What is JNDI? What is its basic use? When is it used?

jndi
LetsSyncUp picture LetsSyncUp · Dec 6, 2010 · Viewed 219.2k times · Source

  • What is JNDI?

  • What is its basic use?

  • When is it used?

Answer

duffymo picture duffymo · Dec 6, 2010

What is JNDI ?

It stands for Java Naming and Directory Interface.

What is its basic use?

JNDI allows distributed applications to look up services in an abstract, resource-independent way.

When it is used?

The most common use case is to set up a database connection pool on a Java EE application server. Any application that's deployed on that server can gain access to the connections they need using the JNDI name java:comp/env/FooBarPool without having to know the details about the connection.

This has several advantages:

  1. If you have a deployment sequence where apps move from devl->int->test->prod environments, you can use the same JNDI name in each environment and hide the actual database being used. Applications don't have to change as they migrate between environments.
  2. You can minimize the number of folks who need to know the credentials for accessing a production database. Only the Java EE app server needs to know if you use JNDI.

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