WEBSERVICE USING APACHE AXIS - TUTORIAL-2 AXIS FOR EJB-WEBSERVICE (part-5)

DeveloperIQ..APRIL-2004
R.S.RAMASWAMY ([email protected])

In DeveloperIQ ( March-2004) , we had seen parts 1 to 4 of this tutorial on exposing an EJB as XML-Webservice using Axis. This is a 7 part article.�

part-1 : Overview

part-2 : deploying ejb in weblogic-7

part-3 : Drop-in-deployment in Axis

part-4 : deloyment using wsdd for javabean. ��

�part-5 : using wsdd file for ejb-bean itself)

�� a) java:RPC

�� b) java:EJB

�part-6 : WAP client

�� a) for EJB

�� b) for EJB-WebService

�part-7 : J2ME Client

�� a) for EJB

�� b) for EJB-WebService

We now proceed to complete the remaining parts.��

Part-5� ( using wsdd file for ejb-bean itself).

In part-4, we created a javabean to accessthe EJB in weblogic enterprise server and usedit in the wsdd file.This approach is preferable because, the best method is to use a stateless-session bean to access other beans in the ejb-server.This is known as 'Facade pattern'.

"It is entirely possible to package your business logic into Java Beans and not worryabout the EJB API.However,as your business logic becomes more complex ,requiring the coupling of the logic with enterprise functionality like transactions,resource management etc, the benefits of the EJB architecture rapidly become apparent.The EJB container can provide all these system-level services(lifecycle management,connection pooling,transations,etc)leaving the developer to concentrate on developing thebusiness logic".� Secondly, "Utilizing existing applications is the key inan enterprise scenario. It is important thatexisting business functionality in EJB components within the J2EE Application can be invoked in a seamless fashion."

---Romin Irani in "AXIS".

This argument against using EJB, surfaces again and again from different quarters often. For instance, Perl programmers who want to use XML-Webservice also argue that simple functions will do. Hence, it is worthwhile

to learn the opinion of experts on SOAP on this question. �"Intersection of Business and Programming

�(quoted �from: Programming web service with SOAP

�by� James Snell,Doug Tidwell and Pavel Kulchenko)

(James Snell : is a software engineer at IBM's� Emerging Technologies team.(Doug� Tidwell� is� a senior programmer at IBM.(Pavel� Kulchenko� is an open-source developer. best known for his Soap::Lite.,XMLRPC::Lite 7

UDDI::Lite� modules for Perl.)

"Because a web service exposes an application's functionality to any client in any programming language,they raise interesting questions in both the programming and the business world.Programmers tend to raise questions like, "how do we do two-phase commit transactions?" orHow do I do object inheritance?" or" How do I make this damn thing run faster?"-questions typically associated with going through the steps of writing code.

Business folks,on the other hand,tend to ask questions like,"How do I ensure that the person using the service is really who they say they are?" or "How can we tie together multiple web services into a workflow?" or "How can I ensure the realiability of web service transactions?" Their questions typically address business concerns.

These tow perspectives go hand-in-hand with� one another. Every business issue will have a software-based solution. But the two perspectives are also at odds with each other:the business processes demand completeness, trust, security, and reliability, which may be in incompatible with the programmers goals of simplicity, performance, and robustness.

The outcome is that tools for implementing webservices will do so from one of thesse two angles,but rarely will they do so from both.For example ,SOAP::Lite,the perl based SOAP implementation written by the coauthor of this book,Pavel kulchenko,is essentially written for programmers.It provides a very simple set of tools for invoking Perl modules using SOAP,XML-RPC,jabber,or any number of other protocols.

In contrast,Apache's Axis project(the next generation of Apache's SOAP implemention)is a more complex web services implementaion designed to make it easier to implement processes,or to tie together multiple web services. Axis can perform the stripped down bare essentials,but that is not its primary focus.

The important thing to keep in mind is that both tools implement many of the same set� of technologies(SOAP,WSDL,UDDI, and others,many of which we discuss later on),and so they are capable of interoperating with each other.The differences are in the way they interface with applications.This gives programmers a choice of how their web services is implemented,without restricting the users of that service."

� Reverting back to our main theme now, some developers prefer to use the Enterprise-bean itself directly in the wsdd file as is about to be shown below.

� Here� again, there are two possibilities.�We can use either

� a)� java:RPC as pivot-handler�

�� (or)

� b)� java:EJB as pivot-handler�

There will be some important differences

in the way in which the wsdd file is created.

and these should be carefully noted.

�First, we will demonstrate the java:RPC pivot-handler method . After that, we will create another wsdd to use java:EJB pivot handler and test it .

�� This is our objective in� this part of the tutorial..

( Kindly read this lesson, in conjunction with

earlier parts, published last month).

�We have already� deployed� our stateless ejb

in�� Weblogic7.

(please refer to part-2 of this lesson).

We are going� to expose an ejb as webservice

�mentioning ejb classes such as

sqlRemote,sqlHome,sqlBean

directly in wsdd file.

