Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1, 6th Edition

Chapter 18. Interceptors

From the very start, we’ve been focusing on finding a proper home for all code in an application. Business logic is accessible from session or message-driven beans, domain nouns are in entities, and services such as security and transactions are handled as configurable aspects by the container. However, there might be cross-cutting concerns demanded by your unique requirements that are too specific to be handled by an open specification. For these cases, EJB 3.1 provides a generic interception framework in the form of the Interceptors 1.1 Specification.

Interceptors are objects that can interpose themselves on method calls or the lifecycle events of session and message-driven beans. They allow you to encapsulate common behavior that cuts across large parts of your application. This behavior is usually common code that you don’t want polluting your business logic. Where most of the changes to the EJB 3.x specifications were designed to make EJB easier to use for application developers, interceptors are an advanced feature that provide you another way to modularize your application or even extend your EJB container. This chapter teaches you how to write an interceptor and shows you various real-world examples of where interceptors can be used.

Intercepting Methods

To understand when to use interceptors, we’ll first take a look at an example of poor code reuse.

We’ll be building an online television station, and part of the backing application is a TunerEJB. Incoming ...