13.3. JAX-WS Web Service Endpoints

13.3.1. About JAX-WS Web Service Endpoints

This topic is an overview of JAX-WS web service endpoints and accompanying concepts. A JAX-WS Web Service endpoint is the server component of a Web Service. clients and other Web Services communicate it over the HTTP protocol using an XML language called Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The endpoint itself is deployed into the JBoss EAP 6 container.
You can write a WSDL descriptor by hand, or you can use JAX-WS annotations to create it automatically. This is the more normal usage pattern.
An endpoint implementation bean is annotated with JAX-WS annotations and deployed to the server. The server automatically generates and publishes the abstract contract in WSDL format for client consumption. All marshalling and unmarshalling is delegated to the Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) service.
The endpoint itself may be a POJO (Plain Old Java Object) or a Java EE Web Application. You can also expose endpoints using an EJB3 stateless session bean. It is packaged into a Web Archive (WAR) file. The specification for packaging the endpoint, called a Java Service Endpoint (JSE) is defined in JSR-181, which can be found at http://jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/mrel/jsr181/index2.html.
Development Requirements

A Web Service must fulfill the requirements of the JAX-WS API and the Web Services metadata specification at http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/summary?id=181. A valid implementation meets the following requirements:

  • It contains a javax.jws.WebService annotation.
  • All method parameters and return types are compatible with the JAXB 2.0 specification, JSR-222. Refer to http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/summary?id=222 for more information.

Example 13.10. Example POJO Endpoint

@WebService
@SOAPBinding(style = SOAPBinding.Style.RPC)
public class JSEBean01
{
   @WebMethod
   public String echo(String input)
   {
      ...
   }
}

Example 13.11. Example Web Services Endpoint

<web-app ...>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>TestService</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.jboss.test.ws.jaxws.samples.jsr181pojo.JSEBean01</servlet-class>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>TestService</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

		

Example 13.12. Exposing an Endpoint in an EJB

This EJB3 stateless session bean exposes the same method on the remote interface and as an endpoint operation.
@Stateless
@Remote(EJB3RemoteInterface.class)
@RemoteBinding(jndiBinding = "/ejb3/EJB3EndpointInterface")

@WebService
@SOAPBinding(style = SOAPBinding.Style.RPC)
public class EJB3Bean01 implements EJB3RemoteInterface
{
   @WebMethod
   public String echo(String input)
   {
      ...
   }
}

Endpoint Providers

JAX-WS services typically implement a Java service endpoint interface (SEI), which may be mapped from a WSDL port type, either directly or using annotations. This SEI provides a high-level abstraction which hides the details between Java objects and their XML representations. However, in some cases, services need the ability to operate at the XML message level. The endpoint Provider interface provides this functionality to Web Services which implement it.

Consuming and Accessing the Endpoint

After you deploy your Web Service, you can consume the WSDL to create the component stubs which will be the basis for your application. Your application can then access the endpoint to do its work.

Working Examples

The JBoss EAP Quickstarts include several fully-functioning JAX-WS Web Service applications. These examples include:

  • wsat-simple
  • wsba-coordinator-completion-simple
  • wsba-participant-completion-simple