<target name="wsdl" depends="compile">
    <java classname="org.apache.axis.wsdl.Java2WSDL" fork="yes" dir=".">
      <classpath refid="classpath"/>
      <arg value="-lhttp://localhost:8080/ws4ee/services/TravelAgentService"/>
       <arg value="-uLITERAL"/>
       <arg value="-sTravelAgentEndpoint"/>
      <arg value="-o${src.resources}/META-INF/travelagent.wsdl"/>
      <arg value="com.titan.webservice.TravelAgentEndpoint"/>
    </java>
    <copy file="${src.resources}/META-INF/travelagent.wsdl" todir="${src.resources}/client/META-INF/" />
  </target>

The -l switch tells Java2WSDL the default service location URL that will be used by a client connection. The -uLITERAL switch tells Axis to generate WSDL with RPC/Literal messaging. No one takes the default RPC/Encoded messaging seriously anymore as it doesn’t interoperate very well. The -o switch just specifies where the WSDL file should be generated. The class name of the Service Endpoint Interface (it can be any Java interface) must be specified as an argument and must also be within the classpath.

In this exercise there are two EJB jar files. One is titan.jar, which contains TravelAgentEndpoint and other supporting EJBs; the other is titan-client.jar, which contains the EJB that will be connecting to TravelAgentEndpoint as a JAX-RPC client. Both of these jars require the travelagent.wsdl file to do their things.

To do the build, perform the following steps:

$ ant ejbjar

You will see titan.jar and titan-client.jar built, copied to the JBoss deploy directory, and redeployed by the application server.

So where’s the JAX-RPC stub generation? The spirit of JBoss has always been to avoid any precompilation step. If you have run any of the other examples in this book, you will have seen that there is not any stub generation for EJBs either. At deployment time, JBoss automatically generates dynamic proxies to handle all web service communication both with clients and services.

package com.titan.webservice;

public interface TravelAgentEndpoint extends java.rmi.Remote {
   String makeReservation(int cruiseId, int cabinId, 
                          int customerId, double price)
           throws java.rmi.RemoteException;
}

This interface is taken directly from Chapter 15 of the EJB book. Next, you have to define all the deployment descriptors. These files reside in src/resources/META-INF.

<session>
  <description>
     A Web Service reservation service
  </description>
  <ejb-name>TravelAgentEjbEndpoint</ejb-name>
  <service-endpoint>
     com.titan.webservice.TravelAgentEndpoint
  </service-endpoint>
  <ejb-class>
     com.titan.webservice.TravelAgentBean
  </ejb-class>
  <session-type>Stateless</session-type>
  <transaction-type>Container</transaction-type>
  <ejb-ref>
...

This XML is taken directly from Chapter 15 of the EJB book and added to the definition of the other supporting EJBs.

<java-wsdl-mapping
  xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
               http://www.ibm.com/webservices/xsd/j2ee_jaxrpc_mapping_1_1.xsd"
  version="1.1">
  <package-mapping>
    <package-type>com.titan.webservice</package-type>
    <namespaceURI>
        http://webservice.titan.com/TravelAgentEndpoint
    </namespaceURI>
  </package-mapping>
</java-wsdl-mapping>

The endpoint we are exposing follows the guidelines for a simple mapping file. The namespaceURI element is a little different from Chapter 15 of the EJB book because it should match the generated WSDL document.

<webservices
   xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xmlns:titan="http://www.titan.com/TravelAgent"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
                 http://www.ibm.com/webservices/xsd/j2ee_web_services_1_1.xsd"
                     version="1.1">

<webservice-description>
   <webservice-description-name>
      TravelAgentService
   </webservice-description-name>
   <wsdl-file>META-INF/travelagent.wsdl</wsdl-file>
   <jaxrpc-mapping-file>
      META-INF/travelagent_mapping.xml
   </jaxrpc-mapping-file>
   <port-component>
      <port-component-name>TravelAgentEndpoint</port-component-name>
      <wsdl-port>titan:TravelAgentEndpoint</wsdl-port>
      <service-endpoint-interface>
          com.titan.webservice.TravelAgentEndpoint
      </service-endpoint-interface>
      <service-impl-bean>
          <ejb-link>TravelAgentEjbEndpoint</ejb-link>
      </service-impl-bean>
   </port-component>
 </webservice-description>
</webservices>

This is a standard webservices.xml descriptor. It links the WSDL file, mapping file, Service Endpoint interface, and TravelAgentEndpoint EJB all together. The important part of this file as it pertains to Jboss is the <webservice-description-name>. JBoss binds all deployed web services under the /ws4ee/services/<webservice-description-name> URL. For this example, it would be under /ws4ee/services/TravelAgentEndpoint. You can also view all endpoints by going to the base URL /ws4ee/services (Figure 31-1).

Figure 31-1. Listing the deployed services

public String makeReservation(int cruiseId, int cabinId, 
                              int customerId, double price)
           throws java.rmi.RemoteException {
   try {
      javax.naming.Context jndiContext = new InitialContext( );
      Object obj =
           jndiContext.lookup("java:comp/env/service/TravelAgent");

      javax.xml.rpc.Service svc = (javax.xml.rpc.Service) obj;
      TravelAgentEndpoint endpoint = (TravelAgentEndpoint)
                             svc.getPort(TravelAgentEndpoint.class);

      return endpoint.makeReservation(cruiseId, cabinId, 
                                      customerId, price);

   } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace( );
      throw new EJBException("failed");
   }
}

Since the spirit of JBoss is to avoid stub generation, the preferred method for clients is the Dynamic Proxy API as JBoss will automatically set up all proxies at deploy time. TravelAgentClientBean.makeReservation is an example of this. A generic proxy is registered for the service reference and you can get a proxy to any endpoint interface you want by passing in a Java Class parameter to the getPort method.

<session>
  <ejb-name>TravelAgentClientEJB</ejb-name>
...
     <service-ref>
          <service-ref-name>service/TravelAgent</service-ref-name>
          <service-interface>
              javax.xml.rpc.Service
          </service-interface>
          <wsdl-file>META-INF/travelagent.wsdl</wsdl-file>
          <jaxrpc-mapping-file>
              META-INF/travelagent_mapping.xml
          </jaxrpc-mapping-file>
     </service-ref>
  </session>

The <service-ref> element is standard. One thing to note is that the <service-qname> element can be left out if the WSDL file contains only one service definition. The other deployment descriptors are the same descriptors as in the server model.

<wsdl:service name="TravelAgentEndpointService">
   <wsdl:port name="TravelAgentEndpoint"
        binding="impl: TravelAgentEndpointSoapBinding">

      <wsdlsoap:address location="http://localhost:8080/ws4ee/services/
                     TravelAgentService"/>

   </wsdl:port>
</wsdl:service>

The address location in the TravelAgentEJB.wsdl file is the URL used by the Dynamic Proxy created in the listCabins method.