JAX-WS client : what's the correct path to access the local WSDL?

Question

The best option is to use jax-ws-catalog.xml

When you compile the local WSDL file , override the WSDL location and set it to something like

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

Don't worry this is only a URI and not a URL , meaning you don't have to have the WSDL available at that address.
You can do this by passing the wsdllocation option to the wsdl to java compiler.

Doing so will change your proxy code from

static {
    URL url = null;
    try {
        URL baseUrl;
        baseUrl = com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getResource(".");
        url = new URL(baseUrl, "file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl");
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        logger.warning("Failed to create URL for the wsdl Location: 'file:/C:/local/path/to/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl', retrying as a local file");
        logger.warning(e.getMessage());
    }
    SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION = url;
}

to

static {
    URL url = null;
    try {
        URL baseUrl;
        baseUrl = com.ibm.eci.soaservice.SOAService.class.getResource(".");
        url = new URL(baseUrl, "http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl");
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        logger.warning("Failed to create URL for the wsdl Location: 'http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl', retrying as a local file");
        logger.warning(e.getMessage());
    }
    SOASERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION = url;
}

Notice file:// changed to http:// in the URL constructor.

Now comes in jax-ws-catalog.xml. Without jax-ws-catalog.xml jax-ws will indeed try to load the WSDL from the location

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

and fail, as no such WSDL will be available.

But with jax-ws-catalog.xml you can redirect jax-ws to a locally packaged WSDL whenever it tries to access the WSDL @

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

.

Here's jax-ws-catalog.xml

<catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog" prefer="system">
        <system systemId="http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl"
                uri="wsdl/SOAService.wsdl"/>
    </catalog>

What you are doing is telling jax-ws that when ever it needs to load WSDL from

http://localhost/wsdl/SOAService.wsdl

, it should load it from local path wsdl/SOAService.wsdl.

Now where should you put wsdl/SOAService.wsdl and jax-ws-catalog.xml ? That's the million dollar question isn't it ?
It should be in the META-INF directory of your application jar.

so something like this

ABCD.jar  
|__ META-INF    
    |__ jax-ws-catalog.xml  
    |__ wsdl  
        |__ SOAService.wsdl  

This way you don't even have to override the URL in your client that access the proxy. The WSDL is picked up from within your JAR, and you avoid having to have hard-coded filesystem paths in your code.

More info on jax-ws-catalog.xml http://jax-ws.java.net/nonav/2.1.2m1/docs/catalog-support.html

Hope that helps

One other approach that we have taken successfully is to generate the WS client proxy code using wsimport (from Ant, as an Ant task) and specify the wsdlLocation attribute.

<wsimport debug="true" keep="true" verbose="false" target="2.1" sourcedestdir="${generated.client}" wsdl="${src}${wsdl.file}" wsdlLocation="${wsdl.file}">
</wsimport>

Since we run this for a project w/ multiple WSDLs, the script resolves the $(wsdl.file} value dynamically which is set up to be /META-INF/wsdl/YourWebServiceName.wsdl relative to the JavaSource location (or /src, depending on how you have your project set up). During the build proess, the WSDL and XSDs files are copied to this location and packaged in the JAR file. (similar to the solution described by Bhasakar above)

MyApp.jar
|__META-INF
   |__wsdl
      |__YourWebServiceName.wsdl
      |__YourWebServiceName_schema1.xsd
      |__YourWebServiceName_schmea2.xsd

Note: make sure the WSDL files are using relative refrerences to any imported XSDs and not http URLs:

  <types>
    <xsd:schema>
      <xsd:import namespace="http://valueobject.common.services.xyz.com/" schemaLocation="YourWebService_schema1.xsd"/>
    </xsd:schema>
    <xsd:schema>
      <xsd:import namespace="http://exceptions.util.xyz.com/" schemaLocation="YourWebService_schema2.xsd"/>
    </xsd:schema>
  </types>

In the generated code, we find this:

