WebLogic: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 4. Using JNDI and RMI

The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) provides a standard way of accessing naming and directory services. The API describes how objects can be bound in a distributed directory service, and how clients of the directory can locate and retrieve these objects. It plays a critical role in any J2EE environment, providing the central naming and directory service API used by containers, J2EE resources, deployed applications, and external clients.

JNDI has an open architecture that permits the integration of a number of different implementations of directory services. These service provider implementations map vendor-neutral JNDI calls to the operations supported by the underlying directory service. For instance, your Java SDK distribution comes equipped with service providers for LDAP, CORBA Naming Services, and Java’s Remote Method Invocation (RMI) Registry. Other service providers are also available for Sun’s Network Information Service (NIS), Novell’s Network Directory Service (NDS), DNS, and Windows Registry. Everything from Java objects to email addresses can be stored in the various types of directories, making them useful for a variety of things. In fact, WebLogic uses an embedded LDAP repository to store security information about WebLogic users, groups, security policies, and much more. The JNDI provides a standard interface to all of these types of directory services, and in WebLogic you will find a robust, distributed JNDI implementation ...