Module java.naming
Package javax.naming

Interface Context

  • All Known Subinterfaces:
    DirContext, EventContext, EventDirContext, LdapContext
    All Known Implementing Classes:
    InitialContext, InitialDirContext, InitialLdapContext

    public interface Context
    This interface represents a naming context, which consists of a set of name-to-object bindings. It contains methods for examining and updating these bindings.

    Names

    Each name passed as an argument to a Context method is relative to that context. The empty name is used to name the context itself. A name parameter may never be null.

    Most of the methods have overloaded versions with one taking a Name parameter and one taking a String. These overloaded versions are equivalent in that if the Name and String parameters are just different representations of the same name, then the overloaded versions of the same methods behave the same. In the method descriptions below, only one version is fully documented. The second version instead has a link to the first: the same documentation applies to both.

    For systems that support federation, String name arguments to Context methods are composite names. Name arguments that are instances of CompositeName are treated as composite names, while Name arguments that are not instances of CompositeName are treated as compound names (which might be instances of CompoundName or other implementations of compound names). This allows the results of NameParser.parse() to be used as arguments to the Context methods. Prior to JNDI 1.2, all name arguments were treated as composite names.

    Furthermore, for systems that support federation, all names returned in a NamingEnumeration from list() and listBindings() are composite names represented as strings. See CompositeName for the string syntax of names.

    For systems that do not support federation, the name arguments (in either Name or String forms) and the names returned in NamingEnumeration may be names in their own namespace rather than names in a composite namespace, at the discretion of the service provider.

    Exceptions

    All the methods in this interface can throw a NamingException or any of its subclasses. See NamingException and their subclasses for details on each exception.

    Concurrent Access

    A Context instance is not guaranteed to be synchronized against concurrent access by multiple threads. Threads that need to access a single Context instance concurrently should synchronize amongst themselves and provide the necessary locking. Multiple threads each manipulating a different Context instance need not synchronize. Note that the lookup method, when passed an empty name, will return a new Context instance representing the same naming context.

    For purposes of concurrency control, a Context operation that returns a NamingEnumeration is not considered to have completed while the enumeration is still in use, or while any referrals generated by that operation are still being followed.

    Parameters

    A Name parameter passed to any method of the Context interface or one of its subinterfaces will not be modified by the service provider. The service provider may keep a reference to it for the duration of the operation, including any enumeration of the method's results and the processing of any referrals generated. The caller should not modify the object during this time. A Name returned by any such method is owned by the caller. The caller may subsequently modify it; the service provider may not.

    Environment Properties

    JNDI applications need a way to communicate various preferences and properties that define the environment in which naming and directory services are accessed. For example, a context might require specification of security credentials in order to access the service. Another context might require that server configuration information be supplied. These are referred to as the environment of a context. The Context interface provides methods for retrieving and updating this environment.

    The environment is inherited from the parent context as context methods proceed from one context to the next. Changes to the environment of one context do not directly affect those of other contexts.

    It is implementation-dependent when environment properties are used and/or verified for validity. For example, some of the security-related properties are used by service providers to "log in" to the directory. This login process might occur at the time the context is created, or the first time a method is invoked on the context. When, and whether this occurs at all, is implementation-dependent. When environment properties are added or removed from the context, verifying the validity of the changes is again implementation-dependent. For example, verification of some properties might occur at the time the change is made, or at the time the next operation is performed on the context, or not at all.

    Any object with a reference to a context may examine that context's environment. Sensitive information such as clear-text passwords should not be stored there unless the implementation is known to protect it.

    Resource Files

    To simplify the task of setting up the environment required by a JNDI application, application components and service providers may be distributed along with resource files. A JNDI resource file is a file in the properties file format (see java.util.Properties), containing a list of key/value pairs. The key is the name of the property (e.g. "java.naming.factory.object") and the value is a string in the format defined for that property. Here is an example of a JNDI resource file:

    java.naming.factory.object=com.sun.jndi.ldap.AttrsToCorba:com.wiz.from.Person java.naming.factory.state=com.sun.jndi.ldap.CorbaToAttrs:com.wiz.from.Person java.naming.factory.control=com.sun.jndi.ldap.ResponseControlFactory
    The JNDI class library reads the resource files and makes the property values freely available. Thus JNDI resource files should be considered to be "world readable", and sensitive information such as clear-text passwords should not be stored there.

