Enable MTOM for JAX-WS web services

Enable MTOM for JAX-WS web services

With JAX-WS, we can send binary attachments such as images or files along with web services requests. JAX-WS adds support for optimized transmission of binary data as specified by the SOAP MTOM specification.

JAX-WS supports the use of SOAP Message Transmission Optimized Mechanism (MTOM) for sending binary attachment data. By enabling MTOM, we can send and receive binary data optimally without incurring the cost of data encoding needed to embed the binary data in an XML document.

The application server supports sending attachments using MTOM only for JAX-WS applications. This product also provides the ability to provide attachments with Web Services Security SOAP messages by using the new MTOM and XOP standards.

JAX-WS applications can send binary data as base64 or hexBinary encoded data contained within the XML document. However, to take advantage of the optimizations provided by MTOM, enable MTOM to send binary base64 data as attachments contained outside the XML document. MTOM optimization is not enabled by default. JAX-WS applications require separate configuration of both the client and the server artifacts to enable MTOM support.

Tasks
Develop Java artifacts for our JAX-WS application that includes an XML schema or Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file that represents the web services application data that includes a binary attachment.

If we are starting with a WSDL file, develop Java artifacts from a WSDL file using the wsimport command to generate the required JAX-WS portable artifacts.
If we are starting with JavaBeans components, develop Java artifacts for JAX-WS applications and optionally generate a WSDL file using the wsgen command. The XML schema or WSDL file includes a xsd:base64Binary or xsd:hexBinary element definition for the binary data.
We can also include the xmime:expectedContentTypes attribute on the element to affect the mapping by JAXB.
Enable MTOM on your endpoint implementation class using one of the following methods:
Use the @MTOM annotation on the endpoint.
To enable MTOM on an endpoint, use the @MTOM (javax.xml.ws.soap.MTOM) annotation on the endpoint. The @MTOM annotation has two parameters, enabled and threshold. The enabled parameter has a boolean value and indicates if MTOM is enabled for the JAX-WS endpoint. The threshold parameter has an integer value, that must be greater than or equal to zero. When MTOM is enabled, any binary data whose size, in bytes, exceeds the threshold value is XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP) encoded or sent as an attachment. When the message size is less than the threshold value, the message is inlined in the XML document as either base64 or hexBinary data.

The following example snippet illustrates adding the @MTOM annotation so that MTOM is enabled for the JAX-WS MyServiceImpl endpoint and specifies a threshold value of 2048 bytes:
@MTOM(enabled=true, threshold=2048)
@WebService
public class MyServiceImpl {
...
}
Additionally, we can use the @BindingType (javax.xml.ws.BindingType) annotation on an endpoint implementation class to specify that the endpoint supports one of the MTOM binding types so that the response messages are MTOM-enabled. The javax.xml.ws.SOAPBinding class defines two different constants, SOAP11HTTP_MTOM_BINDING and SOAP12HTTP_MTOM_BINDING we can use for the value of the @BindingType annotation; for example:
// This example is for SOAP version 1.1.
@BindingType(value = SOAPBinding.SOAP11HTTP_MTOM_BINDING)
@WebService
public class MyServiceImpl {
...
}
// This example is for SOAP version 1.2.
@BindingType(value = SOAPBinding.SOAP12HTTP_MTOM_BINDING)
@WebService
public class MyServiceImpl {
...
}
The presence and value of an @MTOM annotation overrides the value of the @BindingType annotation. For example, if the @BindingType indicates MTOM is enabled, but an @MTOM annotation is present with an enabled value of false, then MTOM is not enabled.
Use the <enable-mtom> and <mtom-threshold> deployment descriptor elements.
Use the <enable-mtom> and <mtom-threshold> elements within the <port-component> element in the webservices.xml deployment descriptor as an alternative to using the @MTOM annotation on the service endpoint implementation class; for example:
<port-component>
			<port-component-name>MyPort1</port-component-name>
			<enable-mtom>true</enable-mtom>
			<mtom-threshold>2048</mtom-threshold>
			<service-impl-bean>
				<servlet-link>MyPort1ImplBean</servlet-link>
			</service-impl-bean>
</port-component>
The deployment descriptor elements take precedence over the corresponding attributes in the MTOM annotation. For example, if the enabled attribute is set to true in the annotation, but the <enable-mtom> element is set to false in the webservices.xml file, MTOM is not enabled for the corresponding endpoint.
Enable MTOM on the client to optimize the binary messages sent from the client to the server. Using one of the following methods to enable MTOM on the client:
Enable MTOM on a Dispatch client.

