I understand your problem boils down to how to call a SOAP (JAX-WS) web service from Java and get its returning object. In that case, you have two possible approaches:
- Generate the Java classes through
wsimport and use them; or
- Create a SOAP client that:
- Serializes the service's parameters to XML;
- Calls the web method through HTTP manipulation; and
- Parse the returning XML response back into an object.
About the first approach (using wsimport):
I see you already have the services' (entities or other) business classes, and it's a fact that the wsimport generates a whole new set of classes (that are somehow duplicates of the classes you already have).
I'm afraid, though, in this scenario, you can only either:
- Adapt (edit) the
wsimport generated code to make it use your business classes (this is difficult and somehow not worth it - bear in mind everytime the WSDL changes, you'll have to regenerate and readapt the code); or
- Give up and use the
wsimport generated classes. (In this solution, you business code could "use" the generated classes as a service from another architectural layer.)
About the second approach (create your custom SOAP client):
In order to implement the second approach, you'll have to:
- Make the call:
- Use the SAAJ (SOAP with Attachments API for Java) framework (see below, it's shipped with Java SE 1.6 or above) to make the calls; or
- You can also do it through
java.net.HttpUrlconnection (and some java.io handling).
- Turn the objects into and back from XML:
- Use an OXM (Object to XML Mapping) framework such as JAXB to serialize/deserialize the XML from/into objects
- Or, if you must, manually create/parse the XML (this can be the best solution if the received object is only a little bit differente from the sent one).
Creating a SOAP client using classic java.net.HttpUrlConnection is not that hard (but not that simple either), and you can find in this link a very good starting code.
I recommend you use the SAAJ framework:
SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) is mainly used for dealing directly with SOAP Request/Response messages which happens behind the scenes in any Web Service API. It allows the developers to directly send and receive soap messages instead of using JAX-WS.
See below a working example (run it!) of a SOAP web service call using SAAJ. It calls this web service.
import javax.xml.soap.*;
public class SOAPClientSAAJ {
// SAAJ - SOAP Client Testing
public static void main(String args[]) {
/*
The example below requests from the Web Service at:
https://www.w3schools.com/xml/tempconvert.asmx?op=CelsiusToFahrenheit
To call other WS, change the parameters below, which are:
- the SOAP Endpoint URL (that is, where the service is responding from)
- the SOAP Action
Also change the contents of the method createSoapEnvelope() in this class. It constructs
the inner part of the SOAP envelope that is actually sent.
*/
String soapEndpointUrl = "https://www.w3schools.com/xml/tempconvert.asmx";
String soapAction = "https://www.w3schools.com/xml/CelsiusToFahrenheit";
callSoapWebService(soapEndpointUrl, soapAction);
}
private static void createSoapEnvelope(SOAPMessage soapMessage) throws SOAPException {
SOAPPart soapPart = soapMessage.getSOAPPart();
String myNamespace = "myNamespace";
String myNamespaceURI = "https://www.w3schools.com/xml/";
// SOAP Envelope
SOAPEnvelope envelope = soapPart.getEnvelope();
envelope.addNamespaceDeclaration(myNamespace, myNamespaceURI);
/*
Constructed SOAP Request Message:
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:myNamespace="https://www.w3schools.com/xml/">
<SOAP-ENV:Header/>
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<myNamespace:CelsiusToFahrenheit>
<myNamespace:Celsius>100</myNamespace:Celsius>
</myNamespace:CelsiusToFahrenheit>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
*/
// SOAP Body
SOAPBody soapBody = envelope.getBody();
SOAPElement soapBodyElem = soapBody.addChildElement("CelsiusToFahrenheit", myNamespace);
SOAPElement soapBodyElem1 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement("Celsius", myNamespace);
soapBodyElem1.addTextNode("100");
}
private static void callSoapWebService(String soapEndpointUrl, String soapAction) {
try {
// Create SOAP Connection
SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
SOAPConnection soapConnection = soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();
// Send SOAP Message to SOAP Server
SOAPMessage soapResponse = soapConnection.call(createSOAPRequest(soapAction), soapEndpointUrl);
// Print the SOAP Response
System.out.println("Response SOAP Message:");
soapResponse.writeTo(System.out);
System.out.println();
soapConnection.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("\nError occurred while sending SOAP Request to Server!\nMake sure you have the correct endpoint URL and SOAPAction!\n");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static SOAPMessage createSOAPRequest(String soapAction) throws Exception {
MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
SOAPMessage soapMessage = messageFactory.createMessage();
createSoapEnvelope(soapMessage);
MimeHeaders headers = soapMessage.getMimeHeaders();
headers.addHeader("SOAPAction", soapAction);
soapMessage.saveChanges();
/* Print the request message, just for debugging purposes */
System.out.println("Request SOAP Message:");
soapMessage.writeTo(System.out);
System.out.println("\n");
return soapMessage;
}
}
About using JAXB for serializing/deserializing, it is very easy to find information about it. You can start here: http://www.mkyong.com/java/jaxb-hello-world-example/.
