Passing @ApplicationException through multiple EJB modules

Question

I have a EJB project with the following modules:

a rest module which handles the api calls
an api module which provides an interface for the core
a core module which contains the actual business logic

In case something goes wrong and the client should receive an error, I am using custom Exceptions, which are subclasses of WebApplicationException and already contain the appropriate response.

@ApplicationException(rollback = true)
public class InvalidParameterException extends WebApplicationException { }

These Exceptions should never be catched. When annotating it as ApplicationException, it does not get picked up by the glassfish server log. So far everything works fine.

Now I have a situation, where the core module includes another EJB module, which includes its own subclasses of WebApplicationExceptions, which look similar to the above mentioned. This Exception gets passed to the core as it should. However, when this Exception is passed to the rest module, it gets wrapped into a javax.ejb.EJBTransactionRolledbackException, which causes the glassfish server log to log all these exceptions, which I would like to avoid.

So, the @ApplicationException annotation only works when the exception is passed from the ejb module to the core module, however as soon as it is further passed to the rest module, the annotation no longer takes effect.

Is there a good way to pass the Exception as a ApplicationException through multiple modules? I know I could catch the Exception and rethrow it as an ApplicationException again, however that will bloat up the code a lot and does not seem like a very good solution. Is there a better way?

Edit: Some sample code

Rest module:

@Path("/someservice")
@Stateless
public class SomeResource {

    @EJB private SomeService someService;

    @GET
    @Produces("application/json")
    public Response someGetMethod() {
        this.someService.someMethod();
        return Response.ok().build();
    }
}

api module:

public Interface SomeService {
    public void someMethod();
}

core module:

@Stateless
public Class SomeServiceImpl implements SomeService {

    @EJB private ExternalEJB externalEJB;

    public void someMethod() {
        externalEJB.externalMethod();
    }
}

An external EJB module. Included in pom.xml (core module) via <type>ejb</type>

@Stateless
public class ExternalEJB {
    public void externalMethod() {
       throw new ExternalApplicationException();
    }
}

Exception from external module:

@ApplicationException
public class ExternalApplicationException extends WebApplicationException {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    public ExternalApplicationException() {
        super(Response.serverError().build());
    }
}

We often use @ApplicationExceptions and they are correctly bubbled up through multiple EJB invocations as excepted. However, I see your annocation has rollback = true -- isn't therefore a EJBTransactionRolledBackException exactly what you wanted? — Alexander Langer
It's because rest module is outside EJB container. Generally speaking and unfortunately you can not seamlessly chain EJB and REST calls w/o handling subclasses of EJBException, which REST module (as an EJB client) is doomed to handle when it comes to transactions and security. — andbi
@AlexanderLanger I just checked this. If I remove the rollback = true (default is false), the behavior does not change a bit. — st-h
@Osw I am not sure I really do understand this. If I throw the exception from the EJB CORE module and it gets passed to the REST module, everything is fine. If the exception is thrown by an EJB module, passed to the EJB CORE module and then passed to the REST module, it gets wrapped in the EJBTransactionRolledBackException. — st-h
Not sure I get the call flow completely, but you might want to check this out stackoverflow.com/questions/15387346/… , could be your case. If not, then some code snippets would be more informative, who calls who and how, w/o business logic, minimum short self-contained example. — andbi

Sinvaldo Pacheco Sinvaldo Pacheco · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-10T04:16:52

Modify your business exceptions to extend EJBException and capture in REST layer as:

try {
   // my code
}
catch (MyCustomExceptionThatExtendsEJBException e) {
    // catch my exceptions.
}

Passing @ApplicationException through multiple EJB modules

1 Answers