For a dispatch client, the client application needs to construct a soap message in optimized format.
The following examples use SOAP version 1.1.

The first method uses SOAPBinding.setMTOMEnabled(); for example:
SOAPBinding binding = (SOAPBinding)dispatch.getBinding();
    binding.setMTOMEnabled(true);
The second method uses Service.addPort; for example:
    Service svc = Service.create(serviceName);
    svc.addPort(portName,SOAPBinding.SOAP11HTTP_MTOM_BINDING,endpointUrl); 
The third method uses MTOMFeature; for example:
   MTOMFeature mtom = new MTOMFeature(true, 2048);
    Service svc = Service.create(serviceName);
    svc.addPort(portName, SOAPBinding.SOAP11_HTTP_BINDING, endpointUrl);
    Dispatch<Source> dsp = svc.createDispatch(portName, Source.class, Service.Mode.PAYLOAD, mtom);
Enable MTOM on a Dynamic Proxy client.
// Create a BindingProvider bp from a proxy port.
  Service svc = Service.create(serviceName);
  MtomSample proxy = svc.getPort(portName, MtomSample.class);
  BindingProvider bp = (BindingProvider) proxy;
  
  //Enable MTOM using the SOAPBinding.
  MtomSample proxy = svc.getPort(portName, MtomSample.class);
  BindingProvider bp = (BindingProvider) proxy;
  SOAPBinding binding = (SOAPBinding) bp.getBinding();
  binding.setMTOMEnabled(true);

  //Or, we can enable MTOM with the MTOMFeature.
  MTOMFeature mtom = new MTOMFeature();
  MtomSample proxy = svc.getPort(portName, MtomSample.class, mtom);
Enable MTOM on the client using the @MTOM annotation; for example:
public class MyClientApplication {

    // Enable MTOM for a port-comonent-ref resource injection.
	    @MTOM(enabled=true, threshold=1024)
	    @WebServiceRef(MyService.class)
	    private MyPortType myPort;
    ...
}
Enable MTOM on the client using deployment descriptor elements within a port-component-ref element; for example:
<service-ref>
    <service-ref-name>service/MyPortComponentRef</service-ref-name>
    <service-interface>com.example.MyService</service-ref-interface>
    <port-component-ref>
        <service-endpoint-interface>com.example.MyPortType</service-endpoint-interface>
        <enable-mtom>true</enable-mtom>
        <mtom-threshold>1024</mtom-threshold>
    </port-component-ref>
</service-ref>
The deployment descriptor elements take precedence over the corresponding attributes in the MTOM annotation. For example, if the enabled attribute is set to true in the annotation, but the <enable-mtom> element is set to false in the deployment descriptor entry for the service-ref of the client, MTOM is not enabled for that service reference.
We have developed a JAX-WS web services server and client application that optimally sends and receives binary data using MTOM.

Example

The following example illustrates enabling MTOM support on both the web services client and server endpoint when starting with an WSDL file.
Locate the WSDL file containing an xsd:base64Binary element. The following example is a portion of a WSDL file containing an xsd:base64Binary element.
  <types>
    ........
    <xs:complexType name="ImageDepot">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="imageData" 
                        type="xs:base64Binary"                        
                        xmime:expectedContentTypes="image/jpeg"/>

        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
    ........
</types>
Run the wsimport command from the app_server_root\bin\ directory against the WSDL file to generate a set of JAX-WS portable artifacts.
(Windows)
app_server_root\bin\wsimport.bat <wsdl_url>
(UNIX)
app_server_root/bin/wsimport.sh <wsdl_url>
Depending on the expectedContentTypes value contained in the WSDL file, the JAXB artifacts generated are in the Java type as described in the following table:

MIME Type Java Type
image/gif java.awt.Image
image/jpeg java.awt.Image
text/plain java.lang.String
text/xml javax.xml.transform.Source
application/xml javax.xml.transform.Source
*/* javax.activation.DataHandler
Use the JAXB artifacts in the same manner as in any other JAX-WS application. Use these beans to send binary data from both the Dispatch and the Dynamic Proxy client APIs.
Enable MTOM on a Dispatch client.
//Create the Dispatch instance.
        JAXBContext jbc = JAXBContext.newInstance("org.apache.axis2.jaxws.sample.mtom");
        Dispatch<Object> dispatch = svc.createDispatch(portName, jbc, Service.Mode.PAYLOAD);

