Error: SOAP response is missing outer xml element

[benethridge]

Hi, everyone.

Hopefully I'm just missing something simple on this:

Using the SOAPMessage.writeto method (thanks for the tip elsewhere on that one), I see that my response is missing the outermost element in the payload (i.e. my outermost application-functionality element, not any of the SOAP elements):

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><SOAP-ENV:Header/><SOAP-ENV:Body><TxInfo xmlns="http://www.myapp.com"><StatCd>N</StatCd>...

This SHOULD have contained the outer wrapper element, like this:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><SOAP-ENV:Header/><SOAP-ENV:Body><GetCitationLstRs xmlns="http://www.myapp.com"><TxInfo><StatCd>N</StatCd>...

I've used the airline sample as a pattern for a web service, and it (the airline sample) correctly returns the outer wrappering xml element.

I use JAXB and extend my endpoint class from AbstractMarshallingPayloadEndpoint, same as the airline sample. When I break inside AbstractMarshallingPayloadEndpoint, the requestObject and the responseObject both look reasonable, i.e. contain the outer wrapping element, so I'm thinking the problem is in the marshaller itself...or maybe there is some subtlety to the WSLD or xsd syntax.

I say "subtlety" coz my WSDL and .xsd validate in Eclipse and I've looked them over carefully. They look reasonable to me.

Tomcat log shows no errors.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Thoughts on where I might look next?

[Arjen Poutsma]

I take it that the PayloadLoggingInterceptor also only shows <TxInfo xmlns="http://www.myapp.com"><StatCd>N</StatCd>... without the wrapping <GetCitationLstRs xmlns="http://www.myapp.com"> element as well?

It would be interesting to see what kind of XML the unwrapped marshaller generates itself. Could you write a little test code for that, somethis like:

import javax.xml.bind.*;
public class Sample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
  Object responseObject = createResponseObject();
  JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance( "com.acme.foo" );
  Marshaller m = jc.createMarshaller();
  m.marshal( fooObj, System.out );
}
}

[benethridge]

Hi, Arjen.

I'm not finding a call to PayloadLoggingInterceptor anywhere in the airline sample. Also, when I debug through the Spring code, I'm not seeing it called anywhere in the call stack. Is this a class I'm supposed to add to my app somewhere? or ?

Ben

[mskendrick]

This may be similar to a problem I was having. Take a look here:
http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=26218
Shannon Kendrick

[benethridge]

It would be interesting to see what kind of XML the unwrapped marshaller generates itself.

Arjen, I think maybe there are some obvious errors in your sample above, but no biggie as I think I understood where you were going with it. Implementing your sample in the Endpoint class (i.e. the server side) shows this in the tomcat log:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<TxInfo xmlns="http://www.uptodate.com"><StatCd>N</StatCd><InfoMsgs/><WarningMsg
s/><ErrorMsgs/></TxInfo>

...which makes sense, i.e. it looks like a marshalling problem.

Note that I'm using the JAXB Marshaller for this sample test, not any of the Spring Marshallers.

Shannon, thanks for the tip. I'll check in out.

Ben

[benethridge]

This may be similar to a problem I was having. Take a look here:
http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=26218
Shannon Kendrick

I looked this over and I'm not using a binding file (i.e. letting JAXB take all defaults). Also, I'm using JAXB 2.0.1 (I think) since I'm using the same Ivy "repository" and config as the Spring airline sample.

Ben

[Arjen Poutsma]

Arjen, I think maybe there are some obvious errors in your sample above, but no biggie as I think I understood where you were going with it.

I'm sorry for that, though I can find the error myself . Most of my snippets are sample code, and don't necessarily compile, but I guess it helped you enough.

...which makes sense, i.e. it looks like a marshalling problem.

If it's a marshalling problem, you probably have to tweak the JAXB2 annotations somewhat. You can write some unit tests which validate the XML. XMLUnit really helps you with this (I use it a lot in the SWS test code, especially assertXmlEquals() ).

[benethridge]

Hi, Arjen.

