Developing Web Services in JAVA using Apache Soap on a tomcat server

[John Cox]

Trying to work with Apache Soap and java server but not understand
what it means to Compile the Java class and put it somewhere in your
web server's classpath for tomcat server. Here are the directions
that I am following but keep getting a 404 error when trying to
contact the service through a perl client.

Installing Apache SOAP

Apache SOAP can be used as both a client and provider of SOAP web
services. A server-side installation of Apache SOAP involves placing
some .jar files in your classpath. You will need a separate web server
that supports Servlets and Java Server Pages, such as Apache's Tomcat
(http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/).

The Apache SOAP homepage, http://xml.apache.org/soap/index.html, has
links to both source-only and precompiled distributions of the
toolkit. Installing the precompiled binary distribution is as simple
as downloading a Zip archive and extracting it into a directory.

On the client, three .jar files from the distribution (soap.jar,
mail.jar, and activation.jar) must be present in your classpath. Also
present must be any Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP) aware XML parser,
such as Xerces Version 1.4 (http://xml.apache.org/xerces-j/).

Assuming that you installed Apache SOAP .jar files in the C:\book\soap
directory, set your SOAP_LIB environment variable to C:\book\soap\lib.
Adding the .jar files to your classpath then entails:

set CLASSPATH = %CLASSPATH%;%SOAP_LIB%\soap.jar
set CLASSPATH = %CLASSPATH%;%SOAP_LIB%\mail.jar
set CLASSPATH = %CLASSPATH%;%SOAP_LIB%\activation.jar

Or, in the Unix Bourne shell (/bin/sh):

CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/soap.jar
CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/mail.jar
CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/activation.jar

The exact steps for a server installation will depend on which web
application server you are using, but the process is essentially the
same. The first step is to ensure the same three .jar files are
located in your application server's classpath.

If your application server supports the use of web application
archives (WAR files), simply use the soap.war file that ships with
Apache SOAP. Apache Tomcat supports this. The Apache SOAP
documentation includes detailed installation instructions for Tomcat
and a number of other environments.

If you intend to use the Bean Scripting Framework (BSF) to make
script-based web services, you need to ensure that bsf.jar and js.jar
(a BSF JavaScript implementation) are also in the web application
server's classpath.

The vast majority of problems encountered by new Apache SOAP users are
related to incorrect classpaths. If you encounter problems writing web
services with Apache SOAP, be sure to start your debugging by checking
your classpath!
The Hello Server

We're going to do the same things we did in Perl: create the code,
deploy the service, and use the service. Example 3-12 shows the Java
code for the Hello class.

Example 3-12: Hello.java

package samples;
public class Hello {
public String sayHello(String name) {
return "Hello " + name;
}
}

Compile the Java class and put it somewhere in your web server's
classpath.

Deployment descriptor for samples.Hello

<dd:service xmlns:dd="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap/deployment"
id="urn:Example1">
<ddrovider type="java"
scope="Application"
methods="sayHello">
<dd:java class="samples.Hello"
static="false" />
</ddrovider>
<dd:faultListener>
org.apache.soap.server.DOMFaultListener
</dd:faultListener>
<dd:mappings />
</dd:service>


Example 3-16. hw_jclient.pl, the Perl client for the Java Hello World
server

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# hw_jclient.pl - java Hello client
use SOAP::Lite;
my $name = shift;
print "\n\nCalling the SOAP Server to say hello\n\n";
print "The SOAP Server says: ";
print SOAP::Lite
-> uri('urn:Example1')
-> proxy('http://localhost:8080/soap/servlet/rpcrouter James')
-> sayHello($name)
-> result . "\n\n";


output I get from running the perl client

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop>test.pl James

Calling the SOAP Server to say hello

The SOAP Server says: 404 /soap/servlet/rpcrouter%20James at
C:\Documents and Se
ttings\Administrator\Desktop\test.pl line 7

 

[William Brogden]

Trying to work with Apache Soap and java server but not understand
what it means to Compile the Java class and put it somewhere in your
web server's classpath for tomcat server. Here are the directions
that I am following but keep getting a 404 error when trying to
contact the service through a perl client.

Installing Apache SOAP

Apache SOAP can be used as both a client and provider of SOAP web
services. A server-side installation of Apache SOAP involves placing
some .jar files in your classpath. You will need a separate web server
that supports Servlets and Java Server Pages, such as Apache's Tomcat
(http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/).

