Use native Java SE 6 JAX-WS implementation instead of JBoss WS stack

Question

JBoss 6.0 Final is shipped with JBoss WS (Apache CXF stack by default), I know that I can replace the default implementation with the respective JBoss WS Native or Metro versions from JBossWS downloads site.

The problem is, I've a client jar library (binaries only unfortunately) which consumes some proprietary SOAP Web Services. When I use the client API from a Web Application deployed to JBoss I'm getting a lot of intermittent SOAP Faults (tested with both Apache CXF and JBoss Native stacks).

Since the same Web Services seems to work fine when running from a standalone jar file (with no third party JAX-WS implementations), I was thinking about disabling the JBoss WS stack in favor of the native JAX-WS RI stack provided with Java SE 6.

I know that JBoss Metro WS stack should be close enough to what is shipped with Java SE 6, but I would really appreciate if I could go with the native Java SE version.

So, is this feasible? Can someone point the way?

Answer 1

Here is a procedure to remove JBossWS-CXF client and server stack from JBoss 6.1.0.Final. Replace <configuration> by the server configuration you use, probably default.

• Remove the following files and directory structure

common/deploy/jbossws-console.war
lib/endorsed/jbossws-cxf-factories.jar
server/<configuration>/deploy/jbossws-console-activator-jboss-beans.xml
server/<configuration>/deployers/jbossws.deployer/
server/<configuration>/deployers/jbossws-jaxrpc.deployer/

• Edit and remove the two following parts from server/<configuration>/deployers/switchboard-jboss-beans.xml

<entry>
  <key>javax.xml.ws.WebServiceContext</key>
  <value><inject bean="org.jboss.switchboard.WebServiceContextResourceProvider"/></value>
</entry>
... and ...
<inject bean="org.jboss.switchboard.WebServiceRefResourceProvider"/>

As a result, the WebService server stack is no longer available, neither the jbossws console.

To be sure to use JAX-WS Metro implementation from your JavaSE version running JBoss, you have also to remove from Class-Path any jar related to CXF and JAX-WS:

lib/endorsed/jboss-jaxws-api_2.2_spec.jar
lib/endorsed/stax-api.jar
lib/endorsed/jboss-jaxb-api_2.2_spec.jar
common/lib/jboss-jaxb-api_2.2_spec.jar
common/lib/jboss-jaxws-api_2.2_spec.jar
common/lib/jboss-jaxrpc-api_1.1_spec.jar
common/lib/cxf-*.jar
lib/wstx-lgpl.jar
lib/jaxb-impl.jar
lib/jaxb-xjc.jar

At that point, JBoss 6.1 even starts faster.

Answer 2

For further researchers, I wanted to share my additional steps on how to remove all old JAXB and CXF from JBoss 6.1 and add new versions of them (it's enhanced Yves Martin answer):

To be removed:

common/deploy/jbossws-console.war
server/<configuration>/deploy/jbossws-console-activator-jboss-beans.xml
server/<configuration>/deployers/jbossws.deployer/
server/<configuration>/deployers/jbossws-jaxrpc.deployer/
client/cxf-*.jar
client/jaxws-*.jar
client/jaxb-impl.jar
client/jaxb-xjc.jar
client/wstx-lgpl.jar
client/jbossws-*.jar
client/stax-api.jar
client/activation.jar

lib/wstx-lgpl.jar
lib/jaxb-impl.jar
lib/jaxb-xjc.jar

common/lib/jboss-jaxb-api_2.2_spec.jar
common/lib/jboss-jaxws-api_2.2_spec.jar
common/lib/jboss-jaxrpc-api_1.1_spec.jar
common/lib/cxf-*.jar
common/lib/jaxws-*.jar
common/lib/jbossws-*.jar (except common/lib/jbossws-spi.jar)

lib/endorsed/activation.jar
lib/endorsed/jboss-jaxb-api_2.2_spec.jar
lib/endorsed/jbossws-cxf-factories.jar
lib/endorsed/jboss-jaxws-api_2.2_spec.jar
lib/endorsed/stax-api.jar

From the configuration file at: server//deployers/switchboard-jboss-beans.xml

remove following lines:

<entry>
  <key>javax.xml.ws.WebServiceContext</key>
  <value><inject bean="org.jboss.switchboard.WebServiceContextResourceProvider"/></value>
</entry>

<inject bean="org.jboss.switchboard.WebServiceRefResourceProvider"/>

If you want to upgrade JAXB + CXF to 2.6.3, add these libraries:

lib/jaxb-xjc-2.1.13.jar

lib/endorsed/activation-1.1.1.jar
lib/endorsed/jaxb-api-2.2.6.jar
lib/endorsed/jaxws-api-2.2.6.jar
lib/endorsed/stax2-api-3.1.1.jar
lib/endorsed/saaj-api-1.3.4.jar
lib/endorsed/cxf-api-2.6.3.jar

common/lib/cxf-api-2.6.3.jar

If you have Java 6 project, new JAXB will infer with this one from JRE, so we have to endorse the new version. Here's how to do it for maven:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>${maven-compiler-plugin.version}</version>
    <configuration>
        <source>1.6</source>
        <target>1.6</target>
        <maxmem>512m</maxmem>
        <compilerArguments>
            <endorseddirs>${project.build.directory}/endorsed</endorseddirs>
        </compilerArguments>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>${maven-surefire-plugin.version}</version>
    <configuration>
        <forkMode>once</forkMode>
        <argLine>-Djava.endorsed.dirs=${project.build.directory}/endorsed</argLine>
    </configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>${maven-compiler-plugin.version}</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>copy</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <artifactItems>
                    <artifactItem>
                        <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
                        <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
                        <version>${jax.version}</version>
                    </artifactItem>
                    <artifactItem>
                        <groupId>javax.xml.ws</groupId>
                        <artifactId>jaxws-api</artifactId>
                        <version>${jax.version}</version>
                    </artifactItem>
                </artifactItems>
                <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/endorsed</outputDirectory>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
     <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
     <artifactId>cxf-codegen-plugin</artifactId>
     <version>${cxf.version}</version>
     <configuration>
         <fork>once</fork>
         <additionalJvmArgs>-Djava.endorsed.dirs=${project.build.directory}/endorsed</additionalJvmArgs>
         <!-- rest of the normal codegen configuration options -->
     </configuration>
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
             <artifactId>jaxb-impl</artifactId>
             <version>${jax.version}</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
             <artifactId>jaxb-xjc</artifactId>
             <version>${jax.version}</version>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
</plugin>

On your IDE you have to tell it to compile using new JAXB libraries. In case of IDEA you can do it here:

IDEA -> Settings -> Compiler -> Java Compiler

in "Additional command line parameters" add:

-endorseddirs /<your_absolut_path_to_project>/target/endorsed/