Our current working folder is C:\>sam.

with path and� classpath as shown below.

path=c:\windows\command;

�� d:\jdk141\bin;

�� d:\bea\weblogic700\server\bin;

classpath=c:\sam;

d:\bea\weblogic700\server\

�� lib\weblogic.jar;

� c:\axis11\lib\axis.jar;

�� c:\axis11\lib\jaxrpc.jar;

�� c:\axis11\lib\saaj.jar;

�� c:\axis11\lib\commons-logging.jar;

�� c:\axis11\lib\commons-discovery.jar;

�� c:\axis11\lib\wsdl4j.jar;

d:\tomcat 4.1\common\lib\activation.jar;

d:\tomcat 4.1\common\lib\xerces.jar;

Now create sqlDeploy.wsdd file in our

current working folder (ie)C:\sam

c:\sam> edit sqlDeploy.wsdd

<deployment

xmlns="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/"

�� xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/

�� axis/wsdd/providers/java" >

<service�� name="sqlservice"

� ��provider="java:RPC"� >

<parameter�� name="beanJndiName"

�� value="sqlJndi"�� />

<parameter�� name="homeInterfaceName"

�� value="sqlHome"�� />

<parameter�� name="remoteInterfaceName"

�� value="sqlRemote"�� />

<parameter�� name="className"

�� value="sqlBean"�� />

<parameter�� name="allowedMethods"

�� value="*"�� />

</service>

</deployment>

The next step is to deploy the service in Axis.Remember, that Tomcat4.1 and Weblogic7 , have already been started.

( as given in part-2).Secondly , preliminary steps for using Axis also have been already performed.(please refer to opening remarks in part-3 of this tutorial in March-2004 issue).

We now� give the following command for deploying the service.

c:\>sam>java org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient sqlDeploy.wsdd -lhttp://localhost:8080/axis/ services/AdminService

( this should be typed in a continuous line). (note: if tomcat server is not running, this command won't work)

After some time, if the wsdd file is free from

syntax errors, the service will be deployed

and we will get a message as follows:

For verifying whether the service is deployed,

�we give the following command.

c:\>sam> java org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient list -lhttp://localhost:8080/axis/ services/AdminService > list.txt

After this, we can see list.txt and check up

whether sqlservice has been deployed there.

We can also test the deployment by using the browser and typing the URL as:

http://localhost:8080/axis/services/sqlservice?wsdl

We will get a wsdl file. Now we've exposed our ejb as webservice.

We test this service in two ways

(ie)a) console client and

b) servlet� client.

c:\sam> edit ejbaxisconsoleclient.java

//�� ejbaxisconsoleclient.java

import java.net.URL;

import org.apache.axis.client.Service;

import org.apache.axis.client.Call;

import org.apache.axis.encoding.XMLType;

import javax.xml.rpc.ParameterMode;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;

public class ejbaxisconsoleclient

{

�� public static void main(String args[])

�� {

�� try

�� {

�String�� url = �"http://localhost:8080/axis/services/sqlservice";

� //Last parameter is service name in WSDD;

� System.out.println ("endpoint is�� :"+url);

�� String�� method = "getdata";

System.out.println("method is:�� "+method);

� �Service�� service = new Service();

�� Call�� call = Call) service.createCall();

�� call.setTargetEndpointAddress ( url);

�� call.setOperationName

�� ( new QName("sqlservice",method));

�� call.addParameter("sql",XMLType.XSD_STRING,ParameterMode.IN);

�� call.setReturnType(XMLType.XSD_STRING);

System.out.println("Call Ok");

� Object[] params = new Object[] { args[0] };

�� System.out.println("Params ok...");

String s = (String) call.invoke(params);

�� System.out.println(s);

�� }

catch(Exception e1)

�� { System.out.println(""+e1);� }

�� }

}

c:\sam> javac ejbaxisconsoleclient.java

After it is complied successfully,�run the program and pass the query as commandline argument.

c:\sam> java ejbaxisconsoleclient "select * from table1"

We'll get the resultset as per the query.

Next we are going to test this service as a�� servlet.

c:>sam> edit ejbaxisservletclient.java

//�� ejbaxisservletclient.java

import java.net.URL;

import org.apache.axis.client.Service;

import org.apache.axis.client.Call;

import org.apache.axis.encoding.XMLType;

import javax.xml.rpc.ParameterMode;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;

import javax.servlet.*;

import javax.servlet.http.*;

import java.io.*;

public class ejbaxisservletclient extends HttpServlet

{

�public void doPost (HttpServletRequest request,

�� HttpServletResponse response)

�� throws ServletException, IOException

�� {

�� response.setContentType("text/html");

�� PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();

�String�� sql =

�� request.getParameter("text1");

�� try{

�� String�� url = "http://localhost:8080/axis/services/sqlservice";

�� String�� method = "getdata";

�� Service�� service = new Service();

�� Call�� call = (Call) service.createCall();

�� call.setTargetEndpointAddress ( url);

�� call.setOperationName

�� ( new QName("sqlservice",method));

�� call.addParameter

�� ("sql",XMLType.XSD_STRING,ParameterMode.IN);

�� call.setReturnType(XMLType.XSD_STRING);

�� System.out.println("Call Ok");

Object[]�� params =

�� new Object[] { sql };

�� String s = (String) call.invoke(params);

�� out.println(s);

�� }

catch(Exception e) { System.out.println(""+e);� }

�� }

}

c:\sam> javac ejbaxisservletclient.java

( we will be able to compile because classes required for compiling the servlet are available in weblogic.jar , to which

we have already given classpath).

copy� c:\sam\ejbaxisservletclient.class� to

�d:\tomcat 4.1\webapps\axis\web-inf\classes

Do not forget to� edit web.xml in�� d:\tomcat 4.1\webapps\axis\web-inf folder( this is very important in tomcat4.1).

