J2C activation specification configuration and use

This topic provides an overview about the configuration and use of J2C activation specifications, used in the deployment of message-driven beans for JCA 1.5 resources.

J2C activation specifications are part of the configuration of inbound messaging support that can be part of a JCA 1.5 resource adapter. Each JCA 1.5 resource adapter that supports inbound messaging defines one or more messagelistener types in its deployment descriptor (ra.xml). The messagelistener type is the interface that the resource adapter uses to communicate inbound messages to the message endpoint. A message-driven bean (MDB) is a message endpoint and implements one of the messagelistener-type interfaces provided by the resource adapter. By allowing multiple message listener types, a resource adapter can support a variety of different protocols. For example, the interface javax.jms.MessageListener, is a type of message listener that supports JMS messaging. For each messagelistener-type that a resource adapter implements, the resource adapter defines an associated activation specification (activationspec in the ra.xml). The activation specification is used to set configuration properties for a particular use of the inbound support for the receiving endpoint.

When an application containing a message-driven bean is deployed, the deployer must select a resource adapter that supports the same messagelistener type that the message-driven bean implements. As part of the message-driven bean deployment, the deployer needs to specify the properties to set on the J2C activation specification. Later, during application startup, a J2C activation specification instance is created, and these properties are set and used to activate the endpoint (that is, to configure the resource adapter’s inbound support for the specific message-driven bean).

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See Also

J2C activation specification configuration options and precedence
WebSphere activation specification optional binding properties

 

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