To specify that an MBean service depends on other MBean services you need to declare the dependencies in the mbean element of the service descriptor. This is done using the depends and depends-list elements. One difference between the two elements relates to the optional-attribute-name attribute usage. If you track the ObjectNames of dependencies using single valued attributes you should use the depends element. If you track the ObjectNames of dependencies using java.util.List compatible attributes you would use the depends-list element. If you only want to specify a dependency and don't care to have the associated service ObjectName bound to an attribute of your MBean then use whatever element is easiest. The following listing shows example service descriptor fragments that illustrate the usage of the dependency related elements.

<mbean code="org.jboss.mq.server.jmx.Topic"
       name="jms.topic:service=Topic,name=testTopic">
    <!-- Declare a dependency on the "jboss.mq:service=DestinationManager" and
         bind this name to the DestinationManager attribute -->
    <depends optional-attribute-name="DestinationManager">
        jboss.mq:service=DestinationManager 
    </depends>

    <!-- Declare a dependency on the "jboss.mq:service=SecurityManager" and
         bind this name to the SecurityManager attribute -->
    <depends optional-attribute-name="SecurityManager">
        jboss.mq:service=SecurityManager
    </depends>

    <!-- ... -->

    <!-- Declare a dependency on the
         "jboss.mq:service=CacheManager" without
         any binding of the name to an attribute-->
    <depends>jboss.mq:service=CacheManager</depends>
</mbean>

<mbean code="org.jboss.mq.server.jmx.TopicMgr" 
       name="jboss.mq.destination:service=TopicMgr">
    <!-- Declare a dependency on the given topic destination mbeans and
         bind these names to the Topics attribute -->
    <depends-list optional-attribute-name="Topics">
        <depends-list-element>jms.topic:service=Topic,name=A</depends-list-element>
        <depends-list-element>jms.topic:service=Topic,name=B</depends-list-element>
        <depends-list-element>jms.topic:service=Topic,name=C</depends-list-element>
    </depends-list>
</mbean>