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Last modified by Pascal Robert on 2007/09/03 19:49
From version 4.1
edited by Pascal Robert
on 2007/09/03 19:49
Change comment: There is no comment for this version
To version 3.1
edited by Pascal Robert
on 2007/09/03 19:49
Change comment: There is no comment for this version

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1 -WebObjects supports Web Services both as a producer and a consumer, and it actually works quite well once you figure out how to get things properly configured. Hopefully this walkthrough can jumpstart that process for you.
1 +WebObjects supports Web Services both as a producer and a consumer, and it actually works quite well once you figure out how to get things properly configured. Hopefully this walkthrough can jumpstart that process for you.
2 2  
3 3  = Setting up a WO Web Services Project =
4 4  
... ... @@ -14,38 +14,44 @@
14 14  11*. saaj.jar
15 15  11*. jaxrpc.jar
16 16  11. Edit the WO Frameworks collection and add the JavaWebServicesSupport framework from the System frameworks
17 -1. Create a class to hold your web service methods. The methods do not need to be static and can both take complex types as parameters and return complex types as return values. For now, just return primitive types and/or String.
17 +1. Create a class to hold your web service methods. The methods do not need to be static and can both take complex types as parameters and return complex types as return values. For now, just return primitive types and/or String.
18 18  1. Edit your Application class and add WOWebServiceRegistrar.registerWebService("PublishedNameOfYourWebService", NameOfTheClassYouJustMade.class, true);
19 19  
20 -That's it. Now when you start your app, you can request [[http:~~/~~/yourserver.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/YourApp.woa/ws/PublishedNameOfYourWebService?wsdl>>url:http://yourserver.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/YourApp.woa/ws/PublishedNameOfYourWebService?wsdl||shape="rect"]] and it will return the autogenerated WSDL document that you can use with any number of web service clients to interact with your server.
20 +That's it. Now when you start your app, you can request [[http://yourserver.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/YourApp.woa/ws/PublishedNameOfYourWebService?wsdl]] and it will return the autogenerated WSDL document that you can use with any number of web service clients to interact with your server.
21 21  
22 22  = Complex Types with WO Web Services =
23 23  
24 -So now the issue of complex types. Returning complex types is fine, but you have to register the serializer and deserializer classes for each complex type you reference. If you do not, the server will attempt to serialize your object using the ArraySerializer (you'll see this exception on the server), and the client will complain about a nonsensical error with SYSTEMID (gotta love terrible error handling!). The fix for this is for each of your complex types, call the following method in your Application constructor:
24 +So now the issue of complex types. Returning complex types is fine, but you have to register the serializer and deserializer classes for each complex type you reference. If you do not, the server will attempt to serialize your object using the ArraySerializer (you'll see this exception on the server), and the client will complain about a nonsensical error with SYSTEMID (gotta love terrible error handling). The fix for this is for each of your complex types, call the following method in your Application constructor:
25 25  
26 26  {{panel}}
27 -WOWebServiceRegistrar.registerFactoriesForClassWithQName(new BeanSerializerFactory(_class, _qName), new BeanDeserializerFactory(_class, _qName), _class, _qName);
27 +
28 +WOWebServiceRegistrar.registerFactoriesForClassWithQName(new BeanSerializerFactory(_class, \_qName), new BeanDeserializerFactory(_class, \_qName), \_class, \_qName);
29 +
28 28  {{/panel}}
29 29  
30 -where _class is the Class object that represents your complex type, and _qName is the QName (fully qualified name) of the class as it appears in your WSDL document. For instance, if you created a complex return type named Person and it is in the com.yourserver.service package, _class would be com.yourserver.service.Person.class and _qName would be new QName("http:~/~/service.yourserver.com", "Person"). Notice that the namespace is the inverse of your package name. You will need to call this method for each of the parameters and return types your reference.
32 +where class is the Class object that represents your complex type, and qName is the QName (fully qualified name) of the class as it appears in your WSDL document. For instance, if you created a complex return type named Person and it is in the com.yourserver.service package, class would be com.yourserver.service.Person.class and qName would be new QName("http:~/~/service.yourserver.com", "Person"). Notice that the namespace is the inverse of your package name. You will need to call this method for each of the parameters and return types your reference.
