EJBs seem to be loaded lazily - whenever accessed.
However, I want to initialize them eagerly - i.e. whenever the container starts-up. How is this achieved (in JBoss in particular)
This topic gives some hints, but isn't quite satisfactory.
As of EJB 3.1, singleton beans can be notified of module start and stop:
@Singleton
@Startup
public class StartupBean {
@PostConstruct
private void postConstruct() { /* ... */ }
@PreDestroy
private void preDestroy() { /* ... */ }
}
Prior to EJB 3.1, there is no standard, EJB-only solution. I'd suggest adding a WAR to your EAR and using a servlet-context-listener.