CXF : Deploying the java_first_jaxws sample direct to Tomcat

Decided I wanted to learn a bit about CXF so downloaded the development kit and has a look at the java_first_jaxws project in the \samples directory.

Before you try and do anything, ensure you have the environment set up correctly.

I created a bat file (as per README) which looks like:

set CXF_HOME=x:\apache-cxf-2.3.0
set JAVA_HOME=x:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_22
set ANT_HOME=C:\apache-ant-1.8.1

set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%ANT_HOME%\bin;%CXF_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
set CLASSPATH=.;%CXF_HOME%\lib\cxf-manifest.jar;.\build\classes

set CATALINA_HOME=x:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache Tomcat 6.0.26

which also serves as a useful list of the file versions I have.

One level up from the project you will find a useful file i.e.

common_build.xml

which is worth looking through.

In the actual project directory you will find a build.xml which calls the above.

ant -p

shows:

Main targets:

build build demo client and server
client run demo client
client-servlet run demo client hitting servlet
deploy deploy the application into the container
server run demo server
undeploy undeploy the application from the container
Default target: build

so we first do:

ant build

which builds both the client and the server.

Then we run:

ant server

and

ant client

Note that the client and server run in two separate command prompts.

The client then sends some canned messages to the server:

client:
[java] Hello World
[java] Hello World
[java] Hello Galaxy
[java] Hello Universe
[java]
[java] Users:
[java] 1: World
[java] 2: Galaxy
[java] 3: Universe

and the server receives:

server:
[java] Starting Server
[java] Server ready...
[java] sayHi called
[java] sayHiToUser called
[java] sayHiToUser called
[java] sayHiToUser called
[java] getUsers called

Note that this is running is a "built-in" Jetty server and the URL the client calls is:

http://localhost:9000/helloWorld

OK, that sets the scene for the main thrust of this article which is how to deploy this client to a real instance of Tomcat.

So start up the Tomcat server as usual by running "startup.bat" in the \bin directory.

My installation of Tomcat runs on port 8080 so we need to change Client.java as follows:

//String endpointAddress = "http://localhost:9000/helloWorld";
String endpointAddress = "http://localhost:8080/helloworld/services/hello_world";

Now we run the normal "ant build" and then we run "ant deploy".

This builds the war file and then deploys it to Tomcat (which is where the CATALINA_HOME environment variable comes in.)

Then we run the normal "ant client" and this time, the server output messages will appear in the Tomcat window.

Note that the WSDL can be found at:

http://localhost:8080/helloworld/services/hello_world?wsdl

Where on earth does this URL come from?

As per Creating a WSDL-first web service with Apache CXF or GlassFish Metro, scroll down to Point 2 in the "Additional notes".

Adapting for our project, we get:

http://localhost:8080/helloworld/services/hello_world?wsdl

"localhost:8080" is the host and port of the servlet container.
"helloworld" is the name of the war file.
"services" comes from the url-pattern element in the web.xml file.
"hello_world" comes from the address attribute in the cxf-servlet.xml file (for CXF).

If we look into the web.xml file (you'll need to look at the war file in the ...\samples\java_first_jaxws\build\war directory), we find:

servlet-name = cxf
url-pattern = /services/*

If we look into the cxf-servlet.xml file (in the wsdl directory), we find:

jaxws:server id="jaxwsService" serviceClass="demo.hw.server.HelloWorld" address="/hello_world"

Enjoy!