SAAJ - Web Service SOAP Client

By arunraj

In this article, lets discuss about accessing a Web Service using SAAJ.

What is SAAJ?
SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) is mainly used for dealing directly with SOAP Request/Response messages which happens behind the scenes in any Web Service API. It allows the developers to directly send and receive soap messages instead of using JAX-WS.

Let's see an example of how to access the Web Service created in the Axis2 - Simple Web Service Example.

Now, we are going to develop Web Service Client using SAAJ API. Have a look at the following Web Service Client code.

SaaJSoapClient.java

import javax.xml.soap.MessageFactory;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPBody;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPConnection;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPConnectionFactory;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPElement;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPEnvelope;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPMessage;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPPart;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;

/**
 * SOAP Client Implementation using SAAJ Api.
 */
public class SaaJSoapClient
{
        /**
         * Method used to create the SOAP Request
         */
        private static SOAPMessage createSOAPRequest() throws Exception
        {
                MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
                SOAPMessage soapMessage = messageFactory.createMessage();
                SOAPPart soapPart = soapMessage.getSOAPPart();
               
                /*
                Construct SOAP Request Message:
                <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"
                        xmlns:sam="http://samples.axis2.techdive.in">
                   <soap:Header/>
                   <soap:Body>
                      <sam:getStudentName>
                         <!--Optional:-->
                         <sam:rollNumber>3</sam:rollNumber>
                      </sam:getStudentName>
                   </soap:Body>
                </soap:Envelope>
                 */

                // SOAP Envelope
                SOAPEnvelope envelope = soapPart.getEnvelope();
                envelope.addNamespaceDeclaration("sam", "http://samples.axis2.techdive.in");

                // SOAP Body
                SOAPBody soapBody = envelope.getBody();
                SOAPElement soapBodyElem = soapBody.addChildElement("getStudentName", "sam");
                SOAPElement soapBodyElem1 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement("rollNumber", "sam");
                soapBodyElem1.addTextNode("3");

                soapMessage.saveChanges();

                // Check the input
                System.out.println("Request SOAP Message = ");
                soapMessage.writeTo(System.out);
                System.out.println();
                return soapMessage;
        }

        /**
         * Method used to print the SOAP Response
         */
        private static void printSOAPResponse(SOAPMessage soapResponse) throws Exception
        {
                TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
                Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
                Source sourceContent = soapResponse.getSOAPPart().getContent();
                System.out.println("\nResponse SOAP Message = ");
                StreamResult result = new StreamResult(System.out);
                transformer.transform(sourceContent, result);
        }

        /**
         * Starting point for the SAAJ - SOAP Client Testing
         */
        public static void main(String args[])
        {
                try
                {
                         // Create SOAP Connection
                        SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
                        SOAPConnection soapConnection = soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();

                        //Send SOAP Message to SOAP Server
                        String url = "http://localhost:8080/axis2/services/Student?wsdl";
                        SOAPMessage soapResponse = soapConnection.call(createSOAPRequest(), url);
                       
                        // Process the SOAP Response
                        printSOAPResponse(soapResponse);
                       
                        soapConnection.close();
                }
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                        System.err.println("Error occurred while sending SOAP Request to Server");
                        e.printStackTrace();
                }
        }
}

Here we create a SOAP request for accessing the Student details. Look in to the createSOAPRequest() method. It creates a SOAP request message envelope, which includes name space, web service method name and necessary parameters for the same.

This method returns a Soap Message, which is sent as a request to Web Service. The SOAP response received is printed using the printSOAPResponse(..) method.

Output
Here is the sample output:

Request SOAP Message =
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:sam="http://samples.axis2.techdive.in"><SOAP-ENV:Header/><SOAP-ENV:Body><sam:getStudentName><sam:rollNumber>3</sam:rollNumber></sam:getStudentName></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Response SOAP Message =
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soapenv:Body><ns1:getStudentNameResponse xmlns:ns1="http://samples.axis2.techdive.in"><ns1:return>Jack</ns1:return></ns1:getStudentNameResponse></soapenv:Body></soapenv:Envelope>

Technology: 
SOAP
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