<servlet-name>

�� ejbaxisservletclient

�</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>

ejbaxisservletclient

</servlet-class>

</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>

<servlet-name>

ejbaxisservletclient

�</servlet-name>

<url-pattern>

�� \servlet\ejbaxisservletclient

</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

c:\sam> edit ejbaxisservletclient.htm

ejbaxisservletclient.htm

<html>

<body>

Query <input type=text name="text1">

</form>

</body>

</html>

copy c:\sam\ejbaxisservletclient.htm to d:\tomcat 4.1\webapps\axis

Make sure that tomcat server is running.Open IE and type url as 'http://localhost:8080/ �� axis/ejbaxisservletclient.htm' Enter sql query in the text box and submit it. we'll get the resultset as per the query.

That completes our job!

Some developers would prefer to use java:EJB pivot-handler.Fortunately, the changes required �for that are just a few� lines.First and foremost, we have to create a suitable wsdd file. Let us call it as 'directejbdeploy.wsdd'.

//� directejbdeploy.wsdd

<deployment

�� xmlns="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/"

�� xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/providers/java"

�� xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/XMLSchema-instance">

<service name="dataejbservice"

�� provider="java:EJB">

<parameter name="beanJndiName"��

�� value=�� "sqlJndi"� />

<parameter name="homeInterfaceName"

�� value=�� "sqlHome"�� />

<parameter name="jndiContextClass"

�� value="weblogic.jndi.WLInitialContextFactory"�� />

<parameter name="jndiURL"

�� value="t3://127.0.0.1:7001"� />

</service>

</deployment>

If we carefully study the above file, we will note that the value for jndiContextClass� and jndiURL are just what we usually specify in the client file for� ejb program!So, nothing very special there!

All the classes referred to , are already available and after deploying this wsdd as usual , we are ready to use the service!--

So, let us deploy now:

c:\>sam> java org.apache.axis.client.AdminClient directejbdeploy.wsdd -lhttp://localhost:8080/axis/services/AdminService

( this should be typed in a continuous line). (note that it is exactly like what we did previously, except that the name of wsdd file is different).

After deploying, we can check up by typing the URL in browser as :

'http://localhost:8080/axis/services/dataejbservice?wsdl'

Please note that 'dataejbservice' is the name of service that we have given in the wsdd file.As we have ensured that both tomcat4.1 &weblogic7 are running , without anything being changed, we will get the corresponding wsdl. This shows that our webservice is running correctly.

We now create a console-mode program in

c:\sam , as usual.

// c:\sam\ directejbconsoleclient.java

//===============================

import java.net.URL;

import org.apache.axis.client.Service;

import org.apache.axis.client.Call;

import org.apache.axis.encoding.XMLType;

import javax.xml.rpc.ParameterMode;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;

public class directejbaxisconsoleclient

{

�� public static void main(String args[])

�� {

�� try

�� {

�String url = "http://localhost:8080/axis/services/dataejbservice";

//Last parameter is service name in WSDD; not class name

� System.out.println("endpoint is�� :"+url);

�� String method = "getdata";

� System.out.println("name of method is:�� "+method);

�� Service�� service = new Service();

�� Call call = (Call) service.createCall();

�� call.setTargetEndpointAddress ( url);

�� call.setOperationName

�� ( new QName("dataejbservice",method));

�� call.addParameter("sql",XMLType.XSD_STRING,ParameterMode.IN);

�� call.setReturnType(XMLType.XSD_STRING);

�� System.out.println("Call Ok");

�� Object[] params = new Object[] { args[0] };

�� System.out.println("Params ok...");

�� String s = (String) call.invoke(params);

�� System.out.println(s);

}

catch(Exception e1) { System.out.println(""+e1);� }

�� }

}

After compiling , we run the program as usual:

c:\sam>java directejbconsoleclient "select * from table1 "

We will� get the resultset , as before.( tested and found to be ok.)

That� completes part-5 of our tutorial.

So far we've accessed our ejb through console mode and servlet.Now Its time to write the client program for wireless browsers.

This, we take up in�� part-6

WEBSERVICE USING APACHE AXIS - TUTORIAL-2 AXIS FOR EJB-WEBSERVICE (part-5)

WEBSERVICE USING APACHE AXIS - TUTORIAL-2 AXIS FOR EJB-WEBSERVICE (part-5)

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