These types of configurable properties are called environment entries . The bean can use environment entries to customize its behavior. Although they can be defined using annotations, environment entries are almost always configured via XML, as they really are configuration values and not metadata. The <env-entry> element is used to define them. This element contains the subelements (optional), <env-entry-name> (required), <env-entry-type> (required), and <env-entry-value> (optional), as well as the element <injection-target> (optional). Here is a typical <env-entry> declaration: <ejb-jar> <enterprise-beans> <ejb-name>ProcessPaymentBean</ejb-name> <env-entry> <env-entry-name>minCheckNumber </env-entry-name> <env-entry-type>java.lang.Integer</env-entry-type> <env-entry-value>2000</env-entry-value> </env-entry> </enterprise-beans> </ejb-jar> The <env-entry-name> element is relative to the java:comp/env context. For example, the minCheckNumber entry can be accessed using the path java:comp/env/minCheckNumber in a JNDI ENC lookup: InitialContext jndiContext = new InitialContext( ); int minValue = (Integer) jndiContext.lookup("java:comp/env/minCheckNumber"); Alternatively, it can be looked up with the EJBContext.lookup( ) method using the minCheckNumber name. <env-entry-type> can be of type String or one of the several primitive wrapper types, including Integer, Long, Double, Float, Byte, Boolean, and Short. <env-entry-value> is optional. The value can be specified by the bean developer or deferred to the application assembler or deployer. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3991963#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...