    There are two kinds of JNDI resource files: provider and application.

    Provider Resource Files

    Each service provider has an optional resource that lists properties specific to that provider. The name of this resource is:
    [prefix/]jndiprovider.properties
    where prefix is the package name of the provider's context implementation(s), with each period (".") converted to a slash ("/"). For example, suppose a service provider defines a context implementation with class name com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx. The provider resource for this provider is named com/sun/jndi/ldap/jndiprovider.properties. If the class is not in a package, the resource's name is simply jndiprovider.properties.

    Certain methods in the JNDI class library make use of the standard JNDI properties that specify lists of JNDI factories:

    • java.naming.factory.object
    • java.naming.factory.state
    • java.naming.factory.control
    • java.naming.factory.url.pkgs
    The JNDI library will consult the provider resource file when determining the values of these properties. Properties other than these may be set in the provider resource file at the discretion of the service provider. The service provider's documentation should clearly state which properties are allowed; other properties in the file will be ignored.

    Application Resource Files

    When an application is deployed, it will generally have several codebase directories and JARs in its classpath. JNDI locates (using ClassLoader.getResources()) all application resource files named jndi.properties in the classpath. In addition, if the Java installation directory contains a built-in properties file, typically conf/jndi.properties, JNDI treats it as an additional application resource file. All of the properties contained in these files are placed into the environment of the initial context. This environment is then inherited by other contexts.

    For each property found in more than one application resource file, JNDI uses the first value found or, in a few cases where it makes sense to do so, it concatenates all of the values (details are given below). For example, if the "java.naming.factory.object" property is found in three jndi.properties resource files, the list of object factories is a concatenation of the property values from all three files. Using this scheme, each deployable component is responsible for listing the factories that it exports. JNDI automatically collects and uses all of these export lists when searching for factory classes.

    Search Algorithm for Properties

    When JNDI constructs an initial context, the context's environment is initialized with properties defined in the environment parameter passed to the constructor, the system properties, and the application resource files. See InitialContext for details. This initial environment is then inherited by other context instances.

    When the JNDI class library needs to determine the value of a property, it does so by merging the values from the following two sources, in order:

    1. The environment of the context being operated on.
    2. The provider resource file (jndiprovider.properties) for the context being operated on.
    For each property found in both of these two sources, JNDI determines the property's value as follows. If the property is one of the standard JNDI properties that specify a list of JNDI factories (listed above), the values are concatenated into a single colon-separated list. For other properties, only the first value found is used.

    When a service provider needs to determine the value of a property, it will generally take that value directly from the environment. A service provider may define provider-specific properties to be placed in its own provider resource file. In that case it should merge values as described in the previous paragraph.

    In this way, each service provider developer can specify a list of factories to use with that service provider. These can be modified by the application resources specified by the deployer of the application, which in turn can be modified by the user.

    Since:
    1.3
    • Field Summary

      Fields 
      Modifier and Type Field Description
      static String APPLET
      Deprecated.
      An environment property with this name is ignored while constructing an initial context.
      static String AUTHORITATIVE
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the authoritativeness of the service requested.
      static String BATCHSIZE
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the batch size to use when returning data via the service's protocol.
      static String DNS_URL
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the DNS host and domain names to use for the JNDI URL context (for example, "dns://somehost/wiz.com").
      static String INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the initial context factory to use.
      static String LANGUAGE
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the preferred language to use with the service.
      static String OBJECT_FACTORIES
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the list of object factories to use.
      static String PROVIDER_URL
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying configuration information for the service provider to use.
      static String REFERRAL
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying how referrals encountered by the service provider are to be processed.
      static String SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the security level to use.
      static String SECURITY_CREDENTIALS
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the credentials of the principal for authenticating the caller to the service.
      static String SECURITY_PRINCIPAL
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the identity of the principal for authenticating the caller to the service.
      static String SECURITY_PROTOCOL
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the security protocol to use.
      static String STATE_FACTORIES
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the list of state factories to use.
      static String URL_PKG_PREFIXES
      Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the list of package prefixes to use when loading in URL context factories.
    • Field Detail

