Having written the article “How to build a Confluence SOAP client in 5 minutes” some readers asked me for some more information and help using the JAX-WS plugin that I mentioned in the article instead of the Axis plugin – so here we go ;)

Steps

  • Create a simple maven project first using archetype:create or archetype:generate

    mvn archetype:create -DgroupId=com.hascode.jaxws -DartifactId=soap-tutorial

  • We get a pom.xml like this:

    <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>com.hascode.jaxws</groupId>
     <artifactId>soap-tutorial</artifactId>
     <version>0.1</version>
</project>

  • Insert plugin references and dependencies to your pom.xml

    <dependencies>
	<dependency>
		<groupId>com.sun.xml.ws</groupId>
		<artifactId>jaxws-rt</artifactId>
		<version>2.2</version>
	</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
	<plugins>
		<plugin>
			<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
			<artifactId>jaxws-maven-plugin</artifactId>
			<executions>
				<execution>
					<goals>
						<goal>wsimport</goal>
					</goals>
				</execution>
			</executions>
			<configuration>
				<packageName>com.hascode.schema</packageName>
			</configuration>
		</plugin>
	</plugins>
</build>

  • Specify the package name for the generated java files in the plugin configuration – I used com.hascode.schema – you might want to edit this ;)

  • JAX-WS needs at least Java5 so add this source/target information to the build element

    <plugin>
	<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
	<configuration>
		<source>1.5</source>
		<target>1.5</target>
	</configuration>
</plugin>

  • If you wish to use a specific version of JAX-WS you may specify your needs adding this plugin configuration to the build element

    <dependencies>
	<groupId>com.sun.xml.ws</groupId>
	<artifactId>jaxws-tools</artifactId>
	<version>2.2.1</version>
</dependencies>

  • If maven cries about unresolved dependencies to com.sun.xml.ws-rt you should add the Sun Maven Repository to your  pom.xml

    <repositories>
	<repository>
		<id>maven2-repository.dev.java.net</id>
		<name>Java.net Repository for Maven</name>
		<url>http://download.java.net/maven/2</url>
	</repository>
</repositories>

  • In conclusion – my pom.xml looks like this:

    <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<groupId>com.hascode.jaxws</groupId>
	<artifactId>soap-tutorial</artifactId>
	<version>0.1</version>
	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>com.sun.xml.ws</groupId>
			<artifactId>jaxws-rt</artifactId>
			<version>2.2</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
	<build>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
				<artifactId>jaxws-maven-plugin</artifactId>
				<executions>
					<execution>
						<goals>
							<goal>wsimport</goal>
						</goals>
					</execution>
				</executions>
				<configuration>
					<packageName>com.hascode.schema</packageName>
				</configuration>
			</plugin>

			<plugin>
				<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
				<configuration>
					<source>1.5</source>
					<target>1.5</target>
				</configuration>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>
	<repositories>
		<repository>
			<id>maven2-repository.dev.java.net</id>
			<name>Java.net Repository for Maven</name>
			<url>http://download.java.net/maven/2</url>
		</repository>
	</repositories>
</project>

  • Create a directory named wsdl in your src directory – the WSDL files go there – the maven plugin searches for files matching *.wsdl in this directory

  • Get a valid WSDL somewhere an store it in src/wsdl – I used a sample wsdl file from a IBM tutorial I once read for testing.

  • Generate your java files using the jaxws-plugin:

    mvn jaxws:wsimport

  • Enjoy the generated files in target/jaxws/wsimport/java with the defined package name com.hascode.schema

Troubleshooting

  • wsimport often needs some extra tuning to get some wsdl definitions going – so if you did not succeed try to configure the process in adjusting the plugin parameters, get one or more bottles of wine and parse through the jax-ws documentation or switch to axis and get the stuff running in minutes – nah just kidding :)

  • In Eclipse you sometimes have to adjust the Java VM defined in the build path and the compiler target level (Project Properties > Java Compiler | Build Path)

  • In Eclipse you can easily validate your stored wsdl file by opening it in the xml editor and selecting “Validate” in the context menu

  • “[ERROR] undefined element declaration ‘xs:schema’” xs:schema is referenced but an import is missing – read this nice article from Vivek Pandey on Java.net how to fix this problem

Links