In my previous post, I discussed the creation of a web service. That’s all good and dandy, but can be rather boring because we can’t do anything with it other than touch it with a web browser and see a bunch of XML. Although this example is very specific to the web service created prior, the concepts can be applied to most web services.
Generating Classes from a WSDL
This project is different than some because it starts with a build.xml. Within it is the necessary task to generate *.java files we will use later for communicating with the web service.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--build.xml WebService Client Example by Jason Staten-->
<project basedir="." default="client" name="MathServiceExample">
<property environment="env"/>
<property name="lib.home" value="${env.JAXWS_HOME}/lib"/>
<property name="build.home" value="${basedir}/build"/>
<property name="build.classes.home" value="${build.home}/classes"/>
<path id="jaxws.classpath">
<pathelement location="${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar"/>
<fileset dir="${lib.home}">
<include name="*.jar"/>
<exclude name="j2ee.jar"/>
</fileset>
</path>
<taskdef name="wsimport" classname="com.sun.tools.ws.ant.WsImport">
<classpath refid="jaxws.classpath"/>
</taskdef>
<target name="setup">
<mkdir dir="${build.home}"/>
<mkdir dir="${build.classes.home}"/>
</target>
<target name="generate-client">
<wsimport
debug="true"
verbose="${verbose}"
keep="true"
sourcedestdir="${basedir}/src"
package="com.jstaten.webService.client.generated"
wsdl="http://localhost:7070/MathExample/MathService?wsdl"
xnocompile="true"
>
</wsimport>
</target>
<target name="client" depends="generate-client,setup">
<javac
fork="true"
srcdir="${basedir}/src"
destdir="${build.classes.home}"
includes="**/client/**,**/common/**">
<classpath refid="jaxws.classpath"/>
</javac>
</target>
<target name="clean">
<delete dir="${build.home}" includeEmptyDirs="true"/>
</target>
</project>
There are two key parts to this build file, the taskdef that declares what the wsimport tag actually is and the task generate-client that uses wsimport to generate the java that provides an interface to the webservice.
If you look within your src directory, you will now notice that there are now *.java files for use with your own code. Let’s get to using it.
Writing the Client
package com.jstaten.webService.client;
import com.jstaten.webService.client.generated.*;
public class MathClient {
public static void main(String[] args)
{
MathExampleImpl port = new MathExampleImplService().getMathExampleImplPort();
int addA = 10;
int addB = 20;
float multiplyA = 30;
float multiplyB = 20.59f;
System.out.println(addA + " + " + addB + " =");
System.out.println(port.addInts(addA, addB));
System.out.println(multiplyA + " * " + multiplyB + " =");
System.out.println(port.multiplyFloats(multiplyA,multiplyB));
}
}
The code is relatively straightforward. We make an import call to the generated classes. Next we create a new MathExampleImpl object that is our interface to the webservice. Finally, we run a few test methods on it and return the result to the console so we can see the result.
Build the Client
<target name="client" depends="generate-client,setup">
<javac
fork="true"
srcdir="${basedir}/src"
destdir="${build.classes.home}"
includes="**/client/**,**/common/**">
<classpath refid="jaxws.classpath"/>
</javac>
</target>
Adding the above into your build file within the project element will allow you to build the client. Essentially it’s just a javac call with some arguments. Having it in the build file allows you to not have to type all that stuff into the command line every time you compile – much more convenient.
Run the compiled client and you should now see the results you printed to the console. Next time, doing the same thing via .NET in C#.
