Using Java EE APIs for asynchronously invoking Application Module methods

The JDeveloper 12C release comes with WLS 12C version which is fully compatible with JavaEE 6 stack. In this post I'm talking about leveraging Java EE APIs for enhancing your ADF application.

Straight to the point: JavaEE 6 has simplified the asynchronous method invocation in EJBs to a great extent. You just need to annotate the target class or method as @Asynchronous to enable asynchronous invocations. More details can be seen here: http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/tutorial/doc/gkidz.html
Today's post talks about leveraging this feature for invoking application module methods asynchronously. This approach can be used when you need to invoke heavy operations such as some batch job or bulk data update from UI without caring the result of  the operation(which can be monitored using some other page). Implementation is simple, we are simply wrapping application method call in an asynchronous EJB method. Client calls asynchronous EJB method which in turn invokes application module method. The following is an example:

Please note the usage of ADFContextInterceptor which is required to set up the ADFContext object. Full implementation of this class can be seen in the sample work space attached at the end of this post. Also the ejb-jar.xml in the Model project contains the description for jdbc/HRDS data source

@Stateless(name = "HRSessionEJB", mappedName = "AsynchADFBC-Model-HRSessionEJB")
@Interceptors(value = ADFContextInterceptor.class)
public class HRSessionEJBBean {
    @Resource
    SessionContext sessionContext;

    public HRSessionEJBBean() {
    }

    @Asynchronous
    public Future executeAMOperationInAsynchMode() {
    String status = null;

    try {
            String amDef = "model.HRAppModule";
            String config = "HRAppModuleLocal";
            HRAppModuleImpl am = (HRAppModuleImpl) Configuration.createRootApplicationModule(amDef, config);
            status = am.processEmployees();

            Configuration.releaseRootApplicationModule(am, true);
  
        } catch (Exception e) {

            //Handles exception in better way
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        
        return new AsyncResult<String>(status);
    }
}

Download 

You can download the sample workspace from here. [Runs with Oracle JDeveloper 12C 12.1.2.0.0 + Oracle XE].
Run asynch.jsf. Click on the button you may see that control comes back even before operation is finished on the server.  This button is bound to HRSessionEJBBean::executeAMOperationInAsynchMode() which in turn calls appropariate AM method. You may see that control returns right after invoking the method without waiting for the method to finish. See the console window to know when the method actually finishes.