In-process SOAP service server for Java

Question

OK, I am developing a program which will be deployed to lots of machines (Windows, Linux, AIX, z/Linux, openVMS, etc.). I want that application to contain a SOAP web service, but I don't want to bundle tomcat or run a separate service for the services (I want them in the same process as the rest of the application).

Basically what I'm looking for is something where I can define a class (say WebServices). I'm OK with writing WSDL or any other kind of service description as well. The I want something like this:

SOAPServer server = makeMeASoapServer();
//do config on the server
server.add(new WebService(...));
server.listen(port);

Obviously the names and parameters will be different.

I've been looking at Axis, and it seems like it provides this, but I don't know what classes I need to use. Am I crazy in wanting this kind of behavior? I can't believe more people aren't looking for this, I do this all the time with embedded web services within .NET clients.

Answer 1

Seems jdk 6.0 already comes with a jax-ws implementation, and a little server you can embed. I havn't figured out all the pieces but here's a start:

mkdir -p helloservice/endpoint/

helloservice/endpoint/Hello.java :

package helloservice.endpoint;

import javax.jws.WebService;

@WebService()
public class Hello {
  private String message = new String("Hello, ");

  public void Hello() {}

  public String sayHello(String name) {
    return message + name + ".";
  }
}

helloservice/endpoint/Server.java:

package helloservice.endpoint;
import javax.xml.ws.Endpoint;

public class Server {

    protected Server() throws Exception {
        System.out.println("Starting Server");
        Object implementor = new Hello();
        String address = "http://localhost:9000/SoapContext/SoapPort";
        Endpoint.publish(address, implementor);
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
        new Server();
        System.out.println("Server ready...");

        Thread.sleep(5 * 60 * 1000);
        System.out.println("Server exiting");
        System.exit(0);
    }
}

Build the thing:

mkdir build
javac -d build helloservice/endpoint/*java
$JAVA_HOME/wsgen -d build -s build -classpath .  helloservice.endpoint.Hello

Run the thing:

java -cp  build helloservice.endpoint.Server

Somethings running on http://localhost:9000/SoapContext/SoapPort now. You can get the wsdl on http://localhost:9000/SoapContext/SoapPort?WSDL

Havn't gotten around to making a client yet..