Application calling lookup on external-context fails with WFNAM00007: Invalid URL scheme name "null" in JBoss EAP 7

Environment

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) 7

Issue

• We configured an external context in the naming subsystem , but when our application tries to lookup java:global/external/someValue it is failing with WFNAM00007: Invalid URL scheme name "null" in JBoss EAP 7 :

Caused by: javax.naming.InvalidNameException: WFNAM00007: Invalid URL scheme name "null"
	at org.wildfly.naming.client.WildFlyRootContext.getProviderContext(WildFlyRootContext.java:808)
	at org.wildfly.naming.client.WildFlyRootContext.lookup(WildFlyRootContext.java:155)
	at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:421)
	at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:421)
	at org.jboss.as.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:236)
	at org.jboss.as.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:184)
	at org.jboss.as.naming.InitialContext$DefaultInitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:239)
	at org.jboss.as.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:193)
	at org.jboss.as.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:189)
	at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:417)
	at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:417)
	at org.apache.jsp.context_jsp._jspService(context_jsp.java:114)
	... 46 more

The external context configuration is :

        <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:naming:2.0">
            <bindings>
                <external-context name="java:global/external/" module="org.jboss.as.naming" class="javax.naming.InitialContext" cache="false">
                    <environment>
                        <property name="java.naming.factory.initial" value="org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.provider.url" value="http-remoting://remote-host:8080"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.security.principal" value="user"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.security.credentials" value="password"></property>
                    </environment>
                </external-context>
            </bindings>
            <remote-naming></remote>
        </subsystem>

Resolution

EAP 7.1+

org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory and the module org.jboss.remote-naming were deprecated (the module still exists and is just an alias for the module org.wildfly.naming-client and the class org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory still exists but just proxies to org.wildfly.naming.client.WildFlyInitialContextFactory , the deprecated class & module will be removed for EAP 8.0)

You should use org.wildfly.naming.client.WildFlyInitialContextFactory from the module org.wildfly.naming-client

        <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:naming:2.0">
            <bindings>
                <external-context name="java:global/external/" module="org.wildfly.naming-client" class="javax.naming.InitialContext" cache="false">
                    <environment>
                        <property name="java.naming.factory.initial" value="org.wildfly.naming.client.WildFlyInitialContextFactory"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.provider.url" value="http-remoting://remote-host:8080"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.security.principal" value="user"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.security.credentials" value="password"></property>
                    </environment>
                </external-context>
            </bindings>
            <remote-naming></remote>
        </subsystem>

EAP 7.0

The initial context factory org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory being specified in the external-context is not in the module org.jboss.as.naming, it is in org.jboss.remote-naming, so change it to this:

        <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:naming:2.0">
            <bindings>
                <external-context name="java:global/external/" module="org.jboss.remote-naming" class="javax.naming.InitialContext" cache="false">
                    <environment>
                        <property name="java.naming.factory.initial" value="org.jboss.naming.remote.client.InitialContextFactory"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.provider.url" value="http-remoting://remote-host:8080"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.security.principal" value="user"></property>
                        <property name="java.naming.security.credentials" value="password"></property>
                    </environment>
                </external-context>
            </bindings>
            <remote-naming></remote>
        </subsystem>

Related Solutions

• When creating a JMS bridge on EAP7 that tries to connect to another EAP7 instance, get invalid URL scheme name "null" on server start-up

• WFNAM00007: Invalid URL scheme name "iiop" in JBoss EAP 7

• WFNAM00003: Invalid naming provider URI ... URISyntaxException: Illegal character in path at index in JBoss EAP 7.1

• How to bind an external JNDI / LDAP context into JNDI in EAP6 ?

Root Cause

The class specified in the java.naming.factory.initial value is not in the module specified on the external-context

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