Cart.processCatalogPage(Cart.java:187)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.alashoofi.Cart.execute(Cart.java:86)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.processActi
onPerform(RequestProcessor.java:484)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.process(Req
uestProcessor.java:274)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(Action
Servlet.java:1482)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doGet(ActionSe
rvlet.java:507)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.ja
va:740)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.ja
va:853)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.evermind.server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.inv
oke(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:765)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.evermind.server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.for
wardInternal(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:317)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.evermind.server.http.HttpRequestHandler.processRe
quest(HttpRequestHandler.java:790)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.evermind.server.http.HttpRequestHandler.run(HttpR
equestHandler.java:270)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.evermind.server.http.HttpRequestHandler.run(HttpR
equestHandler.java:112)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at com.evermind.util.ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor$My
Worker.run(ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor.java:192)
04/12/11 23:45:24 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
04/12/11 23:45:24 java.lang.NullPointerException
Dec 11, 2004 11:45:24 PM org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor processExcept
ion
WARNING: Unhandled Exception thrown: class javax.ejb.EJBException

Answer 1

Avi,
Thanks for your response. I am actually returning a new InitialContext in a function call in the servlet. What I have noticed though is that JDeveloper creates two ear files for the application. One for the ejbs called ejb1.ear and another for the web files webapp1.ear. These are located in the applications subdirectory in OC4J directory.
I know I have two projects in the application, model and viewController. I am just trying to follow the MVC pattern.
In short, I don't think the web and the ejbs are in same ear file. I made the web project depend on the ejbs though. There is an option to set such. I don't know how to tell JDeveloper to put them all in one ear file.
I will appreciate any suggestion.
Thanks
Matilda