Configuring JCA Connection in WebLogic Server

Now you will take a look at the configuration settings required for the RA in the ra.xml and weblogic-ra.xml deployment descriptor files. The ra.xml file contains the general settings for deploying the RA. The settings specific to WebLogic Server are listed in the weblogic-ra.xml file.

The ra.xml File

The primary file used to register the deployment descriptor information is the ra.xml ("resource adapter") file. The following items need to be listed in the ra.xml deployment descriptor file:

• Managed connection factory The class that supports the managed connection factory class should be listed in the <managedconnectionfactory-class> tag.

• Connection factory interface The connection factory interface of the RA should be defined in the <connectionfactory-interface> tag.

• Connection factory implementation class The <connectionfactory-impl-class> tag is used to define the implementation class of the RA that implements the connection factory.

• Connection interface The connection interface is defined in the <connection-interface> tags.

• Connection implementation class The class implementing the connection interface is listed in the <connection-impl-class> tags.

• Transaction level type The transaction level type supported by the RA for a particular EIS must be specified in the ra.xml deployment descriptor file. The valid values that can be defined are NoTransaction, XATransaction, and LocalTransaction for the <transaction-support> attribute.

The weblogic-ra.xml File

The weblogic-ra.xml file contains deployment information specific to WebLogic Server. The important tags that need to be listed in this deployment descriptor file are these:

• Connection factory WebLogic Server as well as the application components deployed on WebLogic Server use the connection factory to obtain connections to an EIS system via the RA. The details of the connection factory, including its logical name, JNDI name (to enable accessing the connection factory in WebLogic Server and outside it), location of native library files, and connection pool parameters, are listed in the ra.xml file. The pool parameters are similar to what you would define for a JDBC connection pool, namely initial capacity, maximum capacity, pool shrinking detail, and so on.

• Error logging and tracing You can enable tracing and logging of errors and specify the log file where the logging information will be written.

Tip

To override the settings in the ra.xml deployment descriptor file with configuration settings in the weblogic-ra.xml file, you should define the settings in the map-config-property-name element in the weblogic-ra.xml file.