How to call a web service (described by a wsdl) from java

java, soap, web-services

Solution

JDK 6 comes with jax-ws, everything you need to develop a client for a web service.

I'm unable to find some simple enough examples to post , but start at https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/

Edit: here's a simple example - a client for this web service: http://xmethods.com/ve2/ViewListing.po?key=427565

C:\temp> md generated
C:\temp>"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_17"\bin\wsimport -keep -d generated http://www50.brinkster.com/vbfacileinpt/np.asmx?wsdl

Create PrimeClient.java which look like:

import javax.xml.ws.WebServiceRef;
import com.microsoft.webservices.*; 
//the above namespace is from the generated code from the wsdl. 

public class PrimeClient {
 //Cant  get this to work.. @WebServiceRef(wsdlLocation="http://www50.brinkster.com/vbfacileinpt/np.asmx?wsdl")
  static PrimeNumbers service;

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
    service = new PrimeNumbers();
      PrimeClient client = new PrimeClient();
      client.doTest(args);
    } catch(Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

  public void doTest(String[] args) {
    try {
      System.out.println("Retrieving the port from the following service: " + service);
      PrimeNumbersSoap pm = service.getPrimeNumbersSoap();
      System.out.println("Invoking the getPrimeNumbersSoap operation ");
      System.out.println(pm.getPrimeNumbers(100));
    } catch(Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

Compile and run:

C:\temp>"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_17"\bin\javac -cp generated PrimeClient.java
C:\temp>"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_17"\bin\java -cp .;generated PrimeClient
Retrieving the port from the following service: com.microsoft.webservices.PrimeN
umbers@19b5393
Invoking the getPrimeNumbersSoap operation
1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37,41,43,47,53,59,61,67,71,73,79,83,89,97

Problem

Knowing nothing of web services, I'm just trying to call some "isAlive" service that is described by a wsdl. This seems to me like something that should take no more than 2-5 lines of code but I can't seem to find anything but huge long examples involving 3rd party packages etc. Anyone has any ideas? If it is always suppose to be long maybe a good explanation as to why it has to be so complicated will also be appreciated. I'm using Eclipse and the wsdl is SOAP.

Original source