Basic SOAP Header Question

[Raminder Singh]

Hi,
I'm new to Web Services and usually run some demo code to understand what actually is going there (it helps me in understanding the tutorials easily).

I had successfully tested 'hello' example on axis ref:
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/May2002/newslettermay2002.jsp#axis .

It says:

String endpoint = "http://localhost:" + options.getPort() +
"/axis/Hello.jws";

call.setOperationName("greet");
call.addParameter("name", XMLType.XSD_STRING, ParameterMode.IN);
call.setReturnType(XMLType.XSD_STRING);
String msg = (String)call.invoke(new Object[] {args[0]});
System.out.println("Reply: " + msg);

converts to:

<ns1:greet xmlns:ns1="http://localhost:8080/axis/Hello.jws">
<name xsi:type="xsd:string">Greg</name>
</ns1:greet>

its ok..!!

but i want to know, how to add soap header values to our request and response custome code?

like:
Request:

<SOAP-ENV:Header>
<ClientID>abc123</ClientID>
<AccountType xsi:type="xsd:string">Credit</AccountType>
</SOAP-ENV:Header>


Response:
<SOAP-ENV:Header>
<TransactionID>TX000123</TransactionID>
</SOAP-ENV:Header>

thanks.

[Watsh Rajneesh]

An easy way to send out a SOAP message with header is:

String xmlString =
            "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" +
            "<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\"\n" +
            "                   xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\"\n" +
            "                   xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\">\n" +
            " <soapenv:Header>\n" +
            "  <shw:Hello xmlns:shw=\"http://localhost:8080/axis/services/MessageService\">\n" +
            "    <shw:Myname>Tony</shw:Myname>\n" +
            "  </shw:Hello>\n" +
            " </soapenv:Header>\n" +
            " <soapenv:Body>\n" +
            "  <shw :-P	 rocess xmlns:shw=\"http://message.samples\">\n" +
            "    <shw:City>GENT</shw:City>\n" +
            "  </shw :-P	 rocess>\n" +
            " </soapenv:Body>\n" +
            "</soapenv:Envelope>";
 
        MessageFactory mf = MessageFactory.newInstance();
        SOAPMessage smsg =
                mf.createMessage(new MimeHeaders(), new ByteArrayInputStream(xmlString.getBytes()));
        SOAPPart sp = smsg.getSOAPPart();
        SOAPEnvelope se = (SOAPEnvelope)sp.getEnvelope();
 
        SOAPConnection conn = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance().createConnection();
        SOAPMessage response = conn.call(smsg, "http://localhost:8080/axis/services/MessageService2");    

Note: Modify the header and body per your requirement. Above source is from samples/message/TestMsg.java in axis samples).

At the service end you will need message handlers (refer axis samples/echo/echoHeaderStringHandler.java) which can process both soap request and response to produce the required header in the response soap message.

At the client you can read the response header as follows:

MessageContext mc = call.getMessageContext();
Vector headerVec = mc.getResponseMessage().getSOAPEnvelope().getHeaders();
You can explore further on these lines.

~Watsh

[Peer Reynders]

From the Web Services FAQ
Tip: Better SOAP interfaces with header elements
Web services programming tips and tricks: Using SOAP headers with JAX-RPC
Web services programming tips and tricks: Extend JAX-RPC Web services using SOAP headers