soap webservices - return error message?

Question

I have a little soap webservice. And I wonder how I can response with errors.

Eg:

public int createUser(String username) {
   //create...
   return id;
}

Now, if the user could not be created, how do I make a proper response? Do I have to throw a custom exception? Which is the right way?

Answer 1

The correct approach here is to translate the exception into a SOAP Fault.

Answer 2

I do this in my SOAP server - but don't fool around with trying to build your own Soap fault - simply throw a runtime exception and that should get converted into a soap fault.