Creating module in jBoss AS

Question

I’m using jBoss AS 7 to publish my various projects, and all of them use the Jersey API, so instead of deploying it in every project I wanted to create a module for it. For that, I created the folder JBOSS_HOME\modules\com\sun\Jersey\main and in this folder I placed the Jersey jar’s and the file module.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.1" name="com.sun.jersey">
    <properties>
        <property name="jboss.api" value="private"/>
    </properties>
    <resources>
        <resource-root path="jersey-bundle-1.12.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="asm-3.1.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jackson-core-asl-1.9.2.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jackson-jaxrs-1.9.2.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jackson-mapper-asl-1.9.2.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jackson-xc-1.9.2.jar"/>        
        <resource-root path="jersey-client-1.12.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jersey-core-1.12.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jersey-json-1.12.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jersey-server-1.12.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jersey-servlet-1.12.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jettison-1.1.jar"/>
        <resource-root path="jsr311-api-1.1.1.jar"/>
    </resources>
    <dependencies>
        <module name="javax.api"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.staxmapper"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.as.controller"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.as.server"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.modules"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.msc"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.logging"/>
        <module name="org.jboss.vfs"/>
    </dependencies>
</module>

To prevent the use of the jBoss JAX-RS I removed from the file JBOSS_HOME\standalone\standalone.xml the following lines:

<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:jaxrs:1.0"/>
<extension module="org.jboss.as.jaxrs"/>

In MyProjectEAR\META-INF folder I created the jboss-deployment-structure.xml file with the following structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jboss-deployment-structure xmlns="urn:jboss:deployment-structure:1.0">
   <deployment>
      <dependencies>
        <module name="com.sun.jersey" slot="main" >
            <imports>
                <include path="META-INF/**"/>
                <include path="**"/>
            </imports>
        </module>
      </dependencies>
   </deployment>
</jboss-deployment-structure>

My MyProject\webContent\web.xml file is this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">
    <display-name> MyProject </display-name>

    <servlet>
        <description>
        </description>
        <servlet-name>Jersey Servlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <description></description>
            <param-name>javax.ws.rs.Application</param-name>
            <param-value>com.MyProject.service.REST_Application</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Jersey Servlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/jaxrs/*</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

My manifest file present at MyProject\webContent\META-INF\ MANIFEST.MF is this:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Class-Path:

When i tried to deploy the project I got the following error:

12:12:11,804 INFO  [org.jboss.as.server.deployment] (MSC service thread 1-5) JBAS015876: Starting deployment of "MyProjectEAR.ear"
12:12:11,852 INFO  [org.jboss.as.server.deployment] (MSC service thread 1-7) JBAS015876: Starting deployment of "MyProject.war"
12:12:12,052 WARN  [org.jboss.as.dependency.private] (MSC service thread 1-3) JBAS018567: Deployment "deployment.MyProjectEAR.ear" is using a private module ("com.sun.jersey:main") which may be changed or removed in future versions without notice.
12:12:12,054 WARN  [org.jboss.as.dependency.private] (MSC service thread 1-3) JBAS018567: Deployment "deployment.MyProjectEAR.ear" is using a private module ("com.sun.jersey:main") which may be changed or removed in future versions without notice.
12:12:12,055 WARN  [org.jboss.as.dependency.private] (MSC service thread 1-3) JBAS018567: Deployment "deployment.MyProjectEAR.ear" is using a private module ("com.sun.misc:main") which may be changed or removed in future versions without notice.
12:12:12,057 WARN  [org.jboss.as.dependency.private] (MSC service thread 1-3) JBAS018567: Deployment "deployment.MyProjectEAR.ear" is using a private module ("com.sun.misc:main") which may be changed or removed in future versions without notice.
12:12:12,117 ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-7) MSC00001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.subunit."MyProjectEAR.ear"."MyProject.war".POST_MODULE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.subunit."MyProjectEAR.ear"."MyProject.war".POST_MODULE: Failed to process phase POST_MODULE of subdeployment "MyProject.war" of deployment "MyProjectEAR.ear"
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:119) [jboss-as-server-7.1.0.Final.jar:7.1.0.Final]
    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA.jar:1.0.2.GA]
    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA.jar:1.0.2.GA]
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source) [rt.jar:1.6.0_30]
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) [rt.jar:1.6.0_30]
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) [rt.jar:1.6.0_30]
Caused by: org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitProcessingException: JBAS011093: Could not load component class com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer
    at org.jboss.as.ee.component.deployers.InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.processComponentConfig(InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.java:113)
    at org.jboss.as.ee.component.deployers.InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.deploy(InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.java:54)
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:113) [jboss-as-server-7.1.0.Final.jar:7.1.0.Final]
    ... 5 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer from [Module "deployment.MyProjectEAR.ear.MyProject.war:main" from Service Module Loader]
    at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader.findClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:190) [jboss-modules.jar:1.1.1.GA]
    at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClassUnchecked(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:468) [jboss-modules.jar:1.1.1.GA]
    at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClassChecked(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:456) [jboss-modules.jar:1.1.1.GA]
    at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClass(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:398) [jboss-modules.jar:1.1.1.GA]
    at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.loadClass(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:120) [jboss-modules.jar:1.1.1.GA]
    at org.jboss.as.ee.component.deployers.InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.processComponentConfig(InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.java:111)
    ... 7 more
12:12:12,340 INFO  [org.jboss.as.server] (DeploymentScanner-threads - 2) JBAS015870: Deploy of deployment "MyProjectEAR.ear" was rolled back with failure message {"JBAS014671: Failed services" => {"jboss.deployment.subunit.\"MyProjectEAR.ear\".\"MyProject.war\".POST_MODULE" => "org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.subunit.\"MyProjectEAR.ear\".\"MyProject.war\".POST_MODULE: Failed to process phase POST_MODULE of subdeployment \"MyProject.war\" of deployment \"MyProjectEAR.ear\""}}
12:12:12,351 INFO  [org.jboss.as.server.deployment] (MSC service thread 1-5) JBAS015877: Stopped deployment MyProject.war in 9ms
12:12:12,353 INFO  [org.jboss.as.server.deployment] (MSC service thread 1-5) JBAS015877: Stopped deployment MyProjectEAR.ear in 12ms
12:12:12,355 INFO  [org.jboss.as.controller] (DeploymentScanner-threads - 2) JBAS014774: Service status report
JBAS014777:   Services which failed to start:      service jboss.deployment.subunit."MyProjectEAR.ear"."MyProject.war".POST_MODULE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.subunit."MyProjectEAR.ear"."MyProject.war".POST_MODULE: Failed to process phase POST_MODULE of subdeployment "MyProject.war" of deployment "MyProjectEAR.ear"
12:12:12,359 ERROR [org.jboss.as.server.deployment.scanner] (DeploymentScanner-threads - 1) {"JBAS014653: Composite operation failed and was rolled back. Steps that failed:" => {"Operation step-2" => {"JBAS014671: Failed services" => {"jboss.deployment.subunit.\"MyProjectEAR.ear\".\"MyProject.war\".POST_MODULE" => "org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.subunit.\"MyProjectEAR.ear\".\"MyProject.war\".POST_MODULE: Failed to process phase POST_MODULE of subdeployment \"MyProject.war\" of deployment \"MyProjectEAR.ear\""}}}}

