Confusion about using OpenEJB in embedded mode for unit-testing

Question

I started exploring the possibilities of using OpenEJB in embedded mode for unit-testing my EJB3 components. At first I got errors like the below output

Testsuite: HelloBeanTest
Tests run: 4, Failures: 0, Errors: 4, Time elapsed: 1,779 sec
------------- Standard Output ---------------
Apache OpenEJB 3.1.4    build: 20101112-03:32
http://openejb.apache.org/
------------- ---------------- ---------------
------------- Standard Error -----------------
log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger 
(org.apache.openejb.resource.activemq.ActiveMQResourceAdapter).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
------------- ---------------- ---------------

Testcase: sum took 1,758 sec
Caused an ERROR
Name "HelloBeanLocal" not found.
javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Name "HelloBeanLocal" not found.
at org.apache.openejb.core.ivm.naming.IvmContext.federate(IvmContext.java:193)
at org.apache.openejb.core.ivm.naming.IvmContext.lookup(IvmContext.java:150)
at 
org.apache.openejb.core.ivm.naming.ContextWrapper.lookup(ContextWrapper.java:115)
at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:392)
at HelloBeanTest.bootContainer(Unknown Source)

# ... output is the same for all the rest of the tests

The openejb.home property is set as a system property and points to my OpenEJB installation dir.

The HelloBeanTest#bootContainer() is a setUp method and it fails on the JNDI lookup. Shown below.

@Before
  public void bootContainer() throws Exception{
    Properties props = new Properties();
    props.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
             "org.apache.openejb.client.LocalInitialContextFactory");
    Context context = new InitialContext(props);
    hello = (Hello) context.lookup("HelloBeanLocal");

}

After struggling with problems like this I started to try out OpenEJB in non-embedded mode, and started the container from it's installation directory and deployed the components as an ejb.jar. Deployment was successful and I started creating a stand-alone Java client. The stand-alone Java client is still unfinished, but meanwhile I came back to testing in embedded mode.

To my surprise, the tests suddenly started to pass. I added some more functionality to the component and tests for those. Everything worked just fine. Below is the output for that run.

Testsuite: HelloBeanTest
Tests run: 4, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Time elapsed: 2,281 sec
------------- Standard Output ---------------
Apache OpenEJB 3.1.4    build: 20101112-03:32
http://openejb.apache.org/
------------- ---------------- ---------------
------------- Standard Error -----------------
log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger
(org.apache.openejb.resource.activemq.ActiveMQResourceAdapter).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
------------- ---------------- ---------------

Testcase: sum took 2,263 sec
Testcase: hello took 0,001 sec
Testcase: sum2 took 0 sec
Testcase: avg took 0,001 sec

I was happily coding and testing until it broke again. It seems that removing the ejb.jar from /apps directory caused it. So, it seems that OpenEJB does the JNDI lookup still from the installation dir, but uses the current dir to find the actual implementations when running in embedded mode. I made this conclusion as the ejb.jar deployed in apps/ dir does not have all the methods that the local version has. (I double checked with javap.) Only the class signature is the same.

After this very long introduction, it's question time.

• Can anyone provide any explanation for this behaviour?
• Packaging and deploying the EJBs in the apps/ dir before testing is simple task, but can I be sure that even then I am testing the correct implementation?
• Does this all have something to do with the openejb.home property pointing at the OpenEJB installation dir?

For summary, OpenEJB version is Apache OpenEJB 3.1.4 build: 20101112-03:32, which is visible in the log outputs as well.

Thanks in advance.