Axis Reference Guide

1.0 Version

Tools Reference

WSDL2Java
Java2WSDL

Deployment (WSDD) Reference

Tools Reference

WSDL2Java Reference

Usage: java org.apache.axis.wsdl.WSDL2Java [options] WSDL-URI
Options:
        -h, --help
                print this message and exit
        -v, --verbose
                print informational messages
        -n, --noImports
                only generate code for the immediate WSDL document
        -O, --timeout <argument>
                timeout in seconds (default is 45, specify -1 to disable)
        -D, --Debug
                print debug information
       -W, --noWrapped
                turn off support for "wrapped" document/literal
        -s, --server-side
                emit server-side bindings for web service
        -S, --skeletonDeploy <argument>
                deploy skeleton (true) or implementation (false) in deploy.wsdd.
                Default is false. Assumes --server-side.
        -N, --NStoPkg <argument>=<value>
                mapping of namespace to package
        -f, --fileNStoPkg <argument>
                file of NStoPkg mappings (default NStoPkg.properties)
        -p, --package <argument>
                override all namespace to package mappings, use this package
                 name instead
        -o, --output <argument>
                output directory for emitted files
        -d, --deployScope <argument>
                add scope to deploy.xml: "Application", "Request", "Session"
        -t, --testCase
                emit junit testcase class for web service
        -a, --all
                generate code for all elements, even unreferenced ones
        -T, --typeMappingVersion
                indicate 1.1 or 1.2. The default is 1.1 (SOAP 1.1 JAX-RPC compliant.                 1.2 indicates SOAP 1.1 encoded.)
        -F, --factory <argument>
                name of a custom class that implements GeneratorFactory interface                 (for extending Java generation functions)
        -H, --helperGen
                emits separate Helper classes for meta data
        -U, --user <argument>
                username to access the WSDL-URI
        -P, --password <argument>
                password to access the WSDL-URI

-h, --help

Print the usage statement and exit

-v, --verbose

See what the tool is generating as it is generating it.

-n, --noImports

Only generate code for the WSDL document that appears on the command line. The default behaviour is to generate files for all WSDL documents, the immediate one and all imported ones.

-O, --timeout

Timeout in seconds. The default is 45. Use -1 to disable the timeout.

-D, --Debug

Print debug information, which currently is WSDL2Java's symbol table. Note that this is only printed after the symbol table is complete, ie., after the WSDL is parsed successfully.

-W, --noWrapped

This turns off the special treatment of what is called "wrapped" document/literal style operations. By default, WSDL2Java will recognize the following conditions:

If an input message has is a single part.
The part is an element.
The element has the same name as the operation
The element's complex type has no attributes

When it sees this, WSDL2Java will 'unwrap' the top level element, and treat each of the components of the element as arguments to the operation. This type of WSDL is the default for Microsoft .NET web services, which wrap up RPC style arguments in this top level schema element.

-s, --server-side

Emit the server-side bindings for the web service:

a skeleton class named <bindingName>Skeleton. This may or may not be emitted (see -S, --skeletonDeploy).
an implementation template class named <bindingName>Impl. Note that, if this class already exists, then it is not emitted.
deploy.wsdd
undeploy.wsdd

-S, --skeletonDeploy <argument>

Deploy either the skeleton (true) or the implementation (false) in deploy.wsdd. In other words, for "true" the service clause in the deploy.wsdd file will look something like:

<service name="AddressBook" provider="java:RPC">
    <parameter name="className" value="samples.addr.AddressBookSOAPBindingSkeleton"/>
    ...
</service>

and for "false" it would look like:

<service name="AddressBook" provider="java:RPC">
    <parameter name="className" value="samples.addr.AddressBookSOAPBindingImpl"/>
      ...
</service>

The default for this option is false. When you use this option, the --server-side option is assumed, so you don't have to explicitly specify --server-side as well.

-N, --NStoPkg <argument>=<value>

By default, package names are generated from the namespace strings in the WSDL document in a magical manner (typically, if the namespace is of the form "http://x.y.com" or "urn:x.y.com" the corresponding package will be "com.y.x"). If this magic is not what you want, you can provide your own mapping using the --NStoPkg argument, which can be repeated as often as necessary, once for each unique namespace mapping. For example, if there is a namespace in the WSDL document called "urn:AddressFetcher2", and you want files generated from the objects within this namespace to reside in the package samples.addr, you would provide the following option to WSDL2Java:

--NStoPkg urn:AddressFetcher2=samples.addr

(Note that if you use the short option tag, "-N", then there must not be a space between "-N" and the namespace.)

