Step 2. Create the Web Service Client artifacts from WSDL

Time to complete this step: 10 minutes

OEPE provides a wizard that wraps the ClientGen Ant task. The ClientGen Ant task generates, from an existing WSDL file, the client component files that client applications use to invoke both WebLogic and non-WebLogic Web Services. This allows your web service to be called from a web or non-web client. When generating a JAX-WS Web Services, the output includes:

The Java class for the Service interface implementation for the particular Web Service you want to invoke.
JAXB data binding artifacts.
The Java class for any user-defined XML Schema data types included in the WSDL file.

Client applications can use the generated artifacts of ClientGen to invoke Web Services, for example with:

Stand-alone Java clients that do not use the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) Version 5 client container.
Java EE clients, such as EJBs, JSPs, and Web Services, that use the Java EE client container.

In this step, you will use the ClientGen tool for generating the client component files for web services (like Login, Product and Ticket web services) generated during previous tutorial parts.

Before you start this tutorial step, make sure that the TroubleTicketSystemServer and TroubleTicketSystemWebClient projects are deployed and running on the Oracle WebLogic Server.

You will perform the following tasks in this step:

Create web service client artifacts for the Login Web Service

In the Project Explorer view, right click the TroubleTicketSystemWebClient and choose New > Other...

In the New wizard page, select WebLogic Web Services > Web Service Client.

Click Next.

In the WSDL file wizard page, select the Remote option for WSDL location. Select the TroubleTicketSystemWebClient project for where to generate the client artifacts and specify the remote WSDL URL from which to generate the client artifacts. For the LoginWebService (from TroubleTicketSystemServer), the URL would be http://localhost:7001/TroubleTicketSystemServer/LoginWebServiceService?wsdl
Click the Validate WSDL button to validate the given WSDL URL for connectivity and availability. If the WSDL is valid, then it enables the Next and Finish buttons.
Click Next.
The Generated Artifacts wizard page offers following options:
- The Service field describes the LoginWebServiceService, which is the name of the Web service in the WSDL file for which the corresponding client component files should be generated.
- The JAR location field specifies the name and location of the JAR file into which the ClientGen ANT task packages the client source code, compiled classes, WSDL and client deployment descriptor file.
- Select the Keep generated ANT script option, if you want to keep the generated ANT script.
Click Next.
In the Customization Options wizard page, for the Runtime WSDL Location, select the Copy WSDL into client JAR option. Choosing the Copy WSDL into client JAR does the following:
- Sets the wsdlLocation attribute on the @WebServiceClient annotation of the generated Web Service Client class to a location in the client JAR file;
- Copies the WSDL file to that location in the produced client JAR file through the copyWsdl attribute. By default, the WSDL file is placed in the JAR at the META-INF/wsdls location. You can modify this location by overwriting the WSDL path in JAR field.
Click Finish.
That generates the LoginWebServiceService.jar file under the TroubleTicketSystemWebClient/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib folder.
You can open the generated JAR file with some JAR extracter program and review the generated artifacts.