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Assembling a web services-enabled client JAR file into an EAR file

Now that we have generated the application artifacts, we need to assemble these artifacts to create an enterprise archive (EAR) file used in the web services application.

For JAX-WS web service applications, we need the portable artifacts generated by the wsimport command-line tool when starting from a WSDL file to complete this task. The wsimport tool processes a WSDL file as input and generates the following portable artifacts:

For JAX-RPC web service applications, we need the following artifacts that are generated from the WSDL2Java command-line tool to complete this task:

Restriction: Do not include a pound sign (#) in the name of files that are packaged within an application archive. Due to internal processing, the application server fails to correctly deploy the application when a pound sign is included in a file name within the application archive. When this failure occurs, an exception might occur when the application is being processed. Also, parts of the application might be missing after the application is deployed. To address this issue, rename any file names within the application archive so that they do not contain a pound sign.

Use assembly tools included with WebSphere Application Server to assemble web services-enabled client applications.

Assemble the client code and artifacts that enable the application client to access a web service with steps provided:


Tasks

  1. Start an assembly tool. Read about starting the assembly tool in the Rational Application Developer documentation.

  2. If we have not done so already, configure the assembly tool so that it works on Java EE modules. We need to make sure that the Java EE and Web categories are enabled. Read about configuring the assembly tool in the Rational Application Developer documentation.
  3. Import the client implementation and the artifacts generated by the command-line tooling into the assembly tool.
  4. Migrate JAR files created with the Rational Application Developer assembly tool. To migrate files, import your JAR files to the assembly tool. Read about migrating code artifacts to an assembly tool in the Rational Application Developer documentation.
  5. Assemble the JAR file into an EAR file using typical assembly techniques if the client runs in a container.

We have assembled the artifacts required to enable the client application for web services into an EAR file.


Example

This example of the assembly process uses the AddressBookClient.jar JAR file the AddressBookClient.ear EAR file: 

META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
ETA-INF/application-client.xml
ETA-INF/wsdl/AddressBook.wsdl
ETA-INF/AddressBook_mapping.xml

com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/Address.class
com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/AddressBook.class
com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/AddressBookClient.class
com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/AddressBookService.class
...other generated classes...

After assembling the AddressBookClient.jar file into the AddressBookClient.ear file, the AddressBookClient.ear file contains the following files: 

META-INF/MANIFEST.MF 
AddressBookClient.jar 
ETA-INF/application.xml


What to do next

For JAX-WS applications, we are ready to deploy the web services client application.

For JAX-RPC applications, we need to configure the client deployment descriptor bindings with an assembly tool so that the client can communicate with a web service that is deployed on a server.


Related:

  • Web services
  • Development and assembly tools
  • Testing web services-enabled clients
  • Task overview: Implementing web services applications
  • Implement static JAX-WS web services clients
  • Implement JAX-RPC web services clients
  • Deploy web services client applications
  • Configure the JAX-RPC web services client deployment descriptor with an assembly tool
  • Artifacts used to develop web services
  • wsimport command for JAX-WS applications
  • WSDL2Java command for JAX-RPC applications