Valid JAX-WS request parameter is NULL on the server

Question

I'm trying to figure out an interresting behavior of JAX-WS in the last few days.

Basically I'm having two different SOAP requests generated from two different clients and I'm unable to make any changes on how those requests are created. Still I need to be able to handle both types of requests.

Sadly the second request has its request parameter set to NULL on the server despite it having a valid value when I is sent in the request. This means that the server is unable to parse this request correctly. How can I tell my JAX-WS server to handle both of those requests correctly?

Working Request

<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <S:Body>
        <ns2:getMachine xmlns:ns2="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/">
            <machineId>92623-15853588</machineId>
        </ns2:getMachine>
    </S:Body>
</S:Envelope>

Broken Request (Parameter is NULL on server side).

<S:Envelope xmlns:S="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <S:Body>
        <getMachine xmlns="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/">
            <machineId>92623-15853588</machineId>
        </getMachine>
    </S:Body>
</S:Envelope>

I seem to be unable to find any solution to this issue despite the fact that this issue seems to be known for quite some time (See this 2 year old stackoverflow thread).

For completion, here is the implementation of my WebService. I tried to set the target namespace here directly to the @WebService and the @WebParam annotation but it had no effect.

package at.company.product.webservices.soap.machine;


import javax.jws.WebMethod;
import javax.jws.WebParam;
import javax.jws.WebService;
import javax.jws.soap.SOAPBinding;

import at.company.product.core.ProductCorePlugin;
import at.company.product.core.machine.IMachine;
import at.company.product.webservices.soap.exceptions.InvalidIdException;

@WebService
@SOAPBinding(style = SOAPBinding.Style.RPC)
public class WSMachineApi {

    @WebMethod
    public WSMachine getMachine(@WebParam(name = "machineId") String machineId) throws InvalidIdException{
        IMachine machine = getMachineById(machineId);
        if (machine == null){
            throw new InvalidIdException(machineId);
        }

        return new WSMachine(getMachineById(machineId));
    }   

    private IMachine getMachineById(String id) {
        return ProductCorePlugin.getDefault().getMachineHallAdmin().getMachineByID(id);
    }

}

The WSDL of the service

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- Published by JAX-WS RI at http://jax-ws.dev.java.net. RI's version is JAX-WS RI 2.2.4-b01. --><!-- Generated by JAX-WS RI at http://jax-ws.dev.java.net. RI's version is JAX-WS RI 2.2.4-b01. -->
<definitions xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsp="http://www.w3.org/ns/ws-policy" xmlns:wsp1_2="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/09/policy" xmlns:wsam="http://www.w3.org/2007/05/addressing/metadata" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns:tns="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" targetNamespace="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/" name="WSMachineApiService">
    <types>
    <xsd:schema>
    <xsd:import namespace="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/" schemaLocation="http://someHostname:8080/services/Machines?xsd=1"></xsd:import>
    </xsd:schema>
    </types>
    <message name="InvalidIdException">
    <part name="fault" element="tns:InvalidIdException"></part>
    </message>

    <message name="getMachine">
    <part name="machineId" type="xsd:string"></part>
    </message>
    <message name="getMachineResponse">
    <part name="return" type="tns:WSMachine"></part>
    </message>
    <portType name="WSMachineApi">
    <operation name="getMachine">
    <input wsam:Action="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/WSMachineApi/getMachineRequest" message="tns:getMachine"></input>
    <output wsam:Action="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/WSMachineApi/getMachineResponse" message="tns:getMachineResponse"></output>
    <fault message="tns:InvalidIdException" name="InvalidIdException" wsam:Action="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/WSMachineApi/getMachine/Fault/InvalidIdException"></fault>
    </operation>
    </portType>
    <binding name="WSMachineApiPortBinding" type="tns:WSMachineApi">
    <soap:binding transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http" style="rpc"></soap:binding>
    <operation name="getMachine">
    <soap:operation soapAction=""></soap:operation>
    <input>
    <soap:body use="literal" namespace="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/"></soap:body>
    </input>
    <output>
    <soap:body use="literal" namespace="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/"></soap:body>
    </output>
    <fault name="InvalidIdException">
    <soap:fault name="InvalidIdException" use="literal"></soap:fault>
    </fault>
    </operation>
    </binding>
    <service name="WSMachineApiService">
    <port name="WSMachineApiPort" binding="tns:WSMachineApiPortBinding">
    <soap:address location="http://someHostname:8080/services/Machines"></soap:address>
    </port>
    </service>
    </definitions>

The XSD

    <xs:schema xmlns:tns="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" version="1.0" targetNamespace="http://machine.soap.webservices.product.company.at/">

    <xs:element name="InvalidIdException" type="tns:InvalidIdException"></xs:element>


    <xs:complexType name="WSMachine">
    <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="name" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"></xs:element>
    <xs:element name="id" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"></xs:element>
    <xs:element name="totalShots" type="xs:long"></xs:element>
    <xs:element name="totalEvents" type="xs:long"></xs:element>
    <xs:element name="actualData" type="tns:WSMachineActualData" minOccurs="0"></xs:element>
    </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="WSMachineActualData">
    <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="connected" type="xs:boolean"></xs:element>
    <xs:element name="operationMode" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"></xs:element>
    </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>


    <xs:complexType name="InvalidIdException">
    <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="id" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"></xs:element>
    <xs:element name="message" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"></xs:element>
    </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>


    </xs:schema>

Answer 1

You probably need to utilize custom SOAPHandler. Example shown here. With custom handler you will be able to easily debug this issue.