I wrote a simple test app in Eclipse that exhibits the problem. I imagine I'm missing something simple, but I just can't see it yet.

Like the Airline project, but unlike the Echo project, this project uses JAXB. Also the project does NOT use Ivy or multiple build files, so it is quite simple. I can send it to you, but it's 42meg zipped, so I don't think I can post it, can I?

Arjen, in hindsight, i.e. having gotten the airline sample running ok, the Ivy and the multiple build files might make things easy on you Spring core developers, but they make it hard on us new to Spring, coz we have to go through multiple learning curves at once, making it very hard to figure out if the problem is in our code, the Spring code, the Ivy code, the JAXB code, the Ant code, the Sun code, the Eclipse, and on and on. Each of these comes with its own learning curve and "issues" (quirks and gotcha's).

Since I really like the Spring Web Service model, and I want it to succeed, and be well-accepted quickly by the java community, it might make that acceptance go faster if the Spring team could remove some of the "variables" in the sample apps. On this I speak with some authority, having been a very successful flight instructor for many years. (Lots of fun but VERY little money in that profession. ). As a teacher, one often has to break down the complex into simple learnable units, not for the benefit of the teacher, but for the benefit of the student...which ultimately "benefits" the teacher as well, now that I think of it.

If you think this is a good, simple example of JAXB usage in Spring WS, you have my permission to use it and modify it in any way you choose.

Ben

[Arjen Poutsma]

I wrote a simple test app in Eclipse that exhibits the problem. I imagine I'm missing something simple, but I just can't see it yet.

Like the Airline project, but unlike the Echo project, this project uses JAXB. Also the project does NOT use Ivy or multiple build files, so it is quite simple. I can send it to you, but it's 42meg zipped, so I don't think I can post it, can I?

Great! I am certainly interested. You could use http://www.yousendit.com/ to send me the files. My email address is arjenp at interface21 dot com.

Arjen, in hindsight, i.e. having gotten the airline sample running ok, the Ivy and the multiple build files might make things easy on you Spring core developers, but they make it hard on us new to Spring, coz we have to go through multiple learning curves at once, making it very hard to figure out if the problem is in our code, the Spring code, the Ivy code, the JAXB code, the Ant code, the Sun code, the Eclipse, and on and on. Each of these comes with its own learning curve and "issues" (quirks and gotcha's).

Yes, I've found Ivy to be quite difficult to grasp at some times as well. That's one of the reasons I've switched to Maven 2. It's becoming more and more of a standard now, and offers nice things like creating an Eclipse workspace from the project descriptor, to get people started.

Since I really like the Spring Web Service model, and I want it to succeed, and be well-accepted quickly by the java community, it might make that acceptance go faster if the Spring team could remove some of the "variables" in the sample apps. On this I speak with some authority, having been a very successful flight instructor for many years. (Lots of fun but VERY little money in that profession. ). As a teacher, one often has to break down the complex into simple learnable units, not for the benefit of the teacher, but for the benefit of the student...which ultimately "benefits" the teacher as well, now that I think of it.

I see your point. You must understand that you are in fact the "early adaptors" of this project. After the Spring 2.0 release, Rick Evans, who also wrote most of the Spring 2.0 reference documentation, will devote some of his time to write more docs for Spring-WS. I do love the fact that the project already has such a loyal backing.

In the near future, I will devote more time to make common things easier. Now that there actually people using Spring-WS, this can be done. I'm open for suggestions on this, though. You, after all, are the users, and you can decide the future of this project.

Cheers,

[benethridge]

Hi, Arjen.

I sent this to you via yousendit.com.

The maven2 sounds promising, but heads-up that the user feedback on it indicates that there may still be significant bugs:

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/j...-maven-p3.html

Also I worry that maven2 may be yet another third-party tool that will add to the learning complexity (though granted that in general these tools are great once one is through the learning curve of Spring itself).

I accept the fact that I'm an "early adapter". To me, from a design point of view Spring WS looks like the best thing on the market today. If you can keep the pattern examples simple to deploy into IDEs, I think it will self-propel into a market leader.

Ben