Suggestion for a web service framework for Java

Question

I want a web service framework which is open source & free for commercial use, also security is a main concern too. Please suggest a web service framework for Java using SOAP standard.

Answer 1

I'd suggest a JAX-WS implementation: JAX-WS RI (which is part of Metro) or Apache CXF. Both are very close from a runtime perspective but many people find that CXF has a better documentation (might be an important criteria). Both provide integration with Spring if this matters to you (actually, decent frameworks just can't ignore Spring so this is not a surprise).

Spring-WS is another option but is not JAX-WS compliant, supports only a contract-first approach (from XSD) - that's a philosophical choice - and doesn't support many WS-* standards (that you may not need though).

In any case, I'd stay away from Axis 2 and its horrible deployment architecture and packaging hell (the Axis 2 webapp itself is a container for web services which need to be packaged in specific archives). I find it totally counter productive. On top of that, it doesn't even perform really well.

Answer 2

Here are the common frameworks, all are rather mature:

• Apache CXF
• Apache Axis2
• Spring Web Services
• JAX-WS RI

All support SOAP.

I've used both CXF and Spring-WS. Both are easy to configure and use.