-f, --fileNStoPkg <argument>

If there are a number of namespaces in the WSDL document, listing a mapping for them all could become tedious. To help keep the command line terse, WSDL2Java will also look for mappings in a properties file. By default, this file is named "NStoPkg.properties" and it must reside in the default package (ie., no package). But you can explicitly provide your own file using the --fileNStoPkg option.

The entries in this file are of the same form as the arguments to the --NStoPkg command line option. For example, instead of providing the command line option as above, we could provide the same information in NStoPkg.properties:

urn\:AddressFetcher2=samples.addr

(Note that the colon must be escaped in the properties file.)

If an entry for a given mapping exists both on the command line and in the properties file, the command line entry takes precedence.

-p, --package <argument>

This is a shorthand option to map all namespaces in a WSDL document to the same Java package name. This can be useful, but dangerous. You must make sure that you understand the effects of doing this. For instance there may be multiple types with the same name in different namespaces. It is an error to use the --NStoPkg switch and --package at the same time.

-o, --output <argument>

The root directory for all emitted files.

-d, --deployScope <argument>

Add scope to deploy.wsdd: "Application", "Request", or "Session". If this option does not appear, no scope tag appears in deploy.wsdd, which the AXIS runtime defaults to "Request".

-t, --testCase

Generate a client-side JUnit test case. This test case can stand on its own, but it doesn't really do anything except pass default values (null for objects, 0 or false for primitive types). Like the generated implementation file, the generated test case file could be considered a template that you may fill in.

-a, --all

Generate code for all elements, even unreferenced ones. By default, WSDL2Java only generates code for those elements in the WSDL file that are referenced.

A note about what it means to be referenced. We cannot simply say: start with the services, generate all bindings referenced by the service, generated all portTypes referenced by the referenced bindings, etc. What if we're generating code from a WSDL file that only contains portTypes, messages, and types? If WSDL2Java used service as an anchor, and there's no service in the file, then nothing will be generated. So the anchor is the lowest element that exists in the WSDL file in the order:

types
portTypes
bindings
services

For example, if a WSDL file only contained types, then all the listed types would be generated. But if a WSDL file contained types and a portType, then that portType will be generated and only those types that are referenced by that portType.

Note that the anchor is searched for in the WSDL file appearing on the command line, not in imported WSDL files. This allows one WSDL file to import constructs defined in another WSDL file without the nuisance of having all the imported WSDL file's constructs generated.

-T, --typeMappingVersion <argument>

Indicate 1.1 or 1.2. The default is 1.2 (SOAP 1.2 JAX-RPC compliant).

-F, --factory <argument>

Used to extend the functionality of the WSDL2Java emitter. The argument is the name of a class which extends JavaWriterFactory.

-H, --helperGen

Emits separate Helper classes for meta data.

-U, --user <argument>

This username is used in resolving the WSDL-URI provided as the input to WSDL2Java. If the URI contains a username, this will override the command line switch. An example of a URL with a username and password is: http://user:password@hostname:port/path/to/service?WSDL

-P, --password <argument>

This password is used in resolving the WSDL-URI provided as the input to WSDL2Java. If the URI contains a password, this will override the command line switch.

Java2WSDL Reference

Here is the help message generated from the current tool:

Java2WSDL emitter
Usage: java org.apache.axis.wsdl.Java2WSDL [options] class-of-portType
Options:
        -h, --help
                print this message and exit
        -I, --input 
                input WSDL filename
        -o, --output 
                output WSDL filename
        -l, --location 
                service location url
        -P, --portTypeName 
                portType name (obtained from class-of-portType if not specified)
        -b, --bindingName 
                binding name (--servicePortName value + "SOAPBinding" if not specified)
        -S, --serviceElementName 
                service element name (defaults to --servicePortName value + "Service")
        -s, --servicePortName 
                service port name (obtained from --location if not specified)
        -n, --namespace 
                target namespace
        -p, --PkgtoNS =
                package=namespace, name value pairs
        -m, --methods 
                space or comma separated list of methods to export
        -a, --all
                look for allowed methods in inherited class
        -w, --outputWsdlMode 
                output WSDL mode: All, Interface, Implementation
        -L, --locationImport 
                location of interface wsdl
        -N, --namespaceImpl 
                target namespace for implementation wsdl
        -O, --outputImpl 
                output Implementation WSDL filename, setting this causes --outputWsdlMode to be ignored
        -i, --implClass 
                optional class that contains implementation of methods in class-of-portType.  
				The debug information in the class is used
                to obtain the method parameter names, which are used to set
                the WSDL part names.
        -x, --exclude 
                space or comma separated list of methods not to export
        -c, --stopClasses 
                space or comma separated list of class names which will stop
                inheritance search if --all switch is given
        -T, --typeMappingVersion 
                indicate 1.1 or 1.2.  The default is 1.1 (SOAP 1.1 JAX-RPC 
				 compliant  1.2 indicates SOAP 1.1 encoded.)
        -A, --soapAction 
                value of the operations soapAction field. Values are DEFAULT,
                OPERATION or NONE. OPERATION forces soapAction to the name
                of the operation.  DEFAULT causes the soapAction to be set
                according to the operations meta data (usually "").  NONE forces
				the soapAction to "".  The default is DEFAULT.
        -y, --style 
                The style of binding in the WSDL, either DOCUMENT, RPC, or WRAPPED.
        -u, --use 
                The use of items in the binding, either LITERAL or ENCODED
        -e, --extraClasses 
                A space or comma separated list of class names to be added tO
                The type section.
Details:
   portType element name= <--portTypeName value> OR 
   binding  element name= <--bindingName value> OR <--servicePortName value>Soap
Binding
   service  element name= <--serviceElementName value> OR <--portTypeName value>
Service
   port     element name= <--servicePortName value>
   address location     = <--location value>

-h , --help
Prints the help message.

-I, --input <WSDL file>
Optional parameter that indicates the name of the input wsdl file. The output wsdl file will contain everything from the input wsdl file plus the new constructs. If a new construct is already present in the input wsdl file, it is not added. This option is useful for constructing a wsdl file with multiple ports, bindings, or portTypes.

-o, --output <WSDL file>
Indicates the name of the output WSDL file. If not specified, a suitable default WSDL file is written into the current directory.

-l, --location <location>
Indicates the url of the location of the service. The name after the last slash or backslash is the name of the service port (unless overridden by the -s option). The service port address location attribute is assigned the specified value.

-P, --portTypeName <name>
Indicates the name to use use for the portType element. If not specified, the class-of-portType name is used.

-b, --bindingName <name>
Indicates the name to use use for the binding element. If not specified, the value of the --servicePortName + "SoapBinding" is used.

-S, --serviceElementName <name>
Indicates the name of the service element. If not specified, the service element is the <portTypeName>Service.

-s, --servicePortName <name>
Indicates the name of the service port. If not specified, the service port name is derived from the --location value.

-n, --namespace <target namespace>
Indicates the name of the target namespace of the WSDL.

-p, --PkgToNS <package> <namespace>
Indicates the mapping of a package to a namespace. If a package is encountered that does not have a namespace, the Java2WSDL emitter will generate a suitable namespace name. This option may be specified multiple times.

-m, --methods <arguments>
If this option is specified, only the indicated methods in your interface class will be exported into the WSDL file. The methods list must be comma separated. If not specified, all methods declared in the interface class will be exported into the WSDL file.

-a, --all
If this option is specified, the Java2WSDL parser will look into extended classes to determine the list of methods to export into the WSDL file.

-w, --outputWSDLMode <mode>
Indicates the kind of WSDL to generate. Accepted values are:

All --- (default) Generates wsld containing both interface and implementation WSDL constructs.
Interface --- Generates a WSDL containing the interface constructs (no service element).
Implementation -- Generates a WSDL containing the implementation. The interface WSDL is imported via the -L option.

-L, --locationImport <url>
Used to indicate the location of the interface WSDL when generating an implementation WSDL.

-N, --namespaceImpl <namespace>
Namespace of the implementation WSDL.

-O, --outputImpl <WSDL file>
Use this option to indicate the name of the output implementation WSDL file. If specified, Java2WSDL will produce interface and implementation WSDL files. If this option is used, the -w option is ignored.

-i, --implClass <impl-class>
Sometimes extra information is available in the implementation class file. Use this option to specify the implementation class.

