WSIF - Known restrictions

This topic lists the main known restrictions that apply when using WSIF.

Threading

WSIF is not thread-safe.

External Standards

WSIF supports:

  • SOAP V1.1 (not 1.2 or later).

  • WSDL V1.1 (not 1.2 or later).

WSIF does not provide WS-I compliance, and it does not support the Java API for XML-based Remote Procedure Calls (JAX-RPC) V1.1 (or later).

Full schema parsing

WSIF does not support full schema parsing. For example, WSDL references in complex types in the schema are not handled, and attributes are not handled.

XML Schema "redefine" elements are not handled and are ignored.

SOAP

WSIF does not support:

  • SOAP headers that are passed as <parts>.

  • Unreferenced attachments in SOAP responses.

  • Document Encoded style SOAP messages.

    Note: This is not primarily a WSIF restriction. Although one can specify Document Encoded style in WSDL, it is not generally considered to be a valid option and is not supported by the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I).

SOAP provider interoperability

The current WSIF default SOAP provider (the IBM Web Service SOAP provider) does not fully interoperate with services that are running on the former (Apache SOAP) provider. This restriction is due to the fact that the IBM Web Service SOAP provider is designed to interoperate fully with a JAX-RPC compliant Web service, and Apache SOAP cannot provide such a service. For information on how to overcome this restriction, see WSIF SOAP provider: working with legacy applications.

WSIF's support for SOAP faults is restricted to SOAP faults originating from a Web service that runs using the IBM Web Service SOAP provider.

Note: This is not primarily a WSIF restriction. The current SOAP faults specification does not prescribe how to encode a SOAP fault so that it maps to a Java exception. Consequently, each Web service runtime currently decides on its own SOAP fault format. The IBM Web Service SOAP provider can understand its own response SOAP faults, but not the SOAP faults from another provider.

Type mappings

The current WSIF default SOAP provider (the IBM Web Service SOAP provider) conforms to the JAX-RPC type mapping rules that were finalized after the former (Apache SOAP) provider was created. The majority of types are mapped the same way by both providers. The exceptions are: xsd:date, xsd:dateTime, xsd:hexBinary and xsd:QName. Both client and service need to use the same mapping rules if any of these four types are used. Below is a table detailing the mapping rules for these four types:

XML Data Type Apache SOAP Java Mapping JAX-RPC Java Mapping
xsd:date java.util.Date Not supported
xsd:dateTime Not supported java.util.Calendar
xsd:hexBinary Hexadecimal string byte [ ]
xsd:QName org.apache.soap.util.xml.QName javax.xml.namespace.QName

Arrays and complex types

WSIF does not support general complex types, it only handles complex types that map to Java Beans. To use schema complex types, write your own custom serializers. The specific complex type and array support for WSIF outbound invocation of Web services is as follows:

  • WSIF supports Java classes generated by WebSphere Studio Application Developer - Integration Edition (WSAD-IE) message generators (the normal case when WSDL files are downloaded from somewhere else). The WSAD-IE-based generation happens automatically when you use the BPEL editor, or the generation actions available on the Enterprise Services context menu, or the Business Integration toolbar.

  • WSIF does not support Java beans generated by other tools, including the base WSAD tool.

  • For WSAD-IE generated Java beans, attributes defined in the WSDL do not work. That is to say that these attributes, although they appear in the Java beans generated to represent the complex type, do not appear in the SOAP request created by WSIF.

  • WSIF does not support arrays when they are a field of a Java bean. That is to say, WSIF only supports an array that is passed in as a named <part>. If an array is wrappered inside a Java bean, the array is not serialized in the same way.

Object Serialization

WSIF does not support serialization of objects across different releases.

Asynchronous invocation

WSIF supports synchronous invocation for all providers. For the JMS and the SOAP over JMS providers, WSIF also supports asynchronous invocation. You should call the supportsAsync() method before trying to execute an asynchronous operation.

The EJB provider

The target service of the WSIF EJB provider must be a remote-home interface, it cannot be an EJB local-home interface. In addition, the EJB stub classes must be available on the client class path.

Run outside WebSphere Application Server

WSIF is not supported for use outside WebSphere Application Server.