Hashtable env = new Hashtable(); String url = null; Reference ref = (Reference) obj; Enumeration addrs = ref.getAll(); while (addrs.hasMoreElements()) { RefAddr addr = (RefAddr) addrs.nextElement(); String name = addr.getType(); String value = (String) addr.getContent(); if (name.equals("URL")) url = value; else env.put(name, value); } DirContext initial = new InitialDirContext(env); if (url == null) return initial; else return initial.lookup(url); } ...