= Local Server
:index-group: OpenEJB Standalone Server
:jbake-date: 2018-12-05
:jbake-type: page
:jbake-status: published

= Accessing EJBs Locally

When OpenEJB embedded in your app, server, IDE, or JUnit, you can use
what we call the Local Server and avoid the network overhead and enjoy
an easy way to embed OpenEJB. Instead of putting the app in the server,
put the server in the app!

= Say what?! A local server?

Yes, you read correctly. OpenEJB can be embedded and treated as your
very own personal EJB container.

If they can have Local and Remote EJBs, why not Local and Remote EJB
Servers too?

Haven't you ever wanted EJBs without the heavy? I mean you need the
"heavy" eventually, but not while you're developing. Well, there's the
advantage of an EJB implementation that was designed with a very clean
and well-defined server-container contract, you can cut the server part
out completely!

So, if you wish to access ejbs locally and not in client/server mode,
you can do so by embedding OpenEJB as a library and accessing ejbs
through OpenEJB's built-in IntraVM (Local) Server. Why would someone
want to do this? * Your application is a server or other middleware *
You want to write an app that can be both stand alone _and_ distributed
* To test your EJBs with JUnit and don't want to start/stop servers and
other nonsense * Imagine the power from being able to use your IDE
debugger to step from your Client all the way into your EJB and back
with no remote debugging voodoo.

In this case, your application, test suite, IDE, or client accesses
beans as you would from any other EJB Server. The EJB Server just
happens to be running in the same virtual machine as your application.
This EJB Server is thusly called the IntraVM Server, and, for all
intents purposes, your application an IntraVM Client.

There are some interesting differences though. The IntraVM Server isn't
a heavyweight server as one normally associates with EJB. It doesn't
open connections, launch threads for processing requests, introduce
complex classloading hierarchies, or any of those "heavy" kind of
things. All it does is dish out proxies to your app that can be used to
shoot calls right into the EJB Container. Very light, very fast, very
easy for testing, debugging, developing, etc.

= Embedding

See link:embedding.html[Embedding] for details.
