Applications, services and export boundaries

Service declarations describe what an approved application intends to expose. Actual deployment, transport configuration, publication and authorization remain controlled by its host.

@J7mApplication

Declares application coordinates. Target: type. Required attributes: group, name, version, all strings.

@J7mApplication(group = "example", name = "orders", version = "1.0")
public final class OrdersApplication { }

Coordinates identify the application; they do not sign a bundle or register host policies. Use the application platform's manifest and deployment APIs for the explicit alternative.

@J7mService

Describes a managed service. Target: type. Attributes: required name; exported = true, transport = "default", contractId = "", contractVersion = 1.

@J7mService(name = "pricing", contractId = "example.Pricing", contractVersion = 1)
public final class PricingService implements Pricing {
    public PricingService() { }
    public long price(String product) { return 100; }
}

The selected transport must exist on the host. For explicit publication, call MiddlewareRuntime.export or prepare a group with prepareExport and commit only after readiness. Merely constructing this class performs no export.

@RemoteService

Marks a type's intent to be used as a remote service contract or implementation. Target: type. Attributes: none.

@RemoteService
public interface Pricing {
    long price(String product);
}

This is descriptor metadata. It does not create a listener, authorize a caller or bypass the host's export validation.

@RemoteMethod

Marks a method in a remote-service declaration. Target: method. Attributes: none.

public interface Pricing {
    @RemoteMethod
    long price(String product);
}

The actual export still names a supported public interface. The method remains subject to deadline, codec, transport and server authorization checks. Explicit API export uses the interface contract without requiring this descriptive marker.

@NoRemoteExport

Declares that the annotated site must not be treated as an export capability. Targets: type, method and parameter. Attributes: none.

@NoRemoteExport
public interface LocalKeyProvider {
    byte[] signingKey();
}

Use this declaration in a supported descriptor/validation path to make an inappropriate remote boundary fail visibly. It is not a JVM security sandbox; do not publish secret-bearing objects through an unrelated manual export path and expect a marker alone to protect them.

@LocalOnly

Records a local boundary for a type or method. Targets: type and method. Attributes: none.

@LocalOnly
public final class LocalFormattingRules {
    public String currencySymbol() { return "€"; }
}

Descriptor validation can reject inconsistent export combinations. A local method is not automatically available to a remote peer. Keep the actual public export interface small and explicit.

Example: expose a small pricing contract

Put Pricing and PricingService above in separate public source files. Mark the implementation method @RemoteMethod if the application's descriptor conventions require it. Compile with the J7M processor, package the generated metadata and let the host admit and publish the application.

A client using an already configured runtime calls:

Pricing pricing = client.lookup("pricing", Pricing.class, lookupOptions);
long amountMinor = pricing.price("book");
// amountMinor is 100 with the implementation above.

Here client is the host-owned runtime and lookupOptions its permitted lookup configuration. No listener is started by this fragment; the server must already be deployed with the selected transport and authorization policy. @J7mApplication supplies the application's coordinates, while @RemoteService describes the public remote contract.

Keep LocalKeyProvider and LocalFormattingRules on the server side. Their @NoRemoteExport/@LocalOnly declarations document and support validation of that boundary; they do not belong in Pricing method results. An unauthorized call is rejected even if the caller has obtained the object reference. See services and references for explicit publication and returned child objects.