The Apache SOAP homepage, http://xml.apache.org/soap/index.html, has
links to both source-only and precompiled distributions of the
toolkit. Installing the precompiled binary distribution is as simple
as downloading a Zip archive and extracting it into a directory.

On the client, three .jar files from the distribution (soap.jar,
mail.jar, and activation.jar) must be present in your classpath. Also
present must be any Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP) aware XML parser,
such as Xerces Version 1.4 (http://xml.apache.org/xerces-j/).

Assuming that you installed Apache SOAP .jar files in the C:\book\soap
directory, set your SOAP_LIB environment variable to C:\book\soap\lib.
Adding the .jar files to your classpath then entails:

set CLASSPATH = %CLASSPATH%;%SOAP_LIB%\soap.jar
set CLASSPATH = %CLASSPATH%;%SOAP_LIB%\mail.jar
set CLASSPATH = %CLASSPATH%;%SOAP_LIB%\activation.jar

Note that Tomcat does not pay any attention to the System environment
CLASSPATH - see the class loader how-to in the docs installed with Tomcat.

Or, in the Unix Bourne shell (/bin/sh):

CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/soap.jar
CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/mail.jar
CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/activation.jar

The exact steps for a server installation will depend on which web
application server you are using, but the process is essentially the
same. The first step is to ensure the same three .jar files are
located in your application server's classpath.

If your application server supports the use of web application
archives (WAR files), simply use the soap.war file that ships with
Apache SOAP. Apache Tomcat supports this. The Apache SOAP
documentation includes detailed installation instructions for Tomcat
and a number of other environments.

If you intend to use the Bean Scripting Framework (BSF) to make
script-based web services, you need to ensure that bsf.jar and js.jar
(a BSF JavaScript implementation) are also in the web application
server's classpath.

The vast majority of problems encountered by new Apache SOAP users are
related to incorrect classpaths. If you encounter problems writing web
services with Apache SOAP, be sure to start your debugging by checking
your classpath!
The Hello Server

We're going to do the same things we did in Perl: create the code,
deploy the service, and use the service. Example 3-12 shows the Java
code for the Hello class.

Example 3-12: Hello.java

package samples;
public class Hello {
public String sayHello(String name) {
return "Hello " + name;
}
}

Compile the Java class and put it somewhere in your web server's
classpath.

Deployment descriptor for samples.Hello

<dd:service xmlns:dd="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap/deployment"
id="urn:Example1">
<ddrovider type="java"
scope="Application"
methods="sayHello">
<dd:java class="samples.Hello"
static="false" />
</ddrovider>
<dd:faultListener>
org.apache.soap.server.DOMFaultListener
</dd:faultListener>
<dd:mappings />
</dd:service>


Example 3-16. hw_jclient.pl, the Perl client for the Java Hello World
server

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# hw_jclient.pl - java Hello client
use SOAP::Lite;
my $name = shift;
print "\n\nCalling the SOAP Server to say hello\n\n";
print "The SOAP Server says: ";
print SOAP::Lite
-> uri('urn:Example1')
-> proxy('http://localhost:8080/soap/servlet/rpcrouter James')
-> sayHello($name)
-> result . "\n\n";


output I get from running the perl client

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop>test.pl James

Calling the SOAP Server to say hello

The SOAP Server says: 404 /soap/servlet/rpcrouter%20James at
C:\Documents and Se
ttings\Administrator\Desktop\test.pl line 7

The "/servlet/" usage sounds like it expects the "invoker" servlet
to be running - Tomcat used to come with the "invoker" turned on
but this ceased to be true partway through Tomcat 4 releases.
This is a source of endless confusion - check your default web.xml
and the soap web.xml for mention of "invoker"

 

[Asher Blum]

Or, in the Unix Bourne shell (/bin/sh):

CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/soap.jar
CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/mail.jar
CLASSPATH = $CLASSPATH;$SOAP_LIB/activation.jar

[snip]

I realize this isn't relevant to your question, but these instructions
are wrong for four reasons:

1. The Bourne Shell does not allow spaces around an equals sign.

2. The Bourne Shell interprets ';' as a control operator that
terminates the command. If you really wanted a ';', you'd
need to escape or quote it.

3. The current Linux version of Sun's JVM uses ':' as the CLASSPATH
separator. (java.io.File.pathSeparatorChar)

4. Merely setting an environment variable in the shell does not make
it part of the environment of any child processes you may launch,
such as the JVM. You need to export the variable.

So a fixed version of the command, at least for Linux/Bash is:

export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:$SOAP_LIB/soap.jar:$SOAP_LIB/mail.jar:$SOAP_LIB/activation.jar