Create a webservice with Spring Boot and JAX-WS RI

Learn how to create a SOAP webservice with JAX-WS RI and Spring Boot.

What do you need to complete this tutorial?

Maven
Java 11

Use spring initializr to create a Spring Boot application with Spring Web dependency.

Open your pom.xml and include jaxws-rt (the runtime) and jaxws-spring (a helper library for integrating jaxws-rt with Spring) in the dependencies section. Exclude the Spring dependencies from jaxws-spring to avoid conflicts.


<dependencies>
    <!-- JAX-WS -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.sun.xml.ws</groupId>
        <artifactId>jaxws-rt</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.3</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Spring JAX-WS Integration -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.jvnet.jax-ws-commons.spring</groupId>
        <artifactId>jaxws-spring</artifactId>
        <version>1.9</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>
    ...
</dependencies>

Create a TutorialJavaJaxwsApplication.java class, by importing an xml config file (jaxwsconfig.xml) which contains bean wiring for JAX-WS RI and register WSSpringServlet to receive incoming requests.


@SpringBootApplication
@ImportResource(locations = "jaxwsconfig.xml")
public class TutorialJavaJaxwsApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(TutorialJavaJaxwsApplication.class, args);
    }

    @Bean
    public ServletRegistrationBean servletRegistrationBean() {
        return new ServletRegistrationBean(new WSSpringServlet(), "/hello");
    }
}

Create a GreetingService.java class which greets the client upon being called. You will reference the service by the name later to let it handle the web service requests.


@Component(value = "greetingService")
@WebService
public class GreetingService {

    @WebMethod
    public String greeting() {
        return "Hello World!";
    }
}

Lastly, you have to add file jaxwsconfig.xml for wiring the service on the endpoint:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:ws="http://jax-ws.dev.java.net/spring/core"
       xmlns:wss="http://jax-ws.dev.java.net/spring/servlet"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-4.3.xsd
       http://jax-ws.dev.java.net/spring/core
        http://jax-ws.dev.java.net/spring/core.xsd
        http://jax-ws.dev.java.net/spring/servlet
        http://jax-ws.dev.java.net/spring/servlet.xsd"
>

    <wss:binding url="/hello">
        <wss:service>
            <ws:service bean="#greetingService"/>
        </wss:service>
    </wss:binding>

</beans>

Now open http://localhost:8080/hello?wsdl to see the generated wsdl file. Your webservice has been deployed, and you could now create a client for it.

What to do next?

Here are some hints what topics you could explore next.

Test your webservice with SoapUI
Find out, why you should write your service contract (wsdl) first and not the code
Learn how to develop a service “contract-first” with JAX-WS RI
See what other alternatives to RI are available