Knowing nothing of web services, I'm just trying to call some "isAlive" service that is described by a wsdl.
This seems to me like something that should take no more than 2-5 lines of code but I can't seem to find anything but huge long examples involving 3rd party packages etc.
Anyone has any ideas? If it is always suppose to be long maybe a good explanation as to why it has to be so complicated will also be appreciated. I'm using Eclipse and the wsdl is SOAP.
JDK 6 comes with jax-ws, everything you need to develop a client for a web service.
I'm unable to find some simple enough examples to post , but start at https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/
Edit: here's a simple example - a client for this web service: http://xmethods.com/ve2/ViewListing.po?key=427565
C:\temp> md generated C:\temp>"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_17"\bin\wsimport -keep -d generated http://www50.brinkster.com/vbfacileinpt/np.asmx?wsdl Create PrimeClient.java which look like:
import javax.xml.ws.WebServiceRef; import com.microsoft.webservices.*; //the above namespace is from the generated code from the wsdl. public class PrimeClient { //Cant get this to work.. @WebServiceRef(wsdlLocation="http://www50.brinkster.com/vbfacileinpt/np.asmx?wsdl") static PrimeNumbers service; public static void main(String[] args) { try { service = new PrimeNumbers(); PrimeClient client = new PrimeClient(); client.doTest(args); } catch(Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } public void doTest(String[] args) { try { System.out.println("Retrieving the port from the following service: " + service); PrimeNumbersSoap pm = service.getPrimeNumbersSoap(); System.out.println("Invoking the getPrimeNumbersSoap operation "); System.out.println(pm.getPrimeNumbers(100)); } catch(Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } } Compile and run:
C:\temp>"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_17"\bin\javac -cp generated PrimeClient.java C:\temp>"c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_17"\bin\java -cp .;generated PrimeClient Retrieving the port from the following service: com.microsoft.webservices.PrimeN umbers@19b5393 Invoking the getPrimeNumbersSoap operation 1,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37,41,43,47,53,59,61,67,71,73,79,83,89,97 
There are plugins for IDE's which generate the needed code to consume a web service for you.
After the plugin generates you the base methods you simply call a web service like that:
TransportServiceSoap service = new TransportServiceLocator().getTransportServiceSoap(); service.getCities(); Have a look at http://urbas.tk/index.php/2009/02/20/eclipse-plug-in-as-a-web-service-client/
There are three ways to write a web service client
Example for Dynamic Proxy Client
import java.net.URL; import javax.xml.rpc.Service; import javax.xml.rpc.JAXRPCException; import javax.xml.namespace.QName; import javax.xml.rpc.ServiceFactory; import dynamicproxy.HelloIF; public class HelloClient { public static void main(String[] args) { try { String UrlString = "Your WSDL URL"; // String nameSpaceUri = "urn:Foo"; String serviceName = "MyHelloService"; String portName = "HelloIFPort"; System.out.println("UrlString = " + UrlString); URL helloWsdlUrl = new URL(UrlString); ServiceFactory serviceFactory = ServiceFactory.newInstance(); Service helloService = serviceFactory.createService(helloWsdlUrl, new QName(nameSpaceUri, serviceName)); dynamicproxy.HelloIF myProxy = (dynamicproxy.HelloIF) helloService.getPort( new QName(nameSpaceUri, portName), dynamicproxy.HelloIF.class); System.out.println(myProxy.sayHello("Buzz")); } catch (Exception ex) { ex.printStackTrace(); } } } 
The easiest I've found so far to use is the Idea IntelliJ wizard which - using Metro libraries - generate a very small code snippet which works fine with Java 6.