//Enable MTOM.
        SOAPBinding binding = (SOAPBinding) dispatch.getBinding();
        binding.setMTOMEnabled(true);
Enable MTOM on a Dynamic Proxy client.
//Create the Dynamic Proxy instance.
        Service svc = Service.create(serviceName);
        MtomSample proxy = svc.getPort(portName, MtomSample.class);

//Enable MTOM.
        BindingProvider bp = (BindingProvider) proxy;
        SOAPBinding binding = (SOAPBinding) bp.getBinding();
        binding.setMTOMEnabled(true);
Now that we have enabled the JAX-WS client for MTOM, messages sent to the server have MTOM enabled. However, for the server to respond back to the client using MTOM, enable MTOM on the endpoint.
Enable MTOM on the endpoint implementation class.
@MTOM(enabled, threshold=4096)
@WebService (endpointInterface="org.apache.axis2.jaxws.sample.mtom.MtomSample")

public class MtomSampleService implements MtomSample {
   ....
}
The jaxax.xml.ws.SOAPBinding class has a static member for each of the supported binding types. Include either the SOAP11HTTP_MTOM_BINDING or the SOAP12HTTP_MTOM_BINDING as the value for the @BindingType annotation. This value enables all server responses to have MTOM enabled.
When we enable MTOM on the server and the client, the binary data that represents the attachment is included as a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) attachment to the SOAP message. Without MTOM, the same data is encoded in the format that describes the XML schema, either base64 or hexadecimal encoding, and included inline in the XML document.

This example illustrates an MTOM enabled SOAP version 1.1 message with an attachment. The type and content-type attributes both have the value, application/xop+xml, which indicates that the message was successfully optimized using XML-binary Optimized packaging (XOP) when MTOM was enabled. This example demonstrates how the optimized message looks on the wire with MTOM enabled.
... other transport headers ... 
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary=MIMEBoundaryurn_uuid_0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646812; 
type="application/xop+xml"; start="
<0.urn:uuid:0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646813@apache.org>"; start-info="text/xml"; charset=UTF-8

--MIMEBoundaryurn_uuid_0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646812
content-type: application/xop+xml; charset=UTF-8; type="text/xml";
content-transfer-encoding: binary
content-id: 
   <0.urn:uuid:0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646813@apache.org>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
         <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
            <soapenv:Header/>
            <soapenv:Body>
               <sendImage xmlns="http://org/apache/axis2/jaxws/sample/mtom">
                  <input>
                     <imageData>
                        <xop:Include xmlns:xop="http://www.w3.org/2004/08/xop/include" 
href="cid:1.urn:uuid:0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646811@apache.org"/>
                     </imageData>
                  </input>
               </sendImage>
            </soapenv:Body>
         </soapenv:Envelope>
--MIMEBoundaryurn_uuid_0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646812
content-type: text/plain
content-transfer-encoding: binary
content-id: 
         <1.urn:uuid:0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646811@apache.org>

… binary data goes here …
--MIMEBoundaryurn_uuid_0FE43E4D025F0BF3DC11582467646812--
In contrast, this example demonstrates a SOAP version 1.1 message on the wire without MTOM enabled. The binary data is included in the body of the SOAP message, and the SOAP message is not optimized.
... other transport headers ... 
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
      <soapenv:Header/>
      <soapenv:Body>
         <sendImage xmlns="http://org/apache/axis2/jaxws/sample/mtom">
            <input>
               <imageData>R0lGADl ... more base64 encoded data ... KTJk8giAAA7</imageData>
            </input>
         </sendImage>
      </soapenv:Body>
   </soapenv:Envelope>
For additional information, refer to the Samples section of the Information Center which includes a sample that demonstrates the use of MTOM with JAX-WS web services.

Related:

XML-binary Optimized Packaging
XML information set
Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism
Implement web services applications with JAX-WS
Implement web services applications from existing WSDL files with JAX-WS
Signing and encrypting message parts using policy sets
Secure web services applications using the WSS APIs at the message level
Encrypting the SOAP message using the WSSEncryption API
Example: Installing a web services sample with the console
JAX-WS annotations
Web services specifications and APIs
JAX-WS API documentation

MIME Type	Java Type
image/gif	java.awt.Image
image/jpeg	java.awt.Image
text/plain	java.lang.String
text/xml	javax.xml.transform.Source
application/xml	javax.xml.transform.Source
/	javax.activation.DataHandler