Introduction
This guide will help you to start with Axis C++. I'll explain the minimum steps needed to build and run Axis C++, and warn you about the common pitfalls.
What You need
It needs a few helper libraries, for logging, WSDL processing and introspection. You need to have following in order to run Axis C++ engine.
- RedHat 9(2.4.20-8)
expat-1.95.7(source)
xerces-c-src2_2_0(I build xerces from source)
httpd-2.0.48(source)
apache_1.3.27(source) 1.3 or 2
- expat (if use expat parser)
- Xerces-c (if use xerces parser)
Note: In my environment I have autoconf 2.57, automake 1.6.3, libtool 1.4.3, gcc 3.2.2
You can download the Axis C++ source or binary from one of the apache mirror sites
http://ws.apache.org/axis/cpp/download.html
You can get expat from the uri http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/
You can get xercesc from the uri http://www.xml.apache.org/xerces-c/download.cgi
You must define some environment variables in order to build.AXISCPP_HOME is where you checkout Axis C++
AXISCPP_HOME="/home/damitha/projects/axiscpp"
AXIS_HOME="/home/damitha/Axis"
EXPAT_HOME="/usr/local/expat1957"
XERCESC_HOME="/usr/local/xerces-c"
LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$XERCESC_HOME/lib:$EXPAT_HOME/lib:$AXISCPP_HOME/bin:$AXIS_HOME/libs:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
export AXISCPP_HOME AXIS_HOME XERCESC_HOME EXPAT_HOME LD_LIBRARY_PATH
A note about AXIS_HOME
Copy $AXISCPP_HOME/deploy folder to a place of your choice and define AXIS_HOME pointing to it.
cp -rf $AXISCPP_HOME/deploy /usr/local/
mv /usr/local/deploy /usr/local/Axis
Give read write permissions to /usr/local/Axis
EXPAT_HOME points to where you installed expat
XERCESC_HOME points to where you installed xereces-c
Axis C++ core is independant of the parser layer and transport layer.
You can write your own transport or parser library according to the APIs provided. Currently Axis C++provides API implementations for Xerces-c and Expat. It also provides it's own client side transport library implementation. In the server side deployment, Axis C++ provides two modules that can be loaded into apache1.3 and apache 2 as shared libraries.
So this sums upto two posibilities.
You can deploy Axis C++ server
on Apache2 with xercesc parser or expat parser(Only one parser at a time)
on Apache1.3 with xercesc parer or expat parser
So if you use only Expat no need to define XERCESC_HOME vice versa.
When you build Axis C++ you can give options
1) Build for Apache2
with Expat parser support only
with Xerces paresr support only
with both parser support
2) Build for Apache1.3
with Expat parser support only
with Xerces parser support only
with both parser support
You can choose these selections on $AXISCPP_HOME/configure.ac
{apache2 block starts
#if you use apache2 and you need to build both axis_expat and axis_xerces libraries
#AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/common/Makefile src/soap/Makefile src/wsdd/Makefile src/xml/Makefile
src/transport/Makefile src/transport/axis/Makefile src/engine/Makefile src/engine/server/Makefile src/engine/client/Makefile
src/server/Makefile src/server/apache2/Makefile src/server/simple_axis_server/Makefile src/server/adminservice/Makefile
src/client/Makefile src/client/adminclient/Makefile src/xml/expat/Makefile src/xml/xerces/Makefile)
#if you need to build only axis_expat
#AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/common/Makefile src/soap/Makefile src/wsdd/Makefile src/xml/Makefile
src/transport/Makefile src/transport/axis/Makefile src/engine/Makefile src/engine/server/Makefile src/engine/client/Makefile
src/server/Makefile src/server/apache2/Makefile src/server/simple_axis_server/Makefile src/server/adminservice/Makefile
src/client/Makefile src/client/adminclient/Makefile src/xml/expat/Makefile)
#if you need to build only axis_xerces
#AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/common/Makefile src/soap/Makefile src/wsdd/Makefile src/xml/Makefile
src/transport/Makefile src/transport/axis/Makefile src/engine/Makefile src/engine/server/Makefile src/engine/client/Makefile
src/server/Makefile src/server/apache2/Makefile src/server/simple_axis_server/Makefile src/server/adminservice/Makefile
src/client/Makefile src/client/adminclient/Makefile src/xml/xerces/Makefile)
apache2 block ends
{apache1.3 block starts
#if you use apache1.3 and you need to build both axis_expat and axis_xerces libraries
#AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/common/Makefile src/soap/Makefile src/wsdd/Makefile src/xml/Makefile
src/transport/Makefile src/transport/axis/Makefile src/engine/Makefile src/engine/server/Makefile src/engine/client/Makefile
src/server/Makefile src/server/apache/Makefile src/server/simple_axis_server/Makefile src/server/adminservice/Makefile
src/client/Makefile src/client/adminclient/Makefile src/xml/expat/Makefile src/xml/xerces/Makefile)
#if you need to build only axis_expat
#AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/common/Makefile src/soap/Makefile src/wsdd/Makefile src/xml/Makefile
