is there a standard way to define a JDBC Datasource for Java EE containers?

Is there a standard way to define a JDBC datasource and deploy it?

Yes, there is. It's done via the <data-source> element, which you can put in web.xml, ejb-jar.xml and application.xml. If you don't like XML, you can also use an annotation for this instead: @DataSourceDefinition

Example of a web.xml entry

<data-source>
    <name>java:app/myDS</name>
    <class-name>org.postgresql.xa.PGXADataSource</class-name>
    <server-name>pg.myserver.com</server-name>
    <database-name>my_db</database-name>
    <user>foo</user>
    <password>bla</password>
    <transactional>true</transactional>
    <isolation-level>TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED</isolation-level>
    <initial-pool-size>2</initial-pool-size>
    <max-pool-size>10</max-pool-size>
    <min-pool-size>5</min-pool-size>
    <max-statements>0</max-statements>
</data-source>

Further reading:

• Introducing the DataSourceDefinition Annotation
• The state of @DataSourceDefinition in Java EE
• Example application use standard data source

p.s. I'm surprised all other answers say this doesn't exist, while it clearly does, even at the time this question was originally asked.

Is there a standard way to define a JDBC datasource and deploy it ?

No, this is container specific. As Application Component Provider, you're supposed to document the resources you need and the Application deployer and Administrator will configure them.

If there is no standard way, will other containers at least accept the JBoss way?

No, because this is the JBoss way and thus JBoss specific.

• With Tomcat, you would have to use the context.xml file.
• With Jetty, jetty-env.xml.
• With WebSphere, you can create a so called WebSphere Enhanced EAR.
• With WebLogic, you can package a JDBC Module in your application.
• With GlassFish, you can use the command asadmin add-resources my.xml to add a datasource described in a XML file (example here).
• Etc, etc.

Note that there are some projects trying to achieve this goal in a universal way like jndi-resources or Cargo. There are also more complex solution like ControlTier or Chef.

Now, in your case (as I understood you want to use an embedded database that will be bundled with your application), I don't think you should configure a datasource at the application server level. You should just package the jar of your database in your application with a standalone connection pool like c3p0 or DBCP.