Any workaround for ignoring unexpected elements in Apache Axis 1.4?

Question

The problem was asked before "Apache AXIS Ignore/Skip additional element while parsing" in 2012 for Apache Axis 2. Is there no workaround yet for Axis 1.4?

Problem Definition

For instance;

1- We have a soap response definition('ResponseGetCustomerInfo') in our wsdl while development[with Axis 1.4]:

...
  <xs:element name="ResponseGetCustomerInfo">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element ref="ns1:CustomerID"/>
        <xs:element ref="ns1:CustomerUsername"/>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
  <xs:element name="CustomerID" type="xs:integer"/>
  <xs:element name="CustomerUsername" type="xs:string"/>
...

2- Is good to see that response is parsable when we get like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<soap:Envelope 
    xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <ResponseGetCustomerInfo xmlns="http://tempUri.org/">
            <CustomerID>1</CustomerID>
            <CustomerUsername>raki</CustomerUsername>
        </ResponseGetCustomerInfo>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

3- After some time, our service provider changed the service response and adds new output fields to response and we don't know when or why;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<soap:Envelope 
    xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <ResponseGetCustomerInfo xmlns="http://tempUri.org/">
            <CustomerID>1</CustomerID>
            <CustomerUsername>raki</CustomerUsername>
            <CustomerName>Raki</CustomerName>
            <CustomerSurname>Bandao</CustomerSurname>
        </ResponseGetCustomerInfo>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

4- New response theoretically compatible with older version because of no field neither deleted nor changed. But Axis can not parse the response:

"SAXException: Invalid Element ... "

I don't want to update wsdl and regenerate web service client again. So, Is there any way to skip "Unexpected[newly added] elements" in the response? or any workaround?

I am trying many ways, but could not find any solution yet.

Answer 1

We always go through this hell due to bad vendors writing these services.

So, unfortunately, there's no way out using parameters for WSDL2JAVA, BUT there is a workaround, you'll to re-generate stubs at least once:

1. Replace xs:sequence with xs:all. This allows elements to be returned in any order, and helps fix a lot of cases, as well as generated stub code which makes it easier for step
2. Sorry, but you for each response bean, you go into its class from the generated code (such as ResponseGetCustomerInfo.java), and instead of this:

while(!reader.isStartElement() && !reader.isEndElement())
   reader.next();

if(reader.isStartElement())
// A start element we are not expecting indicates a trailing invalid
// property
throw new org.apache.axis2.databinding.ADBException("Unexpected subelement " + reader.getLocalName());

Have this:

while(!reader.isStartElement() && !reader.isEndElement())
   reader.next();

// if(reader.isStartElement())
// A start element we are not expecting indicates a trailing invalid
// property

// The below is commented, to prevent unexpected result parameters from causing an exception
// (As well as the condition above is removed)
//  throw new org.apache.axis2.databinding.ADBException("Unexpected subelement " + reader.getLocalName());

It's tested and works at least better than no solution.