Question

I am experimenting with EJB3 on JBoss, developing a stateless bean. Basically once the module has been deployed I need to perform some actions related to load application settings.
To do this I’ve annotated a method as @PostConstruct, which as far as I know from the API instructs the container to invoke it once the bean has been deployed and before get in service. (correct?)
Now, I am confused, because from the log on that method looks like is not simply called after has been deployed but before each exposed method is called.
I only need to call that method once, not every time it receives a call. What would be the best approach?

Thanks in advance

Alessandro Ilardo

Answer 1

A stateless bean should be just that – stateless. Meaning that in use, you should neither be able to tell or to care if the bean was pulled from a pool or constructed on demand for your request. I’m hard-put to envision how a PostConstruct could apply to a stateless environment, since I always use that function to finish building a bean’s state.

Apparently, JBoss is either forgoing the pooling of stateless beans and constructing them fresh each time, or, if it is using pooling, treating them like they were reconstructed each time (since they shouldn’t be carrying state information). I’m actually a little surprised that it invokes the PostConstruct at all.