31 31  
32 -For the record, I have no idea why you have to do this step manually - The WSDL was autogenerated, and thus it KNOWS the classes and their QName WSDL mappings, but I was not able to get things to work properly without this step. If anyone knows why this is, or a way around it, please update this article.
34 +For the record, I have no idea why you have to do this step manually - The WSDL was autogenerated, and thus it KNOWS the classes and their QName WSDL mappings, but I was not able to get things to work properly without this step. If anyone knows why this is, or a way around it, please update this article.
33 33  
34 34  With these registrations, you should now be able to communicate with WO using any standard Web Service client (Axis, .NET, etc).
35 35  
36 36  = Sessions and WO Web Services =
37 37  
38 -You may have noticed in your Web Service methods that you have no WOContext, WORequest, WOSession, and friends passed in. Do not fret. The WebServiceRequestHandler takes care to hook you up in this department using Axis's MessageContext class. You can use the following code to get to your WOSession:
40 +You may have noticed in your Web Service methods that you have no WOContext, WORequest, WOSession, and friends passed in. Do not fret. The WebServiceRequestHandler takes care to hook you up in this department using Axis's MessageContext class. You can use the following code to get to your WOSession:
39 39  
40 40  {{panel}}
43 +
41 41  WOContext context = (WOContext)MessageContext.getCurrentContext().getProperty("com.webobjects.appserver.WOContext");
42 - WOSession session = context.session();
45 +WOSession session = context.session();
46 +
43 43  {{/panel}}
44 44  
45 45  or the shortcut
46 46  
47 47  {{panel}}
52 +
48 48  WOSession session = WOWebServiceUtilities.currentWOContext().session();
54 +
49 49  {{/panel}}
50 50  
51 51  The following additional keys are accessible through the MessageContext:
... ... @@ -52,33 +52,33 @@
52 52  
53 53  * "com.webobjects.appserver.WOContext" = the WOContext for this request
54 54  * "transport.url" = I /believe/ this contains the full request URL up to the query string
55 -* org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPConstants.MC_HTTP_SERVLETPATHINFO = contains the request's request handler path
61 +* org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPConstants.MC//HTTP//SERVLETPATHINFO = contains the request's request handler path
56 56  * "Authorization" = contains the Authorization header, in the event that you need to process things like Kerberos/SPNEGO, etc.
57 57  * "remoteaddr" = contains the request's remote address
58 58  
59 59  = Consuming with Axis in Java =
60 60  
61 -If you are using Axis to consume a WO Web Service, be advised that there is an outstanding bug (open since circa 2003, no less) that axis by default does not support passing more than one cookie to the server. WO sends both woinst AND wosid, so you lose your session ID from the client on the return trip to the server. This can be fixed by applying the patch from [[http:~~/~~/issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AXIS-1059>>url:http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AXIS-1059||shape="rect"]] to your client's axis.jar. Axis 1.1 has been archived at Apache, but you can download the source from [[http:~~/~~/archive.apache.org/dist/ws/axis/1_1/>>url:http://archive.apache.org/dist/ws/axis/1_1/||shape="rect"]] . The patch does not perfectly apply. There are two rejected hunks, but it should be very obvious how to fix the rejects (the patch has two System.out.printlns that it claims were in the original source that were not). After fixing that, you can setStoreSessionIdInCookies(true) on your server's WOSession and setMaintainSessions(true) on your client's ServiceLocator and you'll be good to go.
67 +If you are using Axis to consume a WO Web Service, be advised that there is an outstanding bug (open since circa 2003, no less) that axis by default does not support passing more than one cookie to the server. WO sends both woinst AND wosid, so you lose your session ID from the client on the return trip to the server. This can be fixed by applying the patch from [[http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AXIS-1059]] to your client's axis.jar. Axis 1.1 has been archived at Apache, but you can download the source from [[http://archive.apache.org/dist/ws/axis/1_1/]] . The patch does not perfectly apply. There are two rejected hunks, but it should be very obvious how to fix the rejects (the patch has two System.out.printlns that it claims were in the original source that were not). After fixing that, you can setStoreSessionIdInCookies(true) on your server's WOSession and setMaintainSessions(true) on your client's ServiceLocator and you'll be good to go.
