How to generate WebService client with CXF wsdl2java for online WSDL URL link

Question

I am trying to generate a webservice client with the wsdl2java goal of the Apache CXF Maven Plugin. I have a WSDL URL link, but when using the Maven plugin, it is not generating the sources. Sample WSDL link is http://www.webservicex.com/globalweather.asmx?WSDL.

<properties>
        <src.generated.dir>src/main/java</src.generated.dir>
        <artifact.cxf.version>3.1.6 </artifact.cxf.version>
        <xerces.version>2.11.0</xerces.version>
        <inbound.wsdl>http://www.webservicex.com/globalweather.asmx?WSDL</inbound.wsdl>
        <inbound.wsdl.location>http://www.webservicex.com/globalweather.asmx?WSDL</inbound.wsdl.location>
    </properties>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
                <artifactId>cxf-codegen-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${artifact.cxf.version}</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>generate-sources</id>
                        <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                        <configuration>
                            <sourceRoot>${src.generated.dir}</sourceRoot>
                            <defaultOptions>
                                <noAddressBinding>true</noAddressBinding>
                                <faultSerialVersionUID>3105839350746982386</faultSerialVersionUID>
                            </defaultOptions>
                            <wsdlOptions>
                                <wsdlOption>
                                    <wsdl>${inbound.wsdl}</wsdl>
                                    <wsdlLocation>${inbound.wsdl.location}</wsdlLocation>
                                    <serviceName>webservicex</serviceName>
                                    <extraargs>
                                        <extraarg>-client</extraarg>
                                        <extraarg>-verbose</extraarg>
                                        <extraarg>-p</extraarg>
                                        <extraarg>http://webservicex.ent.com/arm/=com.ent.webservicex.arm</extraarg>
                                    </extraargs>
                                </wsdlOption>
                            </wsdlOptions>
                        </configuration>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>wsdl2java</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <dependencies>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>xerces</groupId>
                        <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
                        <version>${xerces.version}</version>
                    </dependency>
                </dependencies>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

Answer 1

The problem is not related to the use of a HTTP link to a WSDL file. The error that the CXF Codegen Plugin returns is:

No service was found in wsdl: webservicex

This is normal because the WSDL hosted at http://www.webservicex.com/globalweather.asmx?WSDL only has a single service named GlobalWeather; it does not have a service called webservicex. A service definition in a WSDL corresponds to a wsdl:service element, and if you peek into the WSDL, you'll only see

<wsdl:service name="GlobalWeather">
  <!-- ... -->
</wsdl:service>

Thus, you should change your CXF configuration to

<serviceName>GlobalWeather</serviceName>

or even omit the parameter completely and let the plugin generate it automatically (since there's only one service).

---

There are other related notes with your current configuration that it would be best to change:

• Never, ever, generate code inside the main source directory src/main/java, as it is currently done with

  <src.generated.dir>src/main/java</src.generated.dir>
  

  Generated code should always be placed under the build directory (i.e. target by default). This is because generated code is not a real source file and should not be checked in on version-control. By default, this is what the plugin is doing, generating code in target/generated-sources/cxf, and I suggest you keep with that; as such, you just need to remove <sourceRoot>${src.generated.dir}</sourceRoot>. It also automatically adds the generated source code as a source folder, so everything will still compile.

• You do not need the xerces dependency for the plugin to work, you can remove the whole <dependencies> section of the plugin.

• There is no <wsdlLocation> parameter, so you can remove that as well, it doesn't do anything.