Passing state between EJB methods / @RequestScoped and @Stateless

Question

I have a @RequestScoped CDI bean that I want to turn into an EJB to get declarative transactions. (I'm on EJB 3.1, Java EE 6)

Currently, I am passing state between subroutines, under the assumption that the instance is only used in a single request. If I add @Stateless now that assumption would change.

For example, I want to do something like

@Stateless
@Named
@RequestScoped
public class Foo {
  private String var1; // can't use instance vars in @Stateless?
  private String var2;

  public void transactionForRequest() {
    var1 = value; 
    var2 = value;
    ....
    subroutine();
  }
}

I assume the above doesn't work- is that correct?

I am contemplating two alternatives:

Use @Stateful instead of @Stateless, along with @Named and @RequestScoped.
Keep @Stateless and use EJBContext.getContextData map to replace instance variables.

Which is better? And is there some other alternative I'm not thinking of? (Besides wait for Java EE 7 or switch to Spring. :-))

Using @Stateful may be an over-skill. Have you considered using normal Stateless bean and @ConversationScoped managed bean to pass states? — Mr.J4mes
how would this work - would you make the EJB @Stateless then @Inject a CDI bean? Could this CDI bean be @RequestScoped? — wrschneider
I'd keep the bean as @Stateless and use @ConversationScoped bean to pass variables from pages to pages. Check out this article about creating wizard. — Mr.J4mes
I'm not trying to have a wizard-like conversation - I'm trying to pass variables between subroutines in the scope of a single HTTP request / DB transaction. — wrschneider
If so, @SessionScoped bean with Stateless bean may still be easier to manage than Stateful bean. — Mr.J4mes

David Blevins David Blevins · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-04T00:12:28

While @Stateless, @Singleton and @MessageDriven can have scoped references injected via @Inject, they cannot be @RequestScoped or any other scope. Only the @Stateful model is flexible enough to support scopes. In other words, you can annotate the @Stateful bean class itself as @RequestScoped, @SessionScoped, etc..

In simple terms @Stateless, @Singleton have fixed "scopes" already. @Singleton is essentially @ApplicationScoped and @Stateless would perhaps be some made-up scope like @InvocationScoped, if that existed. The lifecycle of an @MessageDriven bean is entirely up to the Connector that drives it and is therefore also not allowed to have user-defined scope.

See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/8720148/190816

Passing state between EJB methods / @RequestScoped and @Stateless

3 Answers