* EDIT : * If I place the Jersey API in JBOSS_HOME\modules\com\sun\jsf-impl\main and change the corresponding module.xml everything works ok. What does this location have different?

Answer 1

If using Maven, you can add a reference to a module in JBoss AS like this:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <archive>
            <manifestEntries>
                <!-- List your dependencies here -->
                <Dependencies>com.sun.jersey</Dependencies>
            </manifestEntries>
        </archive>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Which will automatically generate the manifest entries for you.

I personally have to use this approach to avoid the "Native Library xxxxxxx already loaded in another classloader" error while loading com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver that I have defined as a module in JBoss AS - That way JNDI defined connections can connect to MSSQL, and at the same time I can reuse that dependency to connect to the DB directly (this time trough DriverManager instead of JNDI).

Answer 2

There is already an answer, but I'd like to clarify the topic a little bit for future readers.

There are three places where to declare a JBoss module as a dependency of other deployments in JBoss 7 (EAP 6):

1. Global modules
2. MANIFEST.MF
3. jboss-deployment-structure.xml

In most cases, they are alternative.

1. Global modules

A global module is a module that JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 provides as a dependency to every application. Any module can be made global by adding it to the application server's list of global modules.

You can easily add global modules from the management console (see sources), or by editing the standalone.xml:

<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:ee:1.0" >            
  <global-modules>
    <!-- Add global modules here -->
    <module name="org.javassist" slot="main" />            
  </global-modules> 
</subsystem>

2. MANIFEST.MF

Add a Dependencies entry to the MANIFEST.MF file with a comma-separated list of dependency module names.

Dependencies: org.javassist, org.apache.velocity

If you are using Maven, you just need to configure some plugins. e.g for ear.

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <version>6</version>
        ...
        <defaultLibBundleDir>lib</defaultLibBundleDir>
        <archive>
            <manifestEntries>
                <Dependencies>
                    com.foo.bar.test-module export optional
                    <!-- Beware of new lines! They can quietly break the conf -->
                </Dependencies>
            </manifestEntries>
        </archive>
        <modules>
            ...
        </modules>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

NOTE: using export makes the com.foo.bar.test-module visible for all the modules bundled in the ear.

3. jboss-deployment-structure.xml

jboss-deployment-structure.xml is a JBoss specific deployment descriptor that can be used to control class loading in a fine grained manner. It should be placed in the top level deployment, in META-INF (or WEB-INF for web deployments)

You can see from docs below how powerful it is compared to MANIFEST.MF. For the simplest case, here's an example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jboss-deployment-structure>
    <ear-subdeployments-isolated>false</ear-subdeployments-isolated>
    <deployment>
        <dependencies>
            <!-- Add modules here -->
            <module name="com.foo.bar.test-module" export="true"/>
            <module name="org.apache.axis.axis-jaxrpc" export="true"/>
        </dependencies>
    </deployment>
</jboss-deployment-structure>

NOTE 1: just like with MANIFEST.MF, setting export=true makes the com.foo.bar.test-module visible for all the modules bundled in the ear.

NOTE 2:The attribute optional=true/false is also available in jboss-deployment-structure.xml, but not working properly for specific versions (probably < EAP 6.4.7). Check it out, if you need it.

Hope it helps.

Sources:

RedHat docs - Add an Explicit Module Dependency to a Deployment

RedHat docs - Configuring Modules

RedHat docs - Add a module to all deployments

JBoss AS 7 Developer Guide