JSR-250 (General Annotations for the Java Platform) describes the behavior of the container runtime when processing classes using the @Resource annotation; the relevant section 2.3, which discusses the @Resource annotation.
In general, any resource that may be present in the deployment descriptor as env-entry , service-ref , resource-ref , message-destination-ref or resource-env-ref can be annotated with @Resource annotation for injection. A list of specific Java types whose instances can be introduced into supported classes is also listed in the same section and reproduced below:
Java Type Equivalent Resource type
java.lang.String env-entry
java.lang.Character env-entry
java.lang.Integer env-entry
java.lang.Boolean env-entry
java.lang.Double env-entry
java.lang.Byte env-entry
java.lang.Short env-entry
java.lang.Long env-entry
java.lang.Float env-entry
javax.xml.rpc.Service service-ref
javax.xml.ws.Service service-ref
javax.jws.WebService service-ref
javax.sql.DataSource resource-ref
javax.jms.ConnectionFactory resource-ref
javax.jms.QueueConnectionFactory resource-ref
javax.jms.TopicConnectionFactory resource-ref
javax.mail.Session resource-ref
java.net.URL resource-ref
javax.resource.cci.ConnectionFactory resource-ref
org.omg.CORBA_2_3.ORB resource-ref
any other connection factory defined by a resource adapter resource-ref
javax.jms.Queue message-destination-ref
javax.jms.Topic message-destination-ref
javax.resource.cci.InteractionSpec resource-env-ref
javax.transaction.UserTransaction resource-env-ref
Everything else resource-env-ref
Pay attention to the last element in the table - according to the specification, you can enter any managed object associated with a resource that is present in the JNDI directory.
A specific list of classes whose instances must be entered by the container can be obtained from Chapter 5 of the Java EE 6 Platform> specification . This is not tabulated in any form, but the chapter nonetheless determines how the application developer should request the injection of a significant resource. Most of the resources listed in the chapter are introduced by specifying the @Resource annotation or another annotation that is explicitly used for this resource.
the EJB 3.1 specification may repeat the contents of the above chapter 5 of the platform specification for EJB container-specific resources. The relevant details are given in chapter 16 under the name Bean Enterprise, and the relevant data are presented in the Bean Vendor Responsibilities subsections.
Regarding the Servlet 3.0 Specification, relevant information can be found in Section 15.5.4, which discusses the semantics of @Resource annotation for a servlet container.