How to create and consume a simple Web Service using JAX WS

25 June 2012 By Praveen Macherla 28,220 views 41 Comments

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One of the most exciting new features of the Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 (Java SE 6) is support for the Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS), version 2.0. JAX-WS 2.0 is the centre of a redesigned API stack for web services, which also includes Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) 2.0 and SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) 1.3. Even though JAX-WS is mainly part of Java EE Platform, we can use many of the functionalities without the need of Java EE Application Server. JAX-WS architecture is an easier-to-understand architecture for web services development.

Project Description

In this example, we create a SOAP based web service for a simple Java Calculator class with operations ‘add’ and ‘subtract’.
We then create a web service client which then consumes the web service and displays the result of the invoked web service.

Environment Used

Java SE 6
JAX WS 2.x
Eclipse IDE

Creating and Publishing Web Service

Create a Java Project ‘CalcWS’.
Create a package ‘com.theopentutorials.ws.calc’.

Create a Java class ‘Calculator’ and type the following code.

package com.theopentutorials.ws.calc;
import javax.jws.WebService;

@WebService
public class Calculator {
	public int add(int a, int b) {
		return (a + b);
	}

	public int sub(int a, int b) {
		return (a - b);
	}

}

@WebService annotation at the beginning of the class definition tells the Java interpreter that we intend to publish ALL the methods of this class as a web service. If we want to publish only particular methods then we can use @WebMethod annotation before the method signature.
In order to publish our class and its methods as web service we need to crate appropriate stub files or artifacts for web service deployment and invocation. Fortunately Java provides a tool called ‘wsgen’ which generates JAX-WS portable artifacts used in JAX-WS web services.
Open command prompt or terminal in Linux and go to the project folder ‘CalcWS’.
Now issue the following command,
wsgen -cp bin -d bin com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator
the –cp option specifies the classpath for our Calculator class which is in ‘bin’ folder, the –d option specifies where to place generated output files which is also the ‘bin’ folder in our case.
We can also have a look at the source of the generated files by using the –s option provided by ‘wsgen’.
wsgen -s src -cp bin -d bin com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator
Now we need to publish our class as a web service endpoint. For that we use the static publish() method of the javax.xml.ws.Endpoint class to publish our ‘Calculator’ class as a web service in the specified context root.
Create a package ‘com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.endpoint’.

Create a class ‘CalcEndpointPublisher’ with main method and type the following code.

package com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.endpoint;

import javax.xml.ws.Endpoint;
import com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator;

public class CalcEndpointPublisher {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Endpoint.publish("http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator",
						new Calculator());
	}

}

Run this class as ‘Java Application’.
You may not get output in the Console. To check whether our class is published as web service, open a browser and type the URL mentioned in the endpoint with a parameter ?wsdl appended.
http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator?wsdl
When you run the application, the Java SE 6 platform has a small web application server that will publish the web service at the address http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator while the JVM is running.
If you see a large amount of XML that describes the functionality behind the web service, then the deployment is successful.

Creating and consuming a Web Service Client

Having published the web service, we now create a client which communicates with the service and displays the result.
Create a Java project ‘CalcWSClient’.
Just like ‘wsgen’, JAX-WS also provides a tool called ‘wsimport’ for generating the artifacts required for creating and consuming a web service. ‘wsimport’ takes a wsdl file as input.
From the project folder in command prompt or terminal, issue the following command,
wsimport -s src -d bin http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator?wsdl
This will generate many files as shown in the below file hierarchy tree.
Let us now create a Java class with main method to run this client. Create a package ‘com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.client’

In that package, create a class ‘CalcClient’ with main method and type the following code.

package com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.client;

import com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator;
import com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.CalculatorService;

public class CalcClient {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		int a = 10;
		int b = 12;
		CalculatorService calcService = new CalculatorService();
		Calculator calc = calcService.getCalculatorPort();
		System.out.println(a + " + " + b + " = " + calc.add(a, b));
		System.out.println(a + " - " + b + " = " + calc.sub(a, b));
	}
}

Run this class as Java Application.
You will get the following output in the console.
10 + 12 = 22
10 – 12 = -2
Make sure that the ‘CalcEndpointPublisher’ class is run before running this client. Because we need to publish the web service before running the client. Otherwise you may get the following exception on running the client.
Exception in thread “main” javax.xml.ws.WebServiceException: Failed to access the WSDL at: http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator?wsdl. It failed with:
Connection refused: connect.
To stop the ‘CalcEndpointPublisher’ class, select that particular console and use the terminate button (red button) in the eclipse console tab bar.