-x, --exclude <list>
List of methods to not exclude from the wsdl file.

-c, --stopClasses <list>
List of classes which stop the Java2WSDL inheritance search.

-T, --typeMappingVersion <version>
Choose the default type mapping registry to use. Either 1.1 or 1.2.

-A, --soapAction <argument>
The value of the operations soapAction field. Values are DEFAULT, OPERATION or NONE. OPERATION forces soapAction to the name of the operation. DEFAULT causes the soapAction to be set according to the operation's meta data (usually ""). NONE forces the soapAction to "". The default is DEFAULT.

-y, --style <argument>
The style of the WSDL document: RPC, DOCUMENT or WRAPPED. The default is RPC. If RPC is specified, an rpc wsdl is generated. If DOCUMENT is specified, a document wsdl is generated. If WRAPPED is specified, a document/literal wsdl is generated using the wrapped approach. Wrapped style forces the use attribute to be literal.

-u, --use <argument>
The use of the WSDL document: LITERAL or ENCODED. If LITERAL is specified, the XML Schema defines the representation of the XML for the request. If ENCODED is specified, SOAP encoding is specified in the generated WSDL.

-e, --extraClasses <argument>
Specify a space or comma seperated list of class names which should be included in the types section of the WSDL document. This is useful in the case where your service interface references a base class and you would like your WSDL to contain XML Schema type defintions for these other classes. The -extraClasses option can be specified duplicate times. Each specification results in the additional classes being added to the list.

Deployment (WSDD) Reference

Note : all the elements referred to in this section are in the WSDD namespace, namely "http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/".

<deployment>

The root element of the deployment document which tells the Axis engine that this is a deployment. A deployment document may represent EITHER a complete engine configuration OR a set of components to deploy into an active engine.

<undeployment>

The root element of the deployment document which tells Axis that this is an undeployment. Undeployments are only useful as

<handler [name="name"] type="type"/>

Belongs at the top level inside a <deployment> or <undeployment>, or inside a <chain>, <requestFlow>, or <responseFlow>. Defines a Handler, and indicates the type of the handler. "Type" is either the name of another previously defined Handler, or a QName of the form "java:class.name". The optional "name" attribute allows you to refer to this Handler definition in other parts of the deployment. May contain an arbitrary number of <option name="name" value="value"> elements, each of which will supply an option to the deployed Handler.

<service name="name" provider="provider" >

Deploys/undeploys an Axis Service. This is the most complex WSDD tag, so we're going to spend a little time on it.

Options may be specified as follows :

<parameter name="name" 
    value="value"/>

, and common ones include:

className : the backend implementation class
allowedMethods : Each provider can determine which methods are allowed to be exposed as web services.
To summaries for Axis supplied providers:

Java RPC Provider (provider="java:RPC") by default all public methods specified by the class in the className option, including any inherited methods are available as web services.
For more details regarding the Java Provider please see WHERE???.
Java MsgProvder (provider="java:MSG")
In order to further restrict the above methods, the allowedMethods option may be used to specify in a space delimited list the names of only those methods which are allowed as web services. It is also possible to specify for this option the value "*" which is functionally equivalent to not specify the option at all. Also, it is worth mentioning that the operation element is used to further define the methods being offered, but it does not affect which methods are made available.
Note, while this is true for Axis supplied providers, it is implementation dependent on each individual provider. Please review your providers documentation on how or if it supports this option.
Note, Exposing any web service has security implications.
As a best practices guide it is highly recommend when offering a web service in un secure environment to restrict allowed methods to only those required for the service being offered. And, for those that are made available, to fully understand their function and how they may access and expose your systems's resources.
allowedRoles : comma-separated list of roles allowed to access this service

If you wish to define handlers which should be invoked either before or after the service's provider, you may do so with the <requestFlow> and the <responseFlow> subelements. Either of those elements may be specified inside the <service> element, and their semantics are identical to the <chain> element described below - in other words, they may contain <handler> and <chain> elements which will be invoked in the order they are specified.

Example:

<service name="test">
  <parameter name="className" value="test.Implementation"/>
  <parameter name="allowedMethods" value="*"/>
  <namespace>http://testservice/</namespace>
  <requestFlow> <!-- Run these before processing the request -->
    <handler type="java:MyHandlerClass"/>
    <handler type="somethingIDefinedPreviously"/>
  </requestFlow>
</service>

Metadata may be specified about particular operations in your service by using the <operation> tag inside a service. This enables you to map the java parameter names of a method to particular XML names, to specify the parameter modes for your parameters, and to map particular XML names to particular operations.

