C O N N E C T I N G   T O   D A T A B A S E S   A N D   O T H E R   R E S O U R C E   M A N A G E R S  

Chapter  

10 

10.  Connecting to Databases and other Resource Managers 

The world of JCA by David Jencks 

All connections to databases and other resource managers in jboss 3 are handled through 

the JCA framework.  JCA provides a well thought out model in which the application server 

handles transactions, security, and pooling or resource management, and the client 

application code is left free to concentrate on doing useful work.  Few databases currently 

supply JCA adapters, so normally database drivers are used through jca jdbc wrappers.  

Databases such as firebird and other resource managers such as SAP, CICS, etc can be 

accessed directly through jca adapters. 

To use a JCA adapter or wrapped jdbc driver, you must configure 3 mbeans and a JAAS 

security domain.  Examples of configurations for popular databases are supplied in the  

docs/examples/jca directory. The mbeans are shown there in a nested format which makes 

their relationship clear.  The ConnectionManager mbean determines the level of transaction 

support for the adapter deployment.  The choices are 

org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.NoTxConnectionManager, for adapters that do not 

support transactions or adapters for which you want only autocommit behavior, 

org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.LocalTxConnectionManager, for adapters such as 

wrapped non xa jdbc drivers that support only local (one phase) transactions, and 

org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.XaTxConnectionManager, for adapters that support 

xa transactions.  If you have a choice, use xa transaction support for better concurrency and 

less chance of resource deadlock.  Along with the references to the other two required 

mbeans, the crucial configuration bit here is the