JavaEE 6: How to inject JMS Resource in a standalone JMS client?

Question

I can't get javax.jms.ConnectionFactory injected into my standalone JMS client. I get a java.lang.NullPointerException at connectionFactory.createConnection() in the code below.

JmsClient.java

public class JmsClient {

    @Resource(mappedName="jms/QueueConnectionFactory")
    private static ConnectionFactory connectionFactory;    

    @Resource(mappedName="jms/ShippingRequestQueue")
    private static Destination destination;

    public static void main(String[] args) {        
        try {
            Connection connection = connectionFactory.createConnection();
            connection.start();

            Session session = connection.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
            MessageProducer producer = session.createProducer(destination);
            ObjectMessage message = session.createObjectMessage();

            ShippingRequestQueue shippingRequest = new ShippingRequestQueue(1, "107, Old Street");

            message.setObject(shippingRequest);
            producer.send(message);
            session.close();
            connection.close();

            System.out.println("Shipping request message sent ..");
        } catch (Throwable ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }        
    }

}

I have created the corresponding Connection Factory and Destination Resource at Open MQ (MoM) using Glassfish 3.1 Admin Console.

Could someone help me understand what am I missing?

Answer 1

Resource injection works only in a managed environment, such as a Java EE application server, or a Spring container, for instance. In a standalone application JNDI is your only choice.

Annotations in general are meant to be processed by some tool/framework, and plain JVM that executes your main() method simply does not contain such. The only annotations I know of that are processed by JVM out of the box are compile-time @Deprecated, @Override and @SuppressWarnings.

Replying to your comment: I don't have access to the book, so I'll only guess that they probably describe running an application client component and not standalone application client. It's not the same — check Glassfish EJB FAQ. ACCs are normally deployed into an application server and can be executed via Java Web Start or without it, but in an AS-specific way. See Glassfish example (you didn't say what AS your EJB executes in).