62 62  
63 63  This Axis bug appears to be fixed in recent versions of Axis, including version 1.4. Trying to upgrade the version of Axis in your WO Web Services server is not likely to be a happy experience (and likely neither will be upgrading Axis in a Direct To Web Services client - though I haven't tried this). However, it does seem to be possible to use a later version of the Axis jars on the classpath of a WebObjects application that intends to use classes generated by WSDL2Java to connect to a remote Web Services server - assuming that there are no WebObjects classes included in the WSDL. It is important in this case that you use matching version of WSDL2Java.
64 64  
65 65  = Consuming with WebServicesCore.framework =
66 66  
67 -There are several complications when it comes to using WebServicesCore with WebObjects, all of which stem from the WSMakeStubs generated code. Upon using the code generated by WSMakeStubs, you will run into the following issues that need to be fixed in its code:
73 +There are several complications when it comes to using WebServicesCore with WebObjects, all of which stem from the WSMakeStubs generated code. Upon using the code generated by WSMakeStubs, you will run into the following issues that need to be fixed in its code:
68 68  
69 69  = WSMakeStubs =
70 70  
71 -Apple provides a program called WSMakeStubs that is similar to WSDL2Java in Axis, except that it sucks. It will, however, at least give you a starting point for building your web service client code, and with the changes outlined below, you can end up with decent client APIs.
77 +Apple provides a program called WSMakeStubs that is similar to WSDL2Java in Axis, except that it sucks. It will, however, at least give you a starting point for building your web service client code, and with the changes outlined below, you can end up with decent client APIs.
72 72  
73 73  Running WSMakeStubs is very simple:
74 74  
75 -/Developer/Tools/WSMakeStubs -x ObjC -name NameOfServiceClass -url [[http:~~/~~/yourserver.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/YourWOA.woa/ws/YourService?wsdl>>url:http://yourserver.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/YourWOA.woa/ws/YourService?wsdl||shape="rect"]]
81 +/Developer/Tools/WSMakeStubs x ObjC name NameOfServiceClass url [[http://yourserver.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/YourWOA.woa/ws/YourService?wsdl]]
76 76  
77 -This will produce Objective-C code that you can use to call your web service. As opposed to Axis, WSMakeStubs produces stateless code for your service (i.e. no session tracking or cookie support - only static methods for each method of your web service). All of the methods appear at the end of NameOfServiceClass.m that you will need to call. WSMakeStubs also produces WSGeneratedObj.m, which contains the lower level web service core calls.
83 +This will produce Objective-C code that you can use to call your web service. As opposed to Axis, WSMakeStubs produces stateless code for your service (i.e. no session tracking or cookie support - only static methods for each method of your web service). All of the methods appear at the end of NameOfServiceClass.m that you will need to call. WSMakeStubs also produces WSGeneratedObj.m, which contains the lower level web service core calls.
