Tracing XML request/responses with JAX-WS

Question

Following options enable logging of all communication to the console (technically, you only need one of these, but that depends on the libraries you use, so setting all four is safer option). You can set it in the code like in example, or as command line parameter using -D or as environment variable as Upendra wrote.

System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.client.HttpTransportPipe.dump", "true");
System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.internal.ws.transport.http.client.HttpTransportPipe.dump", "true");
System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.HttpAdapter.dump", "true");
System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.internal.ws.transport.http.HttpAdapter.dump", "true");
System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.internal.ws.transport.http.HttpAdapter.dumpTreshold", "999999");

See question Tracing XML request/responses with JAX-WS when error occurs for details.

Here is the solution in raw code (put together thanks to stjohnroe and Shamik):

Endpoint ep = Endpoint.create(new WebserviceImpl());
List<Handler> handlerChain = ep.getBinding().getHandlerChain();
handlerChain.add(new SOAPLoggingHandler());
ep.getBinding().setHandlerChain(handlerChain);
ep.publish(publishURL);

Where SOAPLoggingHandler is (ripped from linked examples):

package com.myfirm.util.logging.ws;

import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPMessage;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPHandler;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPMessageContext;

/*
 * This simple SOAPHandler will output the contents of incoming
 * and outgoing messages.
 */
public class SOAPLoggingHandler implements SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> {

    // change this to redirect output if desired
    private static PrintStream out = System.out;

    public Set<QName> getHeaders() {
        return null;
    }

    public boolean handleMessage(SOAPMessageContext smc) {
        logToSystemOut(smc);
        return true;
    }

    public boolean handleFault(SOAPMessageContext smc) {
        logToSystemOut(smc);
        return true;
    }

    // nothing to clean up
    public void close(MessageContext messageContext) {
    }

    /*
     * Check the MESSAGE_OUTBOUND_PROPERTY in the context
     * to see if this is an outgoing or incoming message.
     * Write a brief message to the print stream and
     * output the message. The writeTo() method can throw
     * SOAPException or IOException
     */
    private void logToSystemOut(SOAPMessageContext smc) {
        Boolean outboundProperty = (Boolean)
            smc.get (MessageContext.MESSAGE_OUTBOUND_PROPERTY);

        if (outboundProperty.booleanValue()) {
            out.println("\nOutbound message:");
        } else {
            out.println("\nInbound message:");
        }

        SOAPMessage message = smc.getMessage();
        try {
            message.writeTo(out);
            out.println("");   // just to add a newline
        } catch (Exception e) {
            out.println("Exception in handler: " + e);
        }
    }
}

Before starting tomcat, set JAVA_OPTS as below in Linux envs. Then start Tomcat. You will see the request and response in the catalina.out file.

export JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Dcom.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.client.HttpTransportPipe.dump=true"

Inject SOAPHandler to endpoint interface. we can trace the SOAP request and response

Implementing SOAPHandler with Programmatic

ServerImplService service = new ServerImplService();
Server port = imgService.getServerImplPort();
/**********for tracing xml inbound and outbound******************************/
Binding binding = ((BindingProvider)port).getBinding();
List<Handler> handlerChain = binding.getHandlerChain();
handlerChain.add(new SOAPLoggingHandler());
binding.setHandlerChain(handlerChain);

Declarative by adding @HandlerChain(file = "handlers.xml") annotation to your endpoint interface.

handlers.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<handler-chains xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee">
    <handler-chain>
        <handler>
            <handler-class>SOAPLoggingHandler</handler-class>
        </handler>
    </handler-chain>
</handler-chains>

SOAPLoggingHandler.java

/*
 * This simple SOAPHandler will output the contents of incoming
 * and outgoing messages.
 */


public class SOAPLoggingHandler implements SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> {
    public Set<QName> getHeaders() {
        return null;
    }

    public boolean handleMessage(SOAPMessageContext context) {
        Boolean isRequest = (Boolean) context.get(MessageContext.MESSAGE_OUTBOUND_PROPERTY);
        if (isRequest) {
            System.out.println("is Request");
        } else {
            System.out.println("is Response");
        }
        SOAPMessage message = context.getMessage();
        try {
            SOAPEnvelope envelope = message.getSOAPPart().getEnvelope();
            SOAPHeader header = envelope.getHeader();
            message.writeTo(System.out);
        } catch (SOAPException | IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return true;
    }

    public boolean handleFault(SOAPMessageContext smc) {
        return true;
    }

    // nothing to clean up
    public void close(MessageContext messageContext) {
    }

}

Set the following system properties, this will enabled xml logging. You can set it in java or configuration file.

static{
        System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.client.HttpTransportPipe.dump", "true");
        System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.HttpAdapter.dump", "true");
        System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.internal.ws.transport.http.client.HttpTransportPipe.dump", "true");
        System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.internal.ws.transport.http.HttpAdapter.dump", "true");
        System.setProperty("com.sun.xml.internal.ws.transport.http.HttpAdapter.dumpTreshold", "999999");
    }

console logs:

INFO: Outbound Message
---------------------------
ID: 1
Address: http://localhost:7001/arm-war/castService
Encoding: UTF-8
Http-Method: POST
Content-Type: text/xml
Headers: {Accept=[*/*], SOAPAction=[""]}
Payload: xml
--------------------------------------
INFO: Inbound Message
----------------------------
ID: 1
Response-Code: 200
Encoding: UTF-8
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8
Headers: {content-type=[text/xml; charset=UTF-8], Date=[Fri, 20 Jan 2017 11:30:48 GMT], transfer-encoding=[chunked]}
Payload: xml
--------------------------------------

There are various ways of doing this programmatically, as described in the other answers, but they're quite invasive mechanisms. However, if you know that you're using the JAX-WS RI (aka "Metro"), then you can do this at the configuration level. See here for instructions on how to do this. No need to mess about with your application.

// This solution provides a way programatically add a handler to the web service clien w/o the XML config

// See full doc here: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17904_01//web.1111/e13734/handlers.htm#i222476

// Create new class that implements SOAPHandler

public class LogMessageHandler implements SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> {

@Override
public Set<QName> getHeaders() {
    return Collections.EMPTY_SET;
}

@Override
public boolean handleMessage(SOAPMessageContext context) {
    SOAPMessage msg = context.getMessage(); //Line 1
    try {
        msg.writeTo(System.out);  //Line 3
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(LogMessageHandler.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    } 
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean handleFault(SOAPMessageContext context) {
    return true;
}

@Override
public void close(MessageContext context) {
}
}

// Programatically add your LogMessageHandler

   com.csd.Service service = null;
    URL url = new URL("https://service.demo.com/ResService.svc?wsdl");

    service = new com.csd.Service(url);

    com.csd.IService port = service.getBasicHttpBindingIService();
    BindingProvider bindingProvider = (BindingProvider)port;
    Binding binding = bindingProvider.getBinding();
    List<Handler> handlerChain = binding.getHandlerChain();
    handlerChain.add(new LogMessageHandler());
    binding.setHandlerChain(handlerChain);