      • PROVIDER_URL

        static final String PROVIDER_URL
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying configuration information for the service provider to use. The value of the property should contain a URL string (e.g. "ldap://somehost:389"). This property may be specified in the environment, a system property, or a resource file. If it is not specified in any of these sources, the default configuration is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.provider.url".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • DNS_URL

        static final String DNS_URL
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the DNS host and domain names to use for the JNDI URL context (for example, "dns://somehost/wiz.com"). This property may be specified in the environment, a system property, or a resource file. If it is not specified in any of these sources and the program attempts to use a JNDI URL containing a DNS name, a ConfigurationException will be thrown.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.dns.url".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • AUTHORITATIVE

        static final String AUTHORITATIVE
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the authoritativeness of the service requested. If the value of the property is the string "true", it means that the access is to the most authoritative source (i.e. bypass any cache or replicas). If the value is anything else, the source need not be (but may be) authoritative. If unspecified, the value defaults to "false".

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.authoritative".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • BATCHSIZE

        static final String BATCHSIZE
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the batch size to use when returning data via the service's protocol. This is a hint to the provider to return the results of operations in batches of the specified size, so the provider can optimize its performance and usage of resources. The value of the property is the string representation of an integer. If unspecified, the batch size is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.batchsize".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • REFERRAL

        static final String REFERRAL
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying how referrals encountered by the service provider are to be processed. The value of the property is one of the following strings:
        "follow"
        follow referrals automatically
        "ignore"
        ignore referrals
        "throw"
        throw ReferralException when a referral is encountered.
        If this property is not specified, the default is determined by the provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.referral".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • SECURITY_PROTOCOL

        static final String SECURITY_PROTOCOL
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the security protocol to use. Its value is a string determined by the service provider (e.g. "ssl"). If this property is unspecified, the behaviour is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.security.protocol".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION

        static final String SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the security level to use. Its value is one of the following strings: "none", "simple", "strong". If this property is unspecified, the behaviour is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.security.authentication".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • SECURITY_PRINCIPAL

        static final String SECURITY_PRINCIPAL
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the identity of the principal for authenticating the caller to the service. The format of the principal depends on the authentication scheme. If this property is unspecified, the behaviour is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.security.principal".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • SECURITY_CREDENTIALS

        static final String SECURITY_CREDENTIALS
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the credentials of the principal for authenticating the caller to the service. The value of the property depends on the authentication scheme. For example, it could be a hashed password, clear-text password, key, certificate, and so on. If this property is unspecified, the behaviour is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.security.credentials".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • LANGUAGE

        static final String LANGUAGE
        Constant that holds the name of the environment property for specifying the preferred language to use with the service. The value of the property is a colon-separated list of language tags as defined in RFC 1766. If this property is unspecified, the language preference is determined by the service provider.

        The value of this constant is "java.naming.language".

        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String), Constant Field Values
      • APPLET

        @Deprecated
        static final String APPLET
        Deprecated.
        An environment property with this name is ignored while constructing an initial context. This constant was originally used as a property name to specify an Applet to retrieve parameters from, when creating an initial context. Currently any applet properties that need to be passed to an initial context should be copied into the environment hashtable:
        
             Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
             env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
               ((Applet) this).getParameter(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY));
             env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL,
               ((Applet) this).getParameter(Context.PROVIDER_URL));
             // ... other properties ...
        
             Context ctx = new InitialContext(env);
         
        Since:
        1.3
        See Also:
        Constant Field Values
    • Method Detail

      • lookup

        Object lookup​(Name name)
               throws NamingException
        Retrieves the named object. If name is empty, returns a new instance of this context (which represents the same naming context as this context, but its environment may be modified independently and it may be accessed concurrently).
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the object to look up
        Returns:
        the object bound to name
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        lookup(String), lookupLink(Name)
      • lookup

        Object lookup​(String name)
               throws NamingException
        Retrieves the named object. See lookup(Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the object to look up
        Returns:
        the object bound to name
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • unbind

        void unbind​(Name name)
             throws NamingException
        Unbinds the named object. Removes the terminal atomic name in name from the target context--that named by all but the terminal atomic part of name.

        This method is idempotent. It succeeds even if the terminal atomic name is not bound in the target context, but throws NameNotFoundException if any of the intermediate contexts do not exist.

