[[JNDI_Reference]]
= JNDI Reference

[abstract]

WildFly offers several mechanisms to retrieve components by name. Every
WildFly instance has it's own local JNDI namespace ( `java:`) which is
unique per JVM. The layout of this namespace is primarily governed by
the Jakarta EE specification. Applications which share the same WildFly
instance can use this namespace to intercommunicate. In addition to
local JNDI, a variety of mechanisms exist to access remote components.

* Client JNDI - This is a mechanism by which remote components can be
accessed using the JNDI APIs, but *_without network round-trips_* . This
approach is the most efficient, and *_removes a potential single point
of failure_* . For this reason, it is highly recommended to use Client
JNDI over traditional remote JNDI access. However, to make this
possible, it does require that all names follow a strict layout, so user
customizations are not possible. Currently only access to remote EJBs is
supported via the `ejb:` namespace. Future revisions will likely add a
JMS client JNDI namespace.
* Traditional Remote JNDI - This is a more familiar approach to EE
application developers, where the client performs a remote component
name lookup against a server, and a proxy/stub to the component is
serialized as part of the name lookup and returned to the client. The
client then invokes a method on the proxy which results in another
remote network call to the underlying service. In a nutshell,
traditional remote JNDI involves two calls to invoke an EE component,
whereas Client JNDI requires one. It does however allow for customized
names, and for a centralised directory for multiple application servers.
This centralized directory is, however, _a single point of failure_.
* EE Application Client / Server-To-Server Delegation - This approach is
where local names are bound as an _alias_ to a remote name using one of
the above mechanisms. This is useful in that it allows applications to
only ever reference standard portable Jakarta EE names in both code and
deployment descriptors. It also allows for the application to be unaware
of network topology details/ This can even work with Java SE clients by
using the little known EE Application Client feature. This feature
allows you to run an extremely minimal AS server around your
application, so that you can take advantage of certain core services
such as naming and injection.

include::JNDI_Local_Reference.adoc[]

include::JNDI_Remote_Reference.adoc[]
