java - JAX-WS client : what's the correct path to access the local WSDL?

Question

The problem is I need to build a web service client from a file I'm been provided. I've stored this file on the local file system and, while I keep the WSDL file in the correct file system folder, everything is fine. When I deploy it to a server or remove the WSDL from the file system folder the proxy can't find the WSDL and rises an error. I've searched the web and I've found the following posts yet I'm not been able to make it work:
JAX-WS Loading WSDL from jar
http://www.java.net/forum/topic/glassfish/metro-and-jaxb/client-jar-cant-find-local-wsdl-0
http://blog.vinodsingh.com/2008/12/locally-packaged-wsdl.html

I'm using NetBeans 6.1 (this is a legacy application I've to update with this new web service client). Below is the JAX-WS proxy class :

    @WebServiceClient(name = "SOAService", targetNamespace = "http://soaservice.eci.ibm.com/", wsdlLocation = "file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl")
public class SOAService
    extends Service
{

    private final static URL SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION;
    private final static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getName());

    static {
        URL url = null;
        try {
            URL baseUrl;
            baseUrl = com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getResource(".");
            url = new URL(baseUrl, "file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl");
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            logger.warning("Failed to create URL for the wsdl Location: 'file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl', retrying as a local file");
            logger.warning(e.getMessage());
        }
        SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION = url;
    }

    public SOAService(URL wsdlLocation, QName serviceName) {
        super(wsdlLocation, serviceName);
    }

    public SOAService() {
        super(SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION, new QName("http://soaservice.eci.ibm.com/", "SOAService"));
    }

    /**
     * @return
     *     returns SOAServiceSoap
     */
    @WebEndpoint(name = "SOAServiceSOAP")
    public SOAServiceSoap getSOAServiceSOAP() {
        return super.getPort(new QName("http://soaservice.eci.ibm.com/", "SOAServiceSOAP"), SOAServiceSoap.class);
    }

    /**
     * @param features
     *     A list of {@link javax.xml.ws.WebServiceFeature} to configure on the proxy.  Supported features not in the <code>features</code> parameter will have their default values.
     * @return
     *     returns SOAServiceSoap
     */
    @WebEndpoint(name = "SOAServiceSOAP")
    public SOAServiceSoap getSOAServiceSOAP(WebServiceFeature... features) {
        return super.getPort(new QName("http://soaservice.eci.ibm.com/", "SOAServiceSOAP"), SOAServiceSoap.class, features);
    }

}

This is my code to use the proxy :

   WebServiceClient annotation = SOAService.class.getAnnotation(WebServiceClient.class);
   // trying to replicate proxy settings
   URL baseUrl = com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getResource("");//note : proxy uses "."
   URL url = new URL(baseUrl, "/WEB-INF/wsdl/client/SOAService.wsdl");
   //URL wsdlUrl = this.getClass().getResource("/META-INF/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl"); 
   SOAService serviceObj = new SOAService(url, new QName(annotation.targetNamespace(), annotation.name()));
   proxy = serviceObj.getSOAServiceSOAP();
   /* baseUrl;

   //classescomibmecisoaservice
   //URL url = new URL(baseUrl, "../../../../wsdl/SOAService.wsdl");

   proxy = new SOAService().getSOAServiceSOAP();*/
   //updating service endpoint 
   Map<String, Object> ctxt = ((BindingProvider)proxy ).getRequestContext();
   ctxt.put(JAXWSProperties.HTTP_CLIENT_STREAMING_CHUNK_SIZE, 8192);
   ctxt.put(BindingProvider.ENDPOINT_ADDRESS_PROPERTY, WebServiceUrl);

NetBeans put a copy of the WSDL in web-inf/wsdl/client/SOAService, so I don't want to add it to META-INF too. Service classes are in WEB-INF/classes/com/ibm/eci/soaservice/ and baseurl variable contains the filesystem full path to it (c:pathoheproject...soaservice ). The above code raises the error:

javax.xml.ws.WebServiceException: Failed to access the WSDL at: file:/WEB-INF/wsdl/client/SOAService.wsdl. It failed with: WEB-INFwsdlclientSOAService.wsdl (cannot find the path)

So, first of all, shall I update the wsdllocation of the proxy class? Then how do I tell the SOAService class in WEB-INF/classes/com/ibm/eci/soaservice to search for the WSDL in WEB-INFwsdlclientSOAService.wsdl?

EDITED: I've found this other link - http://jianmingli.com/wp/?cat=41, which say to put the WSDL into the classpath. I'm ashamed to ask: how do I put it into the web application classpath?

Answer 1

The best option is to use jax-ws-catalog.xml

When you compile the local WSDL file , override the WSDL location and set it to something like

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

Don't worry this is only a URI and not a URL , meaning you don't have to have the WSDL available at that address.
You can do this by passing the wsdllocation option to the wsdl to java compiler.

Doing so will change your proxy code from

static {
    URL url = null;
    try {
        URL baseUrl;
        baseUrl = com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getResource(".");
        url = new URL(baseUrl, "file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl");
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        logger.warning("Failed to create URL for the wsdl Location: 'file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl', retrying as a local file");
        logger.warning(e.getMessage());
    }
    SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION = url;
}

to

static {
    URL url = null;
    try {
        URL baseUrl;
        baseUrl = com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getResource(".");
        url = new URL(baseUrl, "http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl");
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        logger.warning("Failed to create URL for the wsdl Location: 'http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl', retrying as a local file");
        logger.warning(e.getMessage());
    }
    SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION = url;
}

Notice file:// changed to http:// in the URL constructor.

Now comes in jax-ws-catalog.xml. Without jax-ws-catalog.xml jax-ws will indeed try to load the WSDL from the location

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

and fail, as no such WSDL will be available.

But with jax-ws-catalog.xml you can redirect jax-ws to a locally packaged WSDL whenever it tries to access the WSDL @

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

.

Here's jax-ws-catalog.xml

<catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog" prefer="system">
        <system systemId="http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl"
                uri="wsdl/SOAService.wsdl"/>
    </catalog>

What you are doing is telling jax-ws that when ever it needs to load WSDL from

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

, it should load it from local path wsdl/SOAService.wsdl.

Now where should you put wsdl/SOAService.wsdl and jax-ws-catalog.xml ? That's the million dollar question isn't it ?
It should be in the META-INF directory of your application jar.

so something like this

ABCD.jar  
|__ META-INF    
    |__ jax-ws-catalog.xml  
    |__ wsdl  
        |__ SOAService.wsdl  

This way you don't even have to override the URL in your client that access the proxy. The WSDL is picked up from within your JAR, and you avoid having to have hard-coded filesystem paths in your code.

More info on jax-ws-catalog.xml http://jax-ws.java.net/nonav/2.1.2m1/docs/catalog-support.html

Hope that helps