Redirecting web service calls in Apache AXIS -> mediator / proxy

[Michael Spahn]

Hi experts,

I'm using Apache AXIS as web service server and want to extend AXIS to
be able to do the following:

If AXIS receives a call to a web service a decision has to be made
wheter the web service is called locally or if it gets routed to
another endpoint URL. After routing the call AXIS has to wait for an
anwswer and redirect the answer to the client. The client should not
notice that its call to the web service has been routed to another
server. So in this case AXIS should act like a proxy or a mediator for
web service calls.

The aim is to have one instance for calling web services, but the
decision where the web service is really called is made dynamically
(for exaple at the server with the best quality of service properties
at the time of calling).

I would be glad if someone could give me some hints on how to do this.
Especially I'm interested in where and how to do the redirect. (It's
absolutely sufficient to handle only synchronous calls via http
transport.) Can all this be done in an individual AXIS handler?

Has somebody experience in building mediators for web services in java
and can give me some hints? What's the best way to do this?


Thanks in advance,
Michael