How to create and consume a simple Web Service using JAX WS, 4.4 out of 5 based on 5 ratings

Tags: calculator web service, java jax ws, java jax ws soap, java jax ws wsdl, java web service example, java web services, jax ws wsgen, jax ws wsimport, jax-ws, jax-ws example, jax-ws tutorial, soap wsdl, wimport, wsgen

41 thoughts on “How to create and consume a simple Web Service using JAX WS”

Frantisek on August 27, 2012 at 12:19 PM said:

Thank you for the great article
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Laxmi on August 28, 2012 at 5:38 PM said:

Very good explanation and useful article
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satish on August 30, 2012 at 7:17 PM said:

hie Praveen u made the concept clear .but am not able to process the code ..when i try to wsgen in command prompt .am getting an error msg ..
C:Users$@T!$hworkspaceCalWs>wsgen -cp bin -d bin com.satz.Calculator
Problem encountered during annotation processing;
see stacktrace below for more information.
com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.ModelerException: [failed to localiz
e] A web service endpoint could not be found()
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.annotation.WebServiceAP.o
nError(WebServiceAP.java:215)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.annotation.WebServiceAP.b
uildModel(WebServiceAP.java:322)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.annotation.WebServiceAP.p
rocess(WebServiceAP.java:256)
at com.sun.mirror.apt.AnnotationProcessors$CompositeAnnotationProcessor.
process(AnnotationProcessors.java:60)
at com.sun.tools.apt.comp.Apt.main(Apt.java:454)
at com.sun.tools.apt.main.JavaCompiler.compile(JavaCompiler.java:258)
at com.sun.tools.apt.main.Main.compile(Main.java:1102)
at com.sun.tools.apt.main.Main.compile(Main.java:964)
at com.sun.tools.apt.Main.processing(Main.java:95)
at com.sun.tools.apt.Main.process(Main.java:85)
at com.sun.tools.apt.Main.process(Main.java:67)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.wscompile.WsgenTool.buildModel(WsgenTool.ja
va:204)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.wscompile.WsgenTool.run(WsgenTool.java:112)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.Invoker.invoke(Invoker.java:105)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.WsGen.main(WsGen.java:41)
error: compilation failed, errors should have been reported
C:Users$@T!$hworkspaceCalWs>
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satish on August 30, 2012 at 7:19 PM said:

well i created project name as CalWs and package name as com.satz class name as Calculator ..
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- Praveen Macherla on August 30, 2012 at 10:05 PM said:
  
  Check the annotations.
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  - satish on August 31, 2012 at 1:04 AM said:
    
    Praveen here is error .. wsgen -s src -cp bin -d bin com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator after this command am not able to generate the JAXWS files as u shown
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satish on August 31, 2012 at 12:37 AM said:

Thanks for your quick response .yes i forgot the annotations but after adding the annotations also am getting the same message i guess here is the message
C:Users$@T!$hworkspaceCalWs>wsgen -cp bin -d bin com.satz.Calculator
Problem encountered during annotation processing;
see stacktrace below for more information.
com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.ModelerException: [failed to localiz
e] A web service endpoint could not be found()
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.annotation.WebServiceAP.o
nError(WebServiceAP.java:215)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.annotation.WebServiceAP.b
uildModel(WebServiceAP.java:322)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.processor.modeler.annotation.WebServiceAP.p
rocess(WebServiceAP.java:256)
at com.sun.mirror.apt.AnnotationProcessors$CompositeAnnotationProcessor.
process(AnnotationProcessors.java:60)
at com.sun.tools.apt.comp.Apt.main(Apt.java:454)
at com.sun.tools.apt.main.JavaCompiler.compile(JavaCompiler.java:258)
at com.sun.tools.apt.main.Main.compile(Main.java:1102)
at com.sun.tools.apt.main.Main.compile(Main.java:964)
at com.sun.tools.apt.Main.processing(Main.java:95)
at com.sun.tools.apt.Main.process(Main.java:85)
at com.sun.tools.apt.Main.process(Main.java:67)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.wscompile.WsgenTool.buildModel(WsgenTool.ja
va:204)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.wscompile.WsgenTool.run(WsgenTool.java:112)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.Invoker.invoke(Invoker.java:105)
at com.sun.tools.internal.ws.WsGen.main(WsGen.java:41)
error: compilation failed, errors should have been reported
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vijitha on September 6, 2012 at 11:21 AM said:

This is an owsem article. Short and weet. Thanks a lot for sharing it ..
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Azahrudhin on September 9, 2012 at 12:19 PM said:

Article is great and concept is clear.
I am getting the below Error when I am trying to access the client.
Exception in thread “main” java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError: Found interface com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator, but class was expected
at com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.client.CalcWSClient.main(CalcWSClient.java:16)
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- Praveen Macherla on September 9, 2012 at 12:36 PM said:
  
  In the tutorial, Calculator is a class not an interface. Check whether the web service is running by browsing the wsdl.
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  - Azahrudhin on September 9, 2012 at 12:43 PM said:
    
    Thanks for the quick reply Praveen wsdl is working fine able to run the client also. If I wanted to access through URL what is the URL.
    http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator/add?arg0=1&arg1=1
    It is giving below error
    Web Services
    No JAX-WS context information available.
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    - Praveen Macherla on September 10, 2012 at 10:26 AM said:
      
      You cannot access through URL. For that you need Restful web service. Refer this link.
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- Azahrudhin on September 9, 2012 at 12:41 PM said:
  
  Issue got resolved, It was because of improper compilation/build, now it is working.
  If we wanted to access through URL what would be the URL
  http://localhost:8080/CalcWS/Calculator/add?arg0=1&arg1=1
  It is giving below error
  Web Services
  No JAX-WS context information available.
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Kuladeep Patil on September 13, 2012 at 9:32 PM said:

It’s an incredible document … thank you very much
with kind regards,
Kuladeep Patil
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Santhosh Raghav on September 14, 2012 at 2:03 PM said:

This content is really cool for someone to learn how to build & consume a webservice.
really like this content.
thanks you very much for posting it.
Santhosh Raghav
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Vaibhav Kulkarni on September 14, 2012 at 3:25 PM said:

very nice article
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Venkat on October 12, 2012 at 4:52 PM said:

Hi Praveen
what is the prerequisite for running wsgen command?
i have my jdk bin path as “C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0\\bin”
and my class file at C:\\CalcWS\\bin\\com\\theopentutorials\\ws\\calc\\
and my destination folder as C:\\CalcWS\\src\\com\\theopentutorials\\ws\\calc\\stub\\
I tried
“C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0\\bin>wsgen -cp C:\\CalcWS\\bin\\com\\theopentutorials\\ws\\calc -d C:\\CalcWS\\src\\com\\theopentutorials\\ws\\calc\\jaxws com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator”…….but dint work
O/P was “Class not found: com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator”
pls help
Thanks,
Venkat
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- Praveen Macherla on October 12, 2012 at 5:48 PM said:
  
  Carefully go through the screenshot posted under heading 3 “Creating and Publishing Web Service” step 7.
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Keith on December 7, 2012 at 12:52 AM said:

Thank you very much for your instructions.
I followed them step by step and the client successfully called the web service first time.
Well done.
One small suggestion would be just to say that with the creation of each of the two java projects, all the default values can be taken, i.e. the “Finish” button can be clicked.
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Naman on December 7, 2012 at 6:47 PM said:

this is working fine .
Could u pls tell how to generate java files using JAXB
(as we will get .xsd file)
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- Praveen Macherla on December 7, 2012 at 7:35 PM said:
  