        Any attributes associated with the name are removed. Intermediate contexts are not changed.

        Parameters:
        name - the name to unbind; may not be empty
        Throws:
        NameNotFoundException - if an intermediate context does not exist
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        unbind(String)
      • rename

        void rename​(Name oldName,
                    Name newName)
             throws NamingException
        Binds a new name to the object bound to an old name, and unbinds the old name. Both names are relative to this context. Any attributes associated with the old name become associated with the new name. Intermediate contexts of the old name are not changed.
        Parameters:
        oldName - the name of the existing binding; may not be empty
        newName - the name of the new binding; may not be empty
        Throws:
        NameAlreadyBoundException - if newName is already bound
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        rename(String, String), bind(Name, Object), rebind(Name, Object)
      • rename

        void rename​(String oldName,
                    String newName)
             throws NamingException
        Binds a new name to the object bound to an old name, and unbinds the old name. See rename(Name, Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        oldName - the name of the existing binding; may not be empty
        newName - the name of the new binding; may not be empty
        Throws:
        NameAlreadyBoundException - if newName is already bound
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • list

        NamingEnumeration<NameClassPair> list​(Name name)
                                       throws NamingException
        Enumerates the names bound in the named context, along with the class names of objects bound to them. The contents of any subcontexts are not included.

        If a binding is added to or removed from this context, its effect on an enumeration previously returned is undefined.

        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context to list
        Returns:
        an enumeration of the names and class names of the bindings in this context. Each element of the enumeration is of type NameClassPair.
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        list(String), listBindings(Name), NameClassPair
      • list

        NamingEnumeration<NameClassPair> list​(String name)
                                       throws NamingException
        Enumerates the names bound in the named context, along with the class names of objects bound to them. See list(Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context to list
        Returns:
        an enumeration of the names and class names of the bindings in this context. Each element of the enumeration is of type NameClassPair.
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • listBindings

        NamingEnumeration<Binding> listBindings​(Name name)
                                         throws NamingException
        Enumerates the names bound in the named context, along with the objects bound to them. The contents of any subcontexts are not included.

        If a binding is added to or removed from this context, its effect on an enumeration previously returned is undefined.

        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context to list
        Returns:
        an enumeration of the bindings in this context. Each element of the enumeration is of type Binding.
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        listBindings(String), list(Name), Binding
      • listBindings

        NamingEnumeration<Binding> listBindings​(String name)
                                         throws NamingException
        Enumerates the names bound in the named context, along with the objects bound to them. See listBindings(Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context to list
        Returns:
        an enumeration of the bindings in this context. Each element of the enumeration is of type Binding.
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • destroySubcontext

        void destroySubcontext​(Name name)
                        throws NamingException
        Destroys the named context and removes it from the namespace. Any attributes associated with the name are also removed. Intermediate contexts are not destroyed.

        This method is idempotent. It succeeds even if the terminal atomic name is not bound in the target context, but throws NameNotFoundException if any of the intermediate contexts do not exist.

        In a federated naming system, a context from one naming system may be bound to a name in another. One can subsequently look up and perform operations on the foreign context using a composite name. However, an attempt destroy the context using this composite name will fail with NotContextException, because the foreign context is not a "subcontext" of the context in which it is bound. Instead, use unbind() to remove the binding of the foreign context. Destroying the foreign context requires that the destroySubcontext() be performed on a context from the foreign context's "native" naming system.

        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context to be destroyed; may not be empty
        Throws:
        NameNotFoundException - if an intermediate context does not exist
        NotContextException - if the name is bound but does not name a context, or does not name a context of the appropriate type
        ContextNotEmptyException - if the named context is not empty
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        destroySubcontext(String)
      • lookupLink

        Object lookupLink​(Name name)
                   throws NamingException
        Retrieves the named object, following links except for the terminal atomic component of the name. If the object bound to name is not a link, returns the object itself.
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the object to look up
        Returns:
        the object bound to name, not following the terminal link (if any).
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        lookupLink(String)
      • lookupLink

        Object lookupLink​(String name)
                   throws NamingException
        Retrieves the named object, following links except for the terminal atomic component of the name. See lookupLink(Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the object to look up
        Returns:
        the object bound to name, not following the terminal link (if any)
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • getNameParser

