Axis C++ Linux Installation Guide

Contents

Note:The Expat XML Parser module is not currently maintained and also contains some bugs. So it is removed from the 1.5 release.

Introduction

This guide will help you to start with Axis C++. This guide will explain the minimum steps needed to build and run Axis C++, and warn you about the common pitfalls.

What You Need

You need a few helper libraries for parsing XML, WSDL processing and introspection. You need to have the following in order to run Axis C++ engine.

      Apache web server (2.0.x or 1.3.x)  - You need to have Apache built with module so support, hence you need to have the source of Apache web server.

Axis C++ uses Apache web server to host services.

Xerces C++ (2.2.0) XML parser

Axis C++ needs an XML parser to parse SOAP messages and WSDD files. It has a parser abstraction layer that helps users to select/switch between parsers. However only one parser library could be used at a time. Currently Xerces parser is supported by Axis C++.

Installing Axis C++

1. Install Apache Web Server

In case you have already installed Apache , make sure that 'so modules' are enabled.
This is because Axis C++ server engine is implemented as a 'so module'. (For Apache 1.3.x use --enable-module=so; for Apache 2.0.x use --enable-so when configuring. See Apache web server documentation for more details)

2. Install Xerces C++ (2.2.0)

See the Xerces parser's documentation for installation instructions.

3. Download Axis C++

Download Axis C++ source or binary distribution and extract the package.

4. Define the Environment Variables.

AXISCPP_HOME="Path to Axis C++ source or binary extracted folder"
e.g. AXISCPP_HOME="/my/home/axiscpp"

AXISCPP_DEPLOY="Path to the folder where you want to install Axis C++"
e.g. AXISCPP_DEPLOY="/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy"

LD_LIBRARY_PATH="<path to parser library you use>/lib:$AXISCPP_DEPLOY/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

export AXISCPP_HOME AXISCPP_DEPLOY LD_LIBRARY_PATH

5. Build Axis C++

NOTE: This step assumes the GNU make based build system which is non operational for this release. Please see docs/antbuild-guide.html on how to build Axis C++. Once you build the source, please continue from step 6 of this document.

Note: The following steps are for Axis C++ source downloads.

cd $AXISCPP_HOME

./configure --prefix=$AXISCPP_DEPLOY --with-apache2=/path/to/Apache2 \
    --with-xercesc=/path/to/xerces-c --enable-axis3=yes
make
make install

The above set of instructions assume you have Apache 2.0.x web server and Xerces C++ parser.
For more information on build options run ./configure --help.

The libs created in build process are placed in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/lib. (Provided that you used $AXISCPP_DEPLOY as --prefix option for configuring). Note that you need permission to install to the specified directory given in prefix option.
 

Note: The following steps are common to both source and binary downloads.

You need global access rights to the Axis C++ deploy folder to make sure that Axis C++ works properly.

chmod -R 777 $AXISCPP_DEPLOY

6. Configure Apache Module

Note: to execute the following steps, you may need to have super user rights on your machine.

Now you need to edit httpd.conf file in <path to Apache web server installation>/conf and add the following lines at the bottom of that file (assuming you are using Apache 2.0.x):

LoadModule axis_module modules/libaxiscpp_mod2.so
<Location /axis>
SetHandler axis
</Location>

For Apache1.3.x LoadModule line should read as:
LoadModule axis_module libexec/libaxiscpp_mod.so

7. Configure Server Deployment Descriptor File

Now you need the server deployment descriptor (server.wsdd) to deploy server samples you built.
There is a sample deployment descriptor called server.wsdd_linux in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/etc to help to deploy samples.
Edit this file to match your system settings (because the server.wsdd_linux file assumes that you have installed the binaries in /usr/local/axiscpp_deploy, you may need to change the folder names) and copy it to server.wsdd.
server.wsdd file is an XML file, and the contents are self descriptive.

8. Set Engine Wide Settings in Configuration File

Axis C++ uses a configuration file to let the user specify preferences such as log file locations, transport and parser libs to be used and location of deployment descriptor files.
A sample configuration file named axiscpp.conf_linux is installed in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/etc folder. Edit this file to match your systems settings (because the axiscpp.conf_linux file assumes that you have installed the binaries in /usr/local/axiscpp_deploy, you may need to change the folder names) and copy it to axiscpp.conf

Configuration file has the following Syntax:

The comment character is '#'
WSDDFilePath - Path to the server wsdd file
ClientWSDDFilePath - Path to the client wsdd
LogPath - Path to the Axis C++ server log
ClientLogPath - Path to the Axis C++ client log
Transport_http - HTTP transport library
Channel_HTTP - Channel transport library
XMLParser - XML parser library

A sample axiscpp.conf file:

LogPath:/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy/log/AxisLog
WSDDFilePath:/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy/etc/server.wsdd
ClientLogPath:/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy/log/AxisClientLog
XMLParser:/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy/lib/libaxis_xercesc.so
Transport_http:/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy/lib/libaxis3_transport.so
Channel_HTTP:/usr/local/axiscpp_deploy/lib/libaxis3_transport_channel.so

9. Deploying with Apache Web Server

Now we need to copy Apache module (libaxiscpp_mod2.so for Apache 2.0.x and libaxiscpp_mod.so for Apache 1.3.x) to the correct places and start Apache web server. The steps to follow are:

1. Copy libaxiscpp_mod2.so to /<your Apache 2.0.x home>/modules (or copy libaxiscpp_mod.so to /<your Apache 1.3.x home>/libexec)
2. Start Apache /<path to Apache installation>/bin/apachectl start

To do the same you can you can use scripts in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/bin.

To deploy with Apache 2.0.x

To deploy with Apache 1.3.x

Note: please rename libaxis_xercesc.so (the default parser library) to libaxis_xmlparser.so.

10. See Axis C++ in action

Now the installation is complete. You can verify that the server side is working by accessing the URL http://localhost/axis using your web browser. You should get the Axis C++ welcome page and this page will show you a list of deployed services as specified by the $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/conf/server.wsdd file.

Now you can run a client sample and see if it works.

To help you run several samples at once there is a script named run_interoptests.sh in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/bin folder. You can try running that as well.

11. Simple axis server installation

1. Build the source distribution as mentioned above.

2. Make sure that you have set the AXISCPP_DEPLOY environment variable to point to your deployment folder as mentioned above

3.Copy $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/etc/axiscpp.conf_linux to $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/etc/axiscpp.conf

and make sure that the contents of that file match your system settings

4. Run simple axis server in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/bin
Synopsis: simple_axis_server server-port Where server-port is the port on which you would like the server to listen for client requests.

For Example

cd $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/bin

./simple_axis_server 9090

5. Run clients in $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/bin

On a different shell:

cd $AXISCPP_DEPLOY/bin

./base http://localhost:9090/axis/base

Similarly you could run the other samples.

Similarly you could run the other samples.

PDF