78 78  
79 79  = Service Methods Without Return Values =
80 80  
81 -Another bug in WSMakeStubs is related to methods that don't have return values. For void methods, the methods are never actually CALLED by WSMakeStubs. If you look at the code for the returnValue method, you will see that it never calls [[doc:WO.super getResultDictionary]]. The problem with this is that [[doc:WO.super getResultDictionary]] is the code that actually executes the web service method. Simply change the definition for your void method to be:
87 +Another bug in WSMakeStubs is related to methods that don't have return values. For void methods, the methods are never actually CALLED by WSMakeStubs. If you look at the code for the returnValue method, you will see that it never calls [[WO:super getResultDictionary]]. The problem with this is that [[WO:super getResultDictionary]] is the code that actually executes the web service method. Simply change the definition for your void method to be:
82 82  
83 83  {{code}}
84 84  
... ... @@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
93 93  
94 94  = Bugs and Changes to WSGeneratedObj =
95 95  
96 -WSGeneratedObj is MOSTLY bug free. However, there there are a couple changes required to fix a memory leak it generates (from cocoadev.com):
102 +WSGeneratedObj is MOSTLY bug free. However, there there are a couple changes required to fix a memory leak it generates (from cocoadev.com):
97 97  
98 98  At the end of getResultDictionary, add:
99 99  
... ... @@ -120,7 +120,7 @@
120 120  
121 121  {{/code}}
122 122  
123 -Another change I like to make in the generated is to remove the hard-coded service URLs and pass them in from the code that calls the service (much like Axis does). This should be a fairly straightforward change, but I wanted to make a note about doing it. It will be fairly common that you want to talk to a development server and a production server using the same code, and as a result, you will want that variable to be parameterized.
129 +Another change I like to make in the generated is to remove the hard-coded service URLs and pass them in from the code that calls the service (much like Axis does). This should be a fairly straightforward change, but I wanted to make a note about doing it. It will be fairly common that you want to talk to a development server and a production server using the same code, and as a result, you will want that variable to be parameterized.
124 124  
125 125  = Passing a Complex Type to WO =
126 126  
... ... @@ -135,13 +135,13 @@
135 135  
136 136  {{/code}}
137 137  
138 -Where kWSRecordNamespaceURI's value is the XML namespace of the type of the complex object you are passing, and kWSRecordType's value is the name of the type. On the WO side, the namespace will be the reverse of the type's class name, and the record type will be the name of the class. For instance, in the example above, the actual class on the server was named com.mdimension.mdtask.extranet.WSCompany .
144 +Where kWSRecordNamespaceURI's value is the XML namespace of the type of the complex object you are passing, and kWSRecordType's value is the name of the type. On the WO side, the namespace will be the reverse of the type's class name, and the record type will be the name of the class. For instance, in the example above, the actual class on the server was named com.mdimension.mdtask.extranet.WSCompany .
139 139  
140 -The rest of the dictionary contains attribute=>value mappings. For instance, WSCompany in the example above has a "name" attribute, so the dictionary would also contains a "name" key that maps to the corresponding value.
146 +The rest of the dictionary contains attribute=>value mappings. For instance, WSCompany in the example above has a "name" attribute, so the dictionary would also contains a "name" key that maps to the corresponding value.
141 141  
142 -When sending NSDictionary instances from Cocoa, the WO will fire the WOGlobalIDDeserializer and it will not properly parse the nsdictionary or nsarray, it appears that there is no default deserializer on the WO side for those classes.
148 +When sending NSDictionary instances from Cocoa, the WO will fire the WOGlobalIDDeserializer and it will not properly parse the nsdictionary or nsarray, it appears that there is no default deserializer on the WO side for those classes.
143 143  
144 -One solution is to add
150 +One solution is to add
145 145  
146 146  {{code}}
147 147  
... ... @@ -160,11 +160,11 @@
160 160  {{/code}}
161 161  
162 162  on the cocoa side, than call it when compiling the arguments for the WSMethodInvocationRef
163 - Than on the WO side use NSPropertyListSerialization.propertyListFromString(xmlPlist) to recreate the object.
169 +Than on the WO side use NSPropertyListSerialization.propertyListFromString(xmlPlist) to recreate the object.
164 164  
165 165  = Return Values from WO =
166 166  
167 -One of the other problems WSMakeStubs has is that it doesn't produce a valid identifier for retrieving a WO web service return value. In the generated code, you will see something like
173 +One of the other problems WSMakeStubs has is that it doesn't produce a valid identifier for retrieving a WO web service return value. In the generated code, you will see something like
168 168  
169 169  {{code}}
170 170  
... ... @@ -175,7 +175,7 @@
175 175  
176 176  {{/code}}
177 177  
178 -however, the actual return value name requires its namspace to be included. The fixed version of the routine looks like:
184 +however, the actual return value name requires its namspace to be included. The fixed version of the routine looks like:
179 179  
180 180  {{code}}
181 181  
... ... @@ -185,13 +185,14 @@
185 185  
186 186  {{/code}}
187 187  
188 -Notice the key starts with "ns1:". This value should match the value that appears in your WSDL.
