Web Service without any framework

[Arslan Khan]

Hello,

I want to know whether we can create a web service without using any framework? If yes, please guide me on how to do it.

Regards.

[Bear Bibeault]

Sure you can write all the code yourself in Java. After all that's what the frameworks do. But why would you re-invent the wheel?

[Arslan Khan]

I've tried a simple example with Apache Axis in Eclipse, but I understand nothing as Eclipse generated all the stuff. Thats why I want to do it manually to understand the details.

[Bear Bibeault]

Are you confusing "framework" with "IDE"?

[Arslan Khan]

Nope. I am not confusing IDE and framework. Let me explain, I want to create a simple web service without using Axis, CXF or any other such framework. This way I will be able to see the details of how a web service actually looks and works.

[Ulf Dittmer]

It's not hard for a RESTful WS, but SOAP is quite involved - implementing that would be a major undertaking (and more likely than not to be unsuccessful in the end). What do you hope to learn by doing that?

I'd advise to use Axis2, but forgo the IDE. That way you'll get a good understanding of how SOAP and WSDL look like and how they work together. You can also use a tool like SoapUI to monitor SOAP traffic in transit.

[Arslan Khan]

Thanks Ulf. I want to know the differences between Axis and Axis2. Can you suggest some good tutorial on Axis2?

[Ulf Dittmer]

Axis 1 is obsolete; don't bother investigating it.

The Axis site has many tutorials including Installation Guide, QuickStart Guide and User Guide. Also check out the wiki http://wiki.apache.org/ws/FrontPage/Axis.

[Arslan Khan]

Thank you Ulf for such quick response. I will try your suggestion.

[Ulli Hertlein]

Arslan Khan wrote:Nope. I am not confusing IDE and framework. Let me explain, I want to create a simple web service without using Axis, CXF or any other such framework. This way I will be able to see the details of how a web service actually looks and works.

imho it is quite confusing to spot which steps in JAX-WS development (mostly deployment) is done by which component (IDE (Appserver plugin), Jax-WS Framework (Axis, Metro) or Java/Jax-WS Tools (apt, wsgen etc.).
another problem is to find out, which artefacts are required (e.g. webservice.xml and wsdl are both not always required - as running the jax-ws RI examples show).

imho the lowest possible approach for developing (learning) WS is the following:

download and install ant (for commandline usage)

download and install JAX-WS RI

download and install tomcat

install (deploy jars) JAX-WS RI into tomcat

run the provided examples which are included in JAX-WS RI (commandline ant)

hope it helps