Problem Building a Deployable EJB Jar

Question

I have a situation where I have compiled and jarred an EJB's Implementation and interfaces, along with some supporting code -- prior to running ejbc.
I would like to distribute this jar along with a build.xml so that a developer can provide some simple implementation classes (not EJB implementations) along with the ejb-jar.xml and weblogic-ejb-jar.xml and create a deployable EJB jar. I would prefer not to package this as an ear so that the jar could then be neatly added to an ear or deployed separately, at the developers discretion.
I have everything set up but am struggling to get this to work with some sample code.
I am using Weblogic 8.1sp4, and can be sure that the developers will be using this level or higher. In my build.xml, I compile the sample code and package the deployable jar together ok. I then run the wlappc task on the jar.
It took me several iterations to get wlappc to work, and I had to use the following layout for the deployable jar:
/META-INF/myejbimplclasses.jar
/META-INF/log4j.jar
/META-INF/ejb-jar.xml
/META-INF/weblogic-ejb-jar.xml
/META-INF/Manifest.mf
/com... sample compiled class files
And the Manifest.mf contents look like:
Manifest-Version: 1.0
Class-Path: myejbimplclasses.jar;log4j.jar
Created-By: 1.4.1_05-b01 (Sun Microsystems Inc.)
Ant-Version: Apache Ant 1.5.3
I thought it was strange that I needed to put the .jars under META-INF, but this was the only way that I could get the wlappc task to work. I also had to put a semicolon in between the two jars in the Class-Path line (I don't know why).
Once I put it together this way, wlappc works. However, when I try to deploy the resulting jar, it does not work. It reports an error as follows:
weblogic.ejb20.deployer.DeploymentDescriptorException: Unable to load a class specified in your ejb-
jar.xml: com.dcbls.svc.ComponentManagerEJB
Note that this .class file is available within myejbimplclasses.jar, along with all the other classes it relies on (except the log4j stuff.)
Is there a simple problem that I can fix with this setup, or do I need to completely revamp my approach? If so, does anyone have a suggested
approach?
Thanks,
ken clark

Answer 1

OK -- I will concede that this cannot be done, at least not elegantly.
I have started down the path of reorganizing this EJB such that it can be easily built and included in an Ear. However, I am now running into some ant build problems, primarily -- I think -- with wlappc.
I set up the build.xml so that it first compiles the developer's local code, using a classpathref that refers to the EJB code I have previously developed and packaged in a jar, as in:
<path id="compile.classpath">
<pathelement location="../dcblsfw.jar"/>
</path>
<target name="compile_ejb" depends="init">
<javac srcdir="${source}/src" destdir="${build}" debug="true" classpathref="compile.classpath"/>
</target>
Then I jar the output up with the META-INF stuff in the appropriate places. I also want to put the Manifest.mf together to refer to my jar as at the root (where I can have the Ear locate the jar file.)
However, when I set up this manifest, and then run wlappc, also with the same classpathref, as in:
<target name="appc" depends="jar.ejb">
<wlappc debug="${debug}"
source="${dist}/${jar.name}"
classpathref="compile.classpath"/>
</target>
The appc throws all sorts of exceptions. It seems that the skeleton code it builds does not really match up well with the actual EJB code, and the compiler then complains when trying to compile the skeleton code. For example:
[wlappc] C:\DOCUME~1\clarkk03\LOCALS~1\Temp\appcgen\com\pfizer\dcbls\svc\SampleEJBComponentManager_nrpnna_Impl.java:67: ejbActivate() in com.pfizer.dcbls.svc
.SampleEJBComponentManager_nrpnna_Impl cannot override ejbActivate() in com.pfizer.dcbls.svc.ComponentManagerEJB; overridden method does not throw java.rmi.RemoteException
[wlappc] public void ejbActivate()
Now, when I remove the Class-Path entry in the Manifest.mf, wlappc works fine.
For reference, the jar building task (with manifest entry included,) is:
<target name="jar.ejb" depends="compile_ejb">
<jar jarfile="${dist}/${jar.name}"
basedir="${build}"
update="yes">
<manifest>
<attribute name="Class-Path" value="dcblsfw.jar"/>
</manifest>
</jar>
</target>
Is this a bug with appc/wlappc? Is there a better way to do this, or a workaround to make it work?
It seems odd that if the Class-Path in Manifest.mf is not to refer to anything internal to the jar, that it affects appc the way it does.
Thanks,
ken