        NameParser getNameParser​(Name name)
                          throws NamingException
        Retrieves the parser associated with the named context. In a federation of namespaces, different naming systems will parse names differently. This method allows an application to get a parser for parsing names into their atomic components using the naming convention of a particular naming system. Within any single naming system, NameParser objects returned by this method must be equal (using the equals() test).
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context from which to get the parser
        Returns:
        a name parser that can parse compound names into their atomic components
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        getNameParser(String), CompoundName
      • getNameParser

        NameParser getNameParser​(String name)
                          throws NamingException
        Retrieves the parser associated with the named context. See getNameParser(Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        name - the name of the context from which to get the parser
        Returns:
        a name parser that can parse compound names into their atomic components
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • composeName

        Name composeName​(Name name,
                         Name prefix)
                  throws NamingException
        Composes the name of this context with a name relative to this context. Given a name (name) relative to this context, and the name (prefix) of this context relative to one of its ancestors, this method returns the composition of the two names using the syntax appropriate for the naming system(s) involved. That is, if name names an object relative to this context, the result is the name of the same object, but relative to the ancestor context. None of the names may be null.

        For example, if this context is named "wiz.com" relative to the initial context, then

          composeName("east", "wiz.com")  
        might return "east.wiz.com". If instead this context is named "org/research", then
          composeName("user/jane", "org/research")        
        might return "org/research/user/jane" while
          composeName("user/jane", "research")    
        returns "research/user/jane".
        Parameters:
        name - a name relative to this context
        prefix - the name of this context relative to one of its ancestors
        Returns:
        the composition of prefix and name
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        composeName(String, String)
      • composeName

        String composeName​(String name,
                           String prefix)
                    throws NamingException
        Composes the name of this context with a name relative to this context. See composeName(Name, Name) for details.
        Parameters:
        name - a name relative to this context
        prefix - the name of this context relative to one of its ancestors
        Returns:
        the composition of prefix and name
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • addToEnvironment

        Object addToEnvironment​(String propName,
                                Object propVal)
                         throws NamingException
        Adds a new environment property to the environment of this context. If the property already exists, its value is overwritten. See class description for more details on environment properties.
        Parameters:
        propName - the name of the environment property to add; may not be null
        propVal - the value of the property to add; may not be null
        Returns:
        the previous value of the property, or null if the property was not in the environment before
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        getEnvironment(), removeFromEnvironment(String)
      • removeFromEnvironment

        Object removeFromEnvironment​(String propName)
                              throws NamingException
        Removes an environment property from the environment of this context. See class description for more details on environment properties.
        Parameters:
        propName - the name of the environment property to remove; may not be null
        Returns:
        the previous value of the property, or null if the property was not in the environment
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        getEnvironment(), addToEnvironment(String, Object)
      • getEnvironment

        Hashtable<?,​?> getEnvironment()
                                     throws NamingException
        Retrieves the environment in effect for this context. See class description for more details on environment properties.

        The caller should not make any changes to the object returned: their effect on the context is undefined. The environment of this context may be changed using addToEnvironment() and removeFromEnvironment().

        Returns:
        the environment of this context; never null
        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        See Also:
        addToEnvironment(String, Object), removeFromEnvironment(String)
      • close

        void close()
            throws NamingException
        Closes this context. This method releases this context's resources immediately, instead of waiting for them to be released automatically by the garbage collector.

        This method is idempotent: invoking it on a context that has already been closed has no effect. Invoking any other method on a closed context is not allowed, and results in undefined behaviour.

        Throws:
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
      • getNameInNamespace

        String getNameInNamespace()
                           throws NamingException
        Retrieves the full name of this context within its own namespace.

        Many naming services have a notion of a "full name" for objects in their respective namespaces. For example, an LDAP entry has a distinguished name, and a DNS record has a fully qualified name. This method allows the client application to retrieve this name. The string returned by this method is not a JNDI composite name and should not be passed directly to context methods. In naming systems for which the notion of full name does not make sense, OperationNotSupportedException is thrown.

        Returns:
        this context's name in its own namespace; never null
        Throws:
        OperationNotSupportedException - if the naming system does not have the notion of a full name
        NamingException - if a naming exception is encountered
        Since:
        1.3