/**
 * This class was generated by the JAX-WS RI.
 * JAX-WS RI 2.2-b05-
 * Generated source version: 2.1
 * 
 */
@WebServiceClient(name = "YourService", targetNamespace = "http://test.webservice.services.xyz.com/", wsdlLocation = "/META-INF/wsdl/YourService.wsdl")
public class YourService_Service
    extends Service
{

    private final static URL YOURWEBSERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION;
    private final static WebServiceException YOURWEBSERVICE_EXCEPTION;
    private final static QName YOURWEBSERVICE_QNAME = new QName("http://test.webservice.services.xyz.com/", "YourService");

    static {
        YOURWEBSERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION = com.xyz.services.webservice.test.YourService_Service.class.getResource("/META-INF/wsdl/YourService.wsdl");
        WebServiceException e = null;
        if (YOURWEBSERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION == null) {
            e = new WebServiceException("Cannot find '/META-INF/wsdl/YourService.wsdl' wsdl. Place the resource correctly in the classpath.");
        }
        YOURWEBSERVICE_EXCEPTION = e;
    }

    public YourService_Service() {
        super(__getWsdlLocation(), YOURWEBSERVICE_QNAME);
    }

    public YourService_Service(URL wsdlLocation, QName serviceName) {
        super(wsdlLocation, serviceName);
    }

    /**
     * 
     * @return
     *     returns YourService
     */
    @WebEndpoint(name = "YourServicePort")
    public YourService getYourServicePort() {
        return super.getPort(new QName("http://test.webservice.services.xyz.com/", "YourServicePort"), YourService.class);
    }

    /**
     * 
     * @param features
     *     A list of {@link javax.xml.ws.WebServiceFeature} to configure on the proxy.  Supported features not in the <code>features</code> parameter will have their default values.
     * @return
     *     returns YourService
     */
    @WebEndpoint(name = "YourServicePort")
    public YourService getYourServicePort(WebServiceFeature... features) {
        return super.getPort(new QName("http://test.webservice.services.xyz.com/", "YourServicePort"), YourService.class, features);
    }

    private static URL __getWsdlLocation() {
        if (YOURWEBSERVICE_EXCEPTION!= null) {
            throw YOURWEBSERVICE_EXCEPTION;
        }
        return YOURWEBSERVICE_WSDL_LOCATION;
    }

}

Perhaps this might help too. It's just a different approach that does not use the "catalog" approach.

Thanks a ton for Bhaskar Karambelkar's answer which explains in detail and fixed my issue. But also I would like to re phrase the answer in three simple steps for someone who is in a hurry to fix

1. Make your wsdl local location reference as wsdlLocation= "http://localhost/wsdl/yourwsdlname.wsdl"
2. Create a META-INF folder right under the src. Put your wsdl file/s in a folder under META-INF, say META-INF/wsdl

3. Create an xml file jax-ws-catalog.xml under META-INF as below

   <catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog" prefer="system"> <system systemId="http://localhost/wsdl/yourwsdlname.wsdl" uri="wsdl/yourwsdlname.wsdl" /> </catalog>

Now package your jar. No more reference to the local directory, it's all packaged and referenced within

For those who are still coming for solution here, the easiest solution would be to use <wsdlLocation>, without changing any code. Working steps are given below:

1. Put your wsdl to resource directory like : src/main/resource

2. In pom file, add both wsdlDirectory and wsdlLocation(don't miss / at the beginning of wsdlLocation), like below. While wsdlDirectory is used to generate code and wsdlLocation is used at runtime to create dynamic proxy.

   <wsdlDirectory>src/main/resources/mydir</wsdlDirectory>
   <wsdlLocation>/mydir/my.wsdl</wsdlLocation>
   

3. Then in your java code(with no-arg constructor):

   MyPort myPort = new MyPortService().getMyPort();
   

4. For completeness, I am providing here full code generation part, with fluent api in generated code.

   <plugin>
   <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
   <artifactId>jaxws-maven-plugin</artifactId>
   <version>2.5</version>
   
   <dependencies>
       <dependency>
           <groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2_commons</groupId>
           <artifactId>jaxb2-fluent-api</artifactId>
           <version>3.0</version>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
           <groupId>com.sun.xml.ws</groupId>
           <artifactId>jaxws-tools</artifactId>
           <version>2.3.0</version>
       </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   
   <executions>
       <execution>
           <id>wsdl-to-java-generator</id>
           <goals>
               <goal>wsimport</goal>
           </goals>
           <configuration>
               <xjcArgs>
                   <xjcArg>-Xfluent-api</xjcArg>
               </xjcArgs>
               <keep>true</keep>
               <wsdlDirectory>src/main/resources/package</wsdlDirectory>
               <wsdlLocation>/package/my.wsdl</wsdlLocation>
               <sourceDestDir>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/annotations/jaxb</sourceDestDir>
               <packageName>full.package.here</packageName>
           </configuration>
       </execution>
   </executions>
   

For those of you using Spring, you can simply reference any classpath-resource using the classpath-protocol. So in case of the wsdlLocation, this becomes:

<wsdlLocation>classpath:META-INF/webservice.wsdl</wsdlLocation>

Note that is not standard Java behavior. See also: http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/resources.html