How to build SOAP client in Spring?

Question

I am able to send requests to the web service using javax.xml.soap.*, I would like to covert the code to use webServiceTemplate.

• I am struggling with creating request and result objects. (sample Ive found is related to xml not SOAP)
• I am also wondering if there is any advantages of using webServiceTemplate over java.xml.soap. If there is not am I doing it correctly? Given that I need to get connected to 20 web services.

The only service it has is findEvents as follows:

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:soap="http://ticketmaster.productserve.com/v2/soap.php" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
   <soapenv:Header/>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <soap:findEvents soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
         <request xsi:type="soap:Request">
            <!--You may enter the following 7 items in any order-->
            <apiKey xsi:type="xsd:string">?</apiKey>
            <country xsi:type="xsd:string">?</country>
            <resultsPerPage xsi:type="xsd:int">?</resultsPerPage>
            <currentPage xsi:type="xsd:int">?</currentPage>
            <sort xsi:type="soap:Request_Sort">
               <!--You may enter the following 2 items in any order-->
               <field xsi:type="xsd:string">?</field>
               <order xsi:type="xsd:string">?</order>
            </sort>
            <filters xsi:type="soap:ArrayOfRequest_Filter" soapenc:arrayType="soap:Request_Filter[]"/>
            <updatedSince xsi:type="xsd:string">?</updatedSince>
         </request>
      </soap:findEvents>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

My code is as follows:

try {
    SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory =
            SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
    SOAPConnection connection =
            soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();

    MessageFactory factory =
            MessageFactory.newInstance();

    SOAPMessage message = factory.createMessage();

    SOAPHeader header = message.getSOAPHeader();
    header.detachNode();

    SOAPBody body = message.getSOAPBody();

    SOAPFactory soapFactory =
            SOAPFactory.newInstance();

    Name bodyName;
    bodyName = soapFactory.createName("findEvents",
            "xsd", "http://ticketmaster.productserve.com/v2/soap.php");


    SOAPBodyElement getList =
            body.addBodyElement(bodyName);


    Name childName = soapFactory.createName("findEvents");
    SOAPElement eventRequest = getList.addChildElement(childName);

    childName = soapFactory.createName("apiKey");
    SOAPElement apiKey = eventRequest.addChildElement(childName);
    apiKey.addTextNode("MYAPI");

    childName = soapFactory.createName("country");
    SOAPElement cid = eventRequest.addChildElement(childName);
    cid.addTextNode("UK");
    message.writeTo(System.out); //show message details

    URL endpoint = new URL("http://ticketmaster.productserve.com/v2/soap.php");
    SOAPMessage response =
            connection.call(message, endpoint);

    connection.close();

    //SOAPBody soapBody = response.getSOAPBody();
    SOAPMessage sm = response;

    System.out.println("Response:");
    ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    sm.writeTo(out);


    String validSoap = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?> " + out.toString();
    System.out.println("It is ValidSoap: " + validSoap);  //ValidSoap message

    SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
    Reader in = new StringReader(validSoap);  //reading character stream
    Document doc = null; //empty jDom document is instantiated
    doc = builder.build(in); //build the jDom document

    Element root = doc.getRootElement(); //Envelope
    List allChildren = root.getChildren(); //list of all its child elements
    System.out.println("Root is:" + ((Element) allChildren.get(0)).getName());
   listChildren(root);

} catch (Exception ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}

New Code

  webServiceTemplate.sendSourceAndReceiveToResult
               ("http://ticketmaster.productserve.com/v2/soap.php",source, result);



@XmlRootElement
public class FindEvents {
    @XmlElement
    Request request;

    public Request getRequest() {
        return request;
    }

    public void setRequest(Request request) {
        this.request = request;
    }

}

@XmlSeeAlso(SortTicket.class)
public class Request {
    @XmlElement
    String apiKey;
    @XmlElement
    String country;
    @XmlElement
    int resultsPerPage;
    @XmlElement
    int currentPage;
    @XmlElement(name = "Sort")
    SortTicket sort;
    @XmlElement
    String[] filters;
    @XmlElement
    String updatedSince;

    public String getApiKey() {
        return apiKey;
    }

    public void setApiKey(String apiKey) {
        this.apiKey = apiKey;
    }

    public String getCountry() {
        return country;
    }

    public void setCountry(String country) {
        this.country = country;
    }

    public int getResultsPerPage() {
        return resultsPerPage;
    }

    public void setResultsPerPage(int resultsPerPage) {
        this.resultsPerPage = resultsPerPage;
    }

    public int getCurrentPage() {
        return currentPage;
    }

    public void setCurrentPage(int currentPage) {
        this.currentPage = currentPage;
    }

    public SortTicket getSort() {
        return sort;
    }

    public void setSort(SortTicket sort) {
        this.sort = sort;
    }

    public String[] getFilters() {
        return filters;
    }

    public void setFilters(String[] filters) {
        this.filters = filters;
    }

    public String getUpdatedSince() {
        return updatedSince;
    }

    public void setUpdatedSince(String updatedSince) {
        this.updatedSince = updatedSince;
    }

}

public class SortTicket {
    @XmlElement
    String field;
    @XmlElement
    String order;

    public String getField() {
        return field;
    }

    public void setField(String field) {
        this.field = field;
    }

    public String getOrder() {
        return order;
    }

    public void setOrder(String order) {
        this.order = order;
    }

}

Answer 1

Since you have generated DTO classes with Jaxb annotation you can create a marshaller ,unmarshaller and create objects of the DTO classes (SortTicket,Request,FindEvents) and send the objects directly instead of using the xml request

webServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(findEvents);

Something like this you'll have to configure.

Create a marshaller

<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller" contextPath="com.yourcontextpath" />

create web service template

<bean id="webServiceTemplate" class="org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate">
    <property name="marshaller" ref="marshaller" />
    <property name="unmarshaller" ref="marshaller" />
    <property name="defaultUri"
        value="http://ticketmaster.productserve.com/v2/soap.php" />
</bean>

and in some class's method where you want to send soap request inject webServiceTemplate using @Autowired

@Autowired
private WebServiceTemplate webServiceTemplate;

public void sendSampleSoapRequest() {

   SortTicket sortTicket=new SortTicket();
   // set its values
   Request request=new Request();
   //set its values
   request.setSort(sortTicket);
   FindEvents findEvents=new FindEvents();
   setRequest(request)
   Object response=webServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(findEvents);
 }

marshalSendAndReceive message uses the Jaxb marshaller to convert your objects (marked with JaxB annotation)to xml.So above your findEvents object will be converted to its xml from.

Regarding your second point Advantages of using webServiceTemplate over java.xml.soap. : you don't have to create those SOAPElements manually you just create an object and send it instead of big code for manually handling it. Since you'll have to connect to 20 different web services it will be much easier for you to create DTO objects and send them directly.You may need to modify my above samples a little.May remove the deault uri

<bean id="webServiceTemplate" class="org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate">
    <property name="marshaller" ref="marshaller" />
    <property name="unmarshaller" ref="marshaller" />
</bean>

and while sending request give the URI request

Object response=webServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(uri,object);

For sending it to multiple server

Object response1=webServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(uri1,object);
Object response1=webServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(uri2,object) 

uri1 and uri2 can be different soap service And if you don't have the wsdl you can send xml with this method

sendSourceAndReceiveToResult(uri1,source, result);
sendSourceAndReceiveToResult(uri2,source, result);

Sending a uri in the send method over rides the default URI

For example check this also check the api doc