Retrieving home object question

Hi
I am just a beginner and my boss has the code (shown below) that is diffent from any EJB book to retrieve the home object.
The code directly get the home stub thru JINDI and use to call the create method without properly narrow it to home object.
And it works. I am confused!
Head First EJB says home need to be casted using narrow method before it can be used to call create method.
I would appreciate if you can straight me out on this subject.

public class UserSelfChekkInquiryAction extends MYCOMAction {
private static PilotFacadeHome home;
protected MYCOM_TO invokeService(MYCOM_TO transObj)
throws EJBException, RemoteException, NamingException, CreateException {
try {
if (home == null) {
InitialContext jndi = new InitialContext();
home = (PilotFacadeHome) jndi.lookup("java:comp/env/PilotFacade");
}
PilotFacade remote = home.create();
PortableRemoteObject.narrow(remote, PilotFacade.class);
transObj =(UserSelfCheckInquiry_TO) remote.processTransaction(
"UserSelfCheckInquiry",
(UserSelfCheckInquiry_TO) transObj);
return transObj;
} catch (EJBException ee) {
if ((transObj.getReturnMessage() == null)|| (transObj.getReturnMessage().trim().length() == 0)) {
transObj.setReturnMessage(ee.getMessage());
transObj.setReturnCode(1);
}
throw ee;
}
}
}

Thanks for your time
[ September 09, 2006: Message edited by: Quang Pham ]

Looks similar to alot of code I've written though.

Really get scared when I see that home as a static instance. I guess some people don't mind. I'm a WebSphere dude, and with WebSphere, that's a no-no.

You get the InitialContext with JNDI, you lookup the home object, you strip off the corba garbage with the narrow, you then grab the remote interface through the home, and then you call the business methods. That's like EJB 101.

So, I like what I see. Which part perplexes you. Tell me specifically what irks you about your code/the books you read, and maybe the JavaRanch can enlighten you a little bit more.

Cheers!

-Cameron

Thank you for taking time looking into this.
Head First EJB is the book I am studying and it has code like this to retrieve home object as well as the example on Java Sun web site:

public class SimpleSessionClient{
public static void main(String [] args) {
try {
InitialContext jndiContext = new InitialContext();
Object o = jndiContext.lookup("ejb/beans.SimpleSession");
SimpleSessionHome home = (SimpleSessionHome) PortableRemoteObject.narrow(o,SimpleSessionHome.class);
SimpleRemoteObject remote = home.create();
for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++ ){
String returnedString = remote.getEchoString(args[i]);
System.out.println("Sent string: " + args[i] + returnedString);
}
}
catch (Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

First, an Object is used to retrieve the home stub then it is narrow to the SimpleSessionHome object.
Are both ways (the previous code and Head First EJB code) doing the same thing?
By the way, what is wrong with using home static object?

Thanks again.

Help! - Does any one have any other comment on this?

One difference is just the fact that two steps have been combined into one.

Object o = jndi.lookup("java:comp/env/PilotFacade");

home = (PilotFacadeHome) o;

That breaks your single line of code into code that looks closer to the Heads First Book.

Thanks and can you explain a little bit what is wrong with using static home object.