194 +Notice the key starts with "ns1:". This value should match the value that appears in your WSDL.
189 189  
190 190  = Example Type Wrappers =
191 191  
192 -Here's an example type wrapper I use based on the WSCompany example above. In the static methods that WSMakeStubs creates that wrap my web service methods, I simply initWithDictionary this type with the result dictionary from the web service and return an instance of WSCompany rather than the dictionary. When I send one of these objects back, I simply send [[doc:WO.wsCompany dictionary]] in the wrapper method.
198 +Here's an example type wrapper I use based on the WSCompany example above. In the static methods that WSMakeStubs creates that wrap my web service methods, I simply initWithDictionary this type with the result dictionary from the web service and return an instance of WSCompany rather than the dictionary. When I send one of these objects back, I simply send [[WO:wsCompany dictionary]] in the wrapper method.
193 193  
194 194  {{code}}
201 +
195 195   @interface WSCompany : NSObject {
196 196   NSMutableDictionary *myDictionary;
197 197   }
... ... @@ -201,8 +201,9 @@
201 201   -(NSString *)name;
202 202   -(NSString *)companyID;
203 203   @end
204 -{{/code}}
205 205  
212 +{{/code}}
213 +
206 206  {{code}}
207 207  
208 208   @implementation WSCompany
... ... @@ -237,7 +237,7 @@
237 237  
238 238  = Fault Handling =
239 239  
240 -WSMakeStubs doesn't handle the fault properly but it's in the dictionary. In +resultForInvocation: I added a few lines to check for and return the fault
248 +WSMakeStubs doesn't handle the fault properly but it's in the dictionary. In resultForInvocation: I added a few lines to check for and return the fault
241 241  
242 242  {{code}}
243 243  
... ... @@ -279,6 +279,7 @@
279 279  Here are the new methods to add to WSGeneratedObject.m:
280 280  
281 281  {{code}}
290 +
282 282   -- (id) initWithWebServicesURLString:(NSString*)urlString
283 283   {
284 284   if (self = [super init]) {
... ... @@ -310,8 +310,9 @@
310 310   fCookies = [[NSHTTPCookie requestHeaderFieldsWithCookies: cookies] retain];
311 311   WSMethodInvocationSetProperty([self getRef], kWSHTTPExtraHeaders, fCookies);
312 312   }
313 -{{/code}}
314 314  
323 +{{/code}}
324 +
315 315  {{code}}
316 316  
317 317   - (int)timeoutValue { return fTimeout; }
... ... @@ -324,7 +324,7 @@
324 324  
325 325  {{/code}}
326 326  
327 -You will need to modify -dealloc to release fCookies and fURLString. Below is my modified version getCreateInvocationRef. It is modified to get the URL using the new accessor methods above, to get the method name from the class name (which makes a lot more sense than hard-coding it to the class name in every subclass), and to set the timeout. After that is a generic resultValues method so that your generated subclasses can have their -resultValues and -getCreateInvocationRef methods removed~-~--the only methods they require are for setting parameters. There is also a commented out line that you can uncomment to have debug information included in the results dictionary. This is very helpful when trying to debug the transfer of complex objects.
337 +You will need to modify dealloc to release fCookies and fURLString. Below is my modified version getCreateInvocationRef. It is modified to get the URL using the new accessor methods above, to get the method name from the class name (which makes a lot more sense than hard-coding it to the class name in every subclass), and to set the timeout. After that is a generic resultValues method so that your generated subclasses can have their resultValues and getCreateInvocationRef methods removed~-~--the only methods they require are for setting parameters. There is also a commented out line that you can uncomment to have debug information included in the results dictionary. This is very helpful when trying to debug the transfer of complex objects.
328 328  
329 329  {{code}}
330 330