Getting raw XML response from Java web service client

Question

I am trying to get the raw XML response from a web service, instead of the usual set of POJOs.

I am using a webservice client that I generated (so I have access to the client's code) from a WSDL and some schemas. The client is generated in RAD 7.5, I think using JAX-WS. I've been looking at the client code itself, but I'm not even sure if the client code ever handles raw XML or if it passes it off to other libraries.

Cataplexy

Answer 1

You can do it using

javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPHandler<javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPMessageContext>

you can simply get message using SOAPMessageContext#getMessage() and convert message to String using method

   public static String getXmlMessage(SOAPMessage message) throws Exception
   {
         ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
         message.writeTo(os);
         final String encoding = (String) message.getProperty(SOAPMessage.CHARACTER_SET_ENCODING);
         if (encoding == null)
         {
             return new String(os.toByteArray());
         }
         else
         {
            return new String(os.toByteArray(), encoding);    
         }
   }  

Also you can read here about SOAP handler on client side
Article

Transfinite

Ok, though I'm not sure how I can return this string back to my main application. – Cataplexy

I am using this construction in my project for print request/response in logs. – Transfinite

You can create global variable ArrayList, and put all String to it – Transfinite

That's going to be a little awkward in my situation. Is there a more graceful way of doing it? – Cataplexy

Answer 2

It's not widely documented, but you can use the Dispatch interface to implement JAXWS clients which work directly w/ the XML. Here and here are some articles for getting started.

Rocket

Two last links like broken. – Demagogue