<operation name="method">
</operation>

<chain name="name">
<subelement/>...
</chain>

Defines a chain. Each handler (i.e. deployed handler name) in the list will be invoked() in turn when the chain is invoked. This enables you to build up "modules" of commonly used functionality. The subelements inside chains may be <handler>s or <chain>s. <handler>s inside a <chain> may either be defined in terms of their Java class:

<chain name="myChain">
  <handler type="java:org.apache.axis.handlers.LogHandler"/>
</chain>

or may refer to previously defined <handlers>, with the "type" of the handler referring to the name of the other handler definition:

<handler name="logger" type="java:org.apache.axis.handlers.LogHandler"/>
<chain name="myChain"/>
   <handler type="logger"/>
</chain>

<transport name="name">

Defines a transport on the server side. Server transports are invoked when an incoming request arrives. A server transport may define <requestFlow> and/or <responseFlow> elements to specify handlers/chains which should be invoked during the request (i.e. incoming message) or response (i.e. outgoing message) portion of processing (this function works just like the <service> element above). Typically handlers in the transport request/response flows implement transport-specific functionality, such as parsing protocol headers, etc.

<transport name="name" pivot="handler type" >

Defines a transport on the client side, which is invoked when sending a SOAP message. The "pivot" attribute specifies a Handler to be used as the actual sender for this transport (for example, the HTTPSender). Request and response flows may be specified as in server-side transports to do processing on the request (i.e. outgoing message) or response (i.e. incoming message).

<typeMapping qname="ns:localName" classname="classname" serializer="classname" deserializer="classname"/>

Each typeMapping maps an XML qualified name to/from a Java class, using a specified Serializer and Deserializer.

<beanMapping qname="ns:localName" classname="classname">

A simplified type mapping, which uses pre-defined serializers/deserializers to encode/decode JavaBeans. The class named by "classname" must follow the JavaBean standard pattern of get/set accessors.

Pre-Configured Axis Components Reference

On the server:

LogHandler: The LogHandler will simply log a message to a logger when it gets invoked.

EchoHandler: The EchoHandler copies the request message into the response message.
HTTPAuth: The HTTPAuthHandler takes HTTP-specific authentication information (right now, just Basic authentication) and turns it into generic MessageContext properties for username and password
SimpleAuthenticationHandler: The SimpleAuthentication handler passes a MessageContext to a SecurityProvider (see org.apache.axis.security) to authenticate the user using whatever information the SecurityProvider wants (right now, just the username and password).
SimpleAuthorizationHandler: This handler, typically deployed alongside the SimpleAuthenticationHandler (a chain called "authChecks" is predefined for just this combination), checks to make sure that the currently authenticated user satisfies one of the allowed roles for the target service. Throws a Fault if access is denied.
URLMapper: The URLMapper, an HTTP-specific handler, usually goes on HTTP transport chains (it is deployed by default). It serves to do service dispatch based on URL - for instance, this is the Handler which allows URLs like http://localhost:8080/axis/services/MyService?wsdl to work.


RPCDispatcher: The RPCDispatcher is the pivot point for all RPC services. It accepts the following options:
className = the class of the backend object to invoke
methodName = a space-separated list of methods which are exported as web services. The special value "*" matches all public methods in the class.

MsgDispatcher: The MsgDispatcher is the pivot point for all messaging services. It accepts the following options:; className = the class of the backend object to invoke
methodName = a space-separated list of methods which are exported as web services. The special value "*" matches all public methods in the class.



LocalResponder: The LocalResponder is a Handler whose job in life is to serialize the response message coming back from a local invocation into a String. It is by default on the server's local transport response chain, and it ensures that serializing the message into String form happens in the context of the server's type mappings.

On the client:

HTTPSender

A Handler which sends the request message to a remote server via HTTP, and collects the response message.

LocalSender

A Handler which sends the request message to a "local" AxisServer, which will process it and return a response message. This is extremely useful for testing, and is by default mapped to the "local:" transport. So, for instance, you can test the AdminClient by doing something like this:

% java org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient -llocal:// list