Parse WSDL effectively

As a WSDL’s constituents are well-defined already, it is feasible to use a parser that can get the elements of the WSDL using APIs that are already defined. This will minimize complexity in the code and will help in achieving better performance.

 

Oracle WSDL parser is one such option.

 

It is only needed to import the necessary classes as the APIs are already defined and packaged with wsdl.jar.

 

//importing the necessary classes from library

import oracle.wsdl.WSDLDocument;

import oracle.wsdl.internal.Binding;

import oracle.wsdl.internal.Definitions;

import oracle.wsdl.internal.Documentation;

import oracle.wsdl.internal.Import;

import oracle.wsdl.internal.Message;

import oracle.wsdl.internal.PortType;

…….

 

 

WSDLDocument wsdldoc = new WSDLDocument(wsdl_url);

//getting definition element

Definitions definition = wsdldoc.getDefinitions();

//getting service element

Map servicesMap = definition.getServices();

//getting binding element

Map bindingsMap = definition.getBindings();

//getting PortType element

Map ptypesMap = definition.getPortTypes();

//getting message element

Map messagesMap = definition.getMessages();

//getting import details

Map importsMap = definition.getImports();

//getting documentation details

Documentation docs = definition.getDocumentation();

 

 

As there can be multiple elements, an “iterator” can be used to parse an individual element.

For Example:

 

Iterator iterator = servicesMap.entrySet().iterator();

        while (iterator.hasNext()) {

            Map.Entry me = (Map.Entry) iterator.next();

            …….

        }

 

The above code fragments keep things fairly simple while processing a WSDL.

 

Apache Woden

 

Woden provides Java class library for reading, manipulating, creating and writing WSDL documents.

 

Woden’s DOM-based XML parsing depends on Apache Xerces 2.7.1. Its XML Schema support it depends on the schema parser and object model implemented by the Apache Web Services Commons (ws-commons) XmlSchema project.

 

//importing necessary classes from woden jars

import org.apache.woden.WSDLException;

import org.apache.woden.WSDLFactory;

import org.apache.woden.WSDLReader;

import org.apache.woden.wsdl20.Binding;

import org.apache.woden.wsdl20.Description;

import org.apache.woden.wsdl20.Interface;

import org.apache.woden.wsdl20.Service;

….

 

  

 

WSDLFactory factory = WSDLFactory.newInstance();

WSDLReader reader = factory.newWSDLReader();

reader.setFeature(WSDLReader.FEATURE_VALIDATION, true);

String wsdlurl = “C://axis2-1.4.1//newwsdl.wsdl”;

 

//reading the WSDL Document

DescriptionElement descElem = (DescriptionElement) reader.readWSDL(wsdlurl);

Description descComp = descElem.toComponent();

 

//getting Interface, Binding and Service elements

InterfaceElement[] interfaces = descElem.getInterfaceElements();

BindingElement[] bindings = descElem.getBindingElements();

ServiceElement[] services = descElem.getServiceElements();

  

 

Complete details about usage and extensibility of woden are available at:

 

http://ws.apache.org/woden/userguide.html

 

JWSDL:

 

 

JWSDL is another option that is intended for use by developers of Web services tools and others who need to utilize WSDL documents in Java.

JWSDL is designed to allow users to read, modify, write, create and re-organize WSDL documents in memory. JWSDL is not designed to validate WSDL documents beyond syntactic validity. One use of JWSDL is to develop a tool that validates WSDL semantically.

JWSDL is designed for use in WSDL editors and tools where a partial, incomplete or incorrect WSDL document may require representation.

 

Details of JWSDL can be obtained by accessing the following link:

 

http://wsdl4j.sourceforge.net/downloads/JSR110_proposed_final_draft.pdf

RPC-style vs Document-Style Web Service

There has been lot of confusion on which style of web service is used but It is always recommended to use a Document-style webservice to realize SOA.

RPC style web service:
These web services are easier to create and are usually synchronous in nature.
The responsibility of marshalling and de marshalling lays with SOAP engine, This leads to significant performance degradations when message passed to an operation is large or complex.
Since large sized messages lead to performance degradation in RPC style web service, they are not suitable for implementing coarse grained functionality requiring information messages having more number of fields.
However fine grained functionalities is better implemented by RPC style web services.
Document style web service:
Document style web services are more time consuming to create, as it is the onus of the service to create the required objects from XML document.
These web services can consume large sized documents without any significant drop in performance as there are no overheads of marshalling and de marshalling associated with SOAP engine.
Document style web services are ideal for representing coarse rained functionality as a single large sized  document can be used to transfer information required to implement a business functionality.
Document style web service are primarily used for implementing asynchronous service.

RPC encoded web services are easiest  create but offers least control in terms of usage of custom data types, validation and interoperability.
RPC encoded web service are slower in performance because of added overheads of marshalling and un marshalling.
Document literal web services are harder to create but scores higher in all the above metrics and this is one of the reasons WS –I basic profile encourages the usage of document literal web services.

Document style web services are better suited for defining custom data types as they are not constrained by the usage of a particular encoding style. Document –literal web services offers the best performance and RPC –encoded web services offers the least performance as in document-literal web service overheads of marshalling and un marshalling no longer lies with SOAP engine. In a document –literal web service alternative techniques such as  SAX based parsing or custom data binding tool like XML beans, castor can be used.In case SOAP engine does not maintain state a document –literal web service can be used to carry state related data in the document. While using RPC –encoded web service often platform specific data structures are exposed in WSDL, which might not be supported by other platforms.