JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) enables Java
platform-based applications to access multiple naming and
directory services. Part of the Java Enterprise application
programming interface (API) set, JNDI makes it possible for
developers to create portable applications that are enabled for
a number of different naming and directory services, including:
file systems; directory services such as Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP), Novell Directory Services, and Network
Information System (NIS); and distributed object systems such as
the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Java
Remote Method Invocation (RMI), and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB).
As an illustration of what JNDI does, Todd Sundsted (in a
JavaWorld article, JNDI overview, Part 1: An introduction to
naming services) uses the analogy of a library's file system.
Sundsted says that JNDI organizes and locates components within
a distributed computing environment similarly to the way that
card catalogs (and increasingly computer