Apache Axis2 is a simple and flexible toolkit that scales from doing simple XML/HTTP all the way to reliable and secure Web Services. At the same time, it offers the developer a simple path to expertise. Starting out with deploying simple POJOs and creating POJO clients to existing services, it can expand to support third-party databinding frameworks, and XML coding. Axis2 has a flexible and extensible architecture and supports easy deployment including hot deploy/redeploy. And its screaming fast, running 3-6 times as fast as Axis1.

In this tutorial, I will take you from deploying Axis2 to deploying your first Axis2 web service, writing synchronous and asynchronous clients, generating client using WSDL, and extending Axis2 with modules such as reliable messaging and security. The tutorial is designed for programmers who have some simple experience of SOAP and/or XML.