Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1 Release Notes

Stricter JAR Visibility Rules

Java EE 6 imposes stricter JAR visibility rules than did Java EE 5. As a result, some older applications might fail.

The Java EE 6 specification imposes strict rules about which JAR files are visible from an enterprise archive (EAR) file. Refer to section EE.8.3.3; specifically, application client modules should not have access to any EJB JAR file unless the application client JAR file's manifest Class-Path refers to the EJB JAR file(s) explicitly.

This is a change from GlassFish Server v2, in which application clients automatically had access to all EJB JAR files in the EAR file and all JAR files at the top level of the EAR file. To comply with the stricter specification language, GlassFish Server 3.0.1 cannot automatically provide application clients with access to these JAR files.

This new, stricter behavior imposed by Java EE 6 can be addressed as follows:

This change in behavior is also discussed in Chapter 1, GlassFish Server Compatibility Issues, in Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1 Upgrade Guide.