  Refer the tutorials listed here.
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praveen goyal on December 19, 2012 at 3:02 PM said:

awsmeeeeeeee and working tutorial…………………..
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Dhwaj on December 25, 2012 at 3:44 PM said:

hey the tutorial is nice but am getting an error because of my mistake but in CalcClient.java when i am importing Calculator and CalculatorService, its not able to import it .. and hence showing error :CalculatorService cannot be resolved to a type Calculator cannot be resolved to a type..
my package hierarchy is comp.trial
and there are two projects that is CalcWS and CalcWSClient
it might be a silly mistake but am a beginner so plz help. Thanks.
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- Dhwaj on December 25, 2012 at 4:14 PM said:
  
  hey i got it!! it got executed ..Thanks for the tutorial .. can u suggest me any tutorial for creating a web service that can pass xml file ?
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praveen d on December 27, 2012 at 5:53 PM said:

superb tutorial…..to learn quickly..
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Java on December 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM said:

this tutorial is excellent in terms of code, screenshot and concept. One can also publish soap web service using java se
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Alexander Podkutin on January 30, 2013 at 12:25 PM said:

Thanks, very helpfull!
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Emmanuel Kayembe Ilunga on February 23, 2013 at 6:47 AM said:

Thanks,
Very nice.
I have one problem at the end of step 3. When I type the url, I get this message
HTTP Status 404 – /calcService
type Status report
message /calcService
description The requested resource is not available.
Apache Tomcat/7.0.37
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Prashu on March 10, 2013 at 8:07 PM said:

Well explained and to the point.Great post
Does anybody know how to achieve the same result using JDK 1.5 and lower?
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dave on March 19, 2013 at 5:31 AM said:

Praveen,
GREAT article! First Java web service tutorial I have found that actually works! Wonderful job explaining each step and the pictures of Eclipse were a BIG help!
Can’t thank you enough for this tutorial!
/dave
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lavanya on April 16, 2013 at 11:31 PM said:

Hi
Really good example for beginners…simple and descriptive and very used to understand the jaxws concepts..good job
Thanks
Lavanya
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vijay on April 17, 2013 at 11:39 AM said:

Hi,
who ever is going to start the web services, its good example to understand….
thanks…………
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Sunil on April 17, 2013 at 4:39 PM said:

step 6:
Open command prompt or terminal in Linux and go to the project folder ‘CalcWS’.
step 7:
Now issue the following command,
wsgen -cp bin -d bin com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator
The above steps are written by you. I wonder how can you run wsgen from your project folder as it is present in jdk/bin folder.
Plz help.
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- Praveen Macherla on April 17, 2013 at 5:49 PM said:
  
  The jdk/bin should be added to the path. See Java installation tutorial.
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Sarabjeet Singh on April 24, 2013 at 1:45 PM said:

Thank’s a lot.I am confuse with many concept but now all get clear and successfully implement service on my application.Again Thank’s
Can you please tell me step to create service from existing servlet.
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Babak on April 28, 2013 at 4:52 PM said:

Great article. Well done.
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ms on May 7, 2013 at 10:53 PM said:

Nice and Simple. Well done!
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avinash on May 9, 2013 at 3:44 PM said:

thanks a lot for a working example. It helped me a lot
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nakul_dev on May 11, 2013 at 4:39 PM said:

Well explained and to the point information provided… Thanks for sharing valueable information…
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Shailesh on May 11, 2013 at 5:44 PM said:

I am geting this err when i wqas giving wsgen -s src -cp bin -d bin com.theopentutorials.ws.calc.Calculator command.
‘wsgen’ is not recognised as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Can anyone help me out creating a webservice and invoking it through a stub.
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- Praveen Macherla on May 12, 2013 at 9:07 AM said:
  
  Add jdk bin folder to the PATH environment variable. Check java installation post. See this link.
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