Mechanism to manage the lifecycle of a resource adapter

A method, system, and apparatus for providing a contract between an application server and a resource adapter that allows an application server to manage the lifecycle of a resource adapter. When a resource adapter is deployed (or during application server startup), an application server must bootstrap an instance of the resource adapter in an appropriate address space. In those situations where a resource adapter is undeployed (or during application server shutdown), the application server requires a mechanism to notify the resource adapter instance to stop functioning so that it can be safely unloaded. In this way, the lifecycle management contract provides a mechanism for an application server to manage the lifecycle of a resource adapter instance. This allows an application server to bootstrap a resource adapter instance during resource adapter deployment or application server startup and also to expose some of its useful facilities to the resource adapter instance. It also provides a mechanism to notify the resource adapter instance while it is undeployed or during an orderly shutdown of the application server.