src/transport/Makefile src/transport/axis/Makefile src/engine/Makefile src/engine/server/Makefile src/engine/client/Makefile
src/server/Makefile src/server/apache/Makefile src/server/simple_axis_server/Makefile src/server/adminservice/Makefile
src/client/Makefile src/client/adminclient/Makefile src/xml/expat/Makefile)
#if you need to build only axis_xerces
#AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile src/common/Makefile src/soap/Makefile src/wsdd/Makefile src/xml/Makefile
src/transport/Makefile src/transport/axis/Makefile src/engine/Makefile src/engine/server/Makefile src/engine/client/Makefile
src/server/Makefile src/server/apache/Makefile src/server/simple_axis_server/Makefile src/server/adminservice/Makefile
src/client/Makefile src/client/adminclient/Makefile src/xml/xerces/Makefile)
#}apache1.3 block ends
You also need to do a selection at $AXISCPP_HOME/src/xml/Makefile.am
SUBDIRS = expat xerces #Here I build both expat and xerces libraries
#SUBDIRS = expat
#SUBDIRS = xerces
And again in $AXISCPP_HOME/src/server/Makefile.am
#if you use apache2
SUBDIRS = apache2 adminservice #Here I build for Apache2
#if you use apache1.3
#SUBDIRS = apache adminservice
Now you need to copy header files from apache and parser that you use
Install xercesc at /usr/local/xerces-c, expat at /usr/local/expat1957,apache2 at /usr/local/apache2 and apache1.3 at /usr/local/apache
Building Axis C++ for apache2 and for both xercesc and expat. (better to use one)Instructions to build both are given above
cp -rf /usr/local/xerces-c/include/xercesc/* $AXISCPP_HOME/include/xercesc/
cp -f /usr/local/expat1957/include/expat.h $AXISCPP_HOME/include/expat/
cp -f /usr/local/apache2/include/* $AXISCPP_HOME/include/apache2_0/
Then can build Axis C++ server, client,parser libraries, transport library and server/client samples by,
cd $AXISCPP_HOME
sh build.sh
You can see the folder $AXISCPP_HOME/bin to see what are created
libaxis_mod.so is apache module which is loaded when apache loads
libaxis_mod2.so is apache2 module which is loaded when apache2 loads
libserver_engine.so is the Axis C++ server engine which is loaded by libaxis_mod(2).so module
libaxiscpp_client.so is Axis C++ client library
libaxis_transport.so is the Axis C++ client transport library
libaxis_expat.so is the expat parser library implementation for Axis C++
libaxis_xercesc.so is the xercesc parser library implmentation for Axis C++
Also $AXISCPP_HOME/samples/server samples are built and installed in $AXIS_HOME/web_services
$AXISCPP_HOME/samples/client samples are built and executables are in $AXISCPP_HOME/samples/client
Parser and Transport libraries both are loaded in to axis engine when it is loaded by apache.
Now you need to add to $/conf/httpd.conf
$ vi /conf/httpd.conf
At the bottom of the file you have to include following lines and save it.
LoadModule axis_module modules/libaxiscpp_mod2.so (in apache1.3 replace modules with libexec and libaxiscpp_mod2.so with libaxiscpp_mod.so)
SetHandler axis
Now you need the deployment descripter to deploy server samples you built
cd $AXIS_HOME/conf
mv server.wsdd_linux server.wsdd
In $AXIS_HOME/axiscpp.conf file you can give paths to
your log files, configuration files libraries etc
# The comment character is '#'
#Available directives are as follows
#(Some of these directives may not be implemented yet)
#
#WSDDFilePath:The path to the server wsdd
#LogPath:The path to the axis log
#ClientLogPath:The path to the axis client log
#ClientWSDDFilePath:The path to the client wsdd
#Transport_http:The HTTP transport library
#Transport_smtp:The SMTP transport library
#XMLParser:The xml parser library.
LogPath:/usr/local/Axis/logs/AxisLog
WSDDFilePath:/usr/local/Axis/conf/server.wsdd
ClientLogPath:/usr/local/Axis/logs/AxisClientLog
XMLParser:/usr/local/Axis/libs/libaxis_xmlparser.so
Transport_http:/usr/local/Axis/libs/libaxis_transport.so
Now we need to copy neccessary libraries to the correct places and start apache. To do that you can find scripts written in $AXIS_HOME.
cd $AXIS_HOME
To deploy on apache2
sh deploy_apache2.sh
To deploy on apache
sh deploy_apache.sh
All the libraries are loaded.
Note that in the line no. 12 of the script above we change the name libaxis_expat.so to libaxis_xmlparser.so.
If we use xerces we need to change libaxis_xercesc.so to libaxis_xmlparser.so.
If you have done installation successfully it will display the Axis C++ welcome page when you point to URI http://localhost/axis
.
Note: In the axis welcome page all the services in $AXIS_HOME/conf/server.wsdd are listed. This does not mean
that the libraries corresponding to these services are deployed yet. It merely list whatever in the server.wsdd.
To run interop samples
cd $AXISCPP_HOME/samples/client
sh run_interoptests.sh
By default this script assumes that apache is running in the localhost at port 80
If you want other
sh run_interoptests.sh <server> <port>
eg: sh run_interoptests.sh -u localhost -p 80
