Error in deploying a simple EJB 3.0

Question

Hi ,
I am getting the following error while deploying my simple ejb of version 3.0 in Weblogic 9.2.
Exception preparing module: EJBModule(build) [EJB:011023]An error occurred while reading the deployment descriptor. The error was: Error processing annotations: java.lang.NullPointerException.
During my evaluation of Weblogic 9.2 for EJB 3.0 , I have got the following questions.
EJB Specification states that EJB's in EJB 3.0 can be developed and deployed without the need of deployment descriptors. I have created a simple EJB with two file Env.java and EnvBean.java and the source code is given below.
a) I just complied these class files and when I was trying to deploy without ejb-jar.xml and weblogic-ejb-jar.xml, the console was not at all allowing me to deploy.Why is this so?
b) After I created a META-INF file under root of classes directory by placing ejb-jar.xml with empty <enterprise-beans> element, console was allowing me to deploy with errors in parsing ejb-jar.xml. The error was either session/entity/mdb is a required under <enterprise-beans> element. Why is this required when there are several examples stating <enterprise-beans> element can be empty.
c) Later I updated ejb-jar.xml with <session> element under <enterprise-beans> with the following values. I got the above error when deployed with this change.
I had been struggling to deploy this simple bean for almost a day.Pleas point me if there is any documentation that solves my stated problem or if there is a solution.Thanks in advance.
regards
Karim
ejb-jar.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ejb-jar xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" version="3.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/ejb-jar_3_0.xsd">
<enterprise-beans>
<session>
<description>This is the stateless ejb</description>
<display-name>Env Bean</display-name>
<ejb-name>EnvBean</ejb-name>
</session>
</enterprise-beans>
</ejb-jar>
Env.java
package examples ;
public interface Env {
public void display();
EnvBean.java
package examples;
import javax.ejb.Remote;
import javax.ejb.Stateless;
@Stateless
@Remote(Env.class)
public class EnvBean implements Env {
public void display() {
System.out.println("Welcome to EJB 3.0");
}

Answer 1

Presumably you're using the EJB3 tech preview, and not a vanilla WebLogic 9.2 install, right?
Can you post the full stack trace?
-Patrick