[java] How to avoid the need to specify the WSDL location in a CXF or JAX-WS generated webservice client?

When I generate a webservice client using wsdl2java from CXF (which generates something similar to wsimport), via maven, my services starts with codes like this:

@WebServiceClient(name = "StatusManagement", 
                  wsdlLocation = "c:/some_absolute_path_to_a_wsdl_file.wsdl",
                  targetNamespace = "http://tempuri.org/") 
public class StatusManagement extends Service {

    public final static URL WSDL_LOCATION;
    public final static QName SERVICE = new QName("http://tempuri.org/", "StatusManagement");
    public final static QName WSHttpBindingIStatus = new QName("http://tempuri.org/", "WSHttpBinding_IStatus");
    static {
        URL url = null;
        try {
            url = new URL("c:/some_absolute_path_to_a_wsdl_file.wsdl");
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            System.err.println("Can not initialize the default wsdl from c:/some_absolute_path_to_a_wsdl_file.wsdl");
            // e.printStackTrace();
        }
        WSDL_LOCATION = url;
    }

The hardcoded absolute path really sucks. The generated class won't work in any other computer other than mine.

The first idea is to put the WSDL file (plus everything it imports, other WSDLs and XSDs) somewhere in a jar-file and classpath it. But we want to avoid this. Since all that thing was generated by CXF and JAXB based in the WSDLs and XSDs, we see no point in needing to know the WSDL at runtime.

The wsdlLocation attribute is intended to override the WSDL location (at least this is what i readed somewhere), and it default value is "". Since we are using maven, we tried to include <wsdlLocation></wsdlLocation> inside the configuration of CXF to try to force the source generator to leave the wsdlLocation blank. However, this simply makes it ignore the XML tag because it is empty. We did a really ugly shameful hack, using <wsdlLocation>" + "</wsdlLocation>.

This changes other places too:

@WebServiceClient(name = "StatusManagement", 
                  wsdlLocation = "" + "",
                  targetNamespace = "http://tempuri.org/") 
public class StatusManagement extends Service {

    public final static URL WSDL_LOCATION;
    public final static QName SERVICE = new QName("http://tempuri.org/", "StatusManagement");
    public final static QName WSHttpBindingIStatus = new QName("http://tempuri.org/", "WSHttpBinding_IStatus");
    static {
        URL url = null;
        try {
            url = new URL("" + "");
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            System.err.println("Can not initialize the default wsdl from " + "");
            // e.printStackTrace();
        }
        WSDL_LOCATION = url;
    }

So, my questions are:

1. Does we really need a WSDL location even if all the classes were generated by CXF and JAXB? If yes, why?

2. If we do not really need the WSDL location, what is the proper and clean way to make CXF not generate it and avoiding it entirely?

3. What bad side effects we could get with that hack? We still can't test that to see what happens, so if someone could say in advance, it would be nice.

I was able to generate

static {
    WSDL_LOCATION = null;
}

by configuring pom file to have a null for wsdlurl:

    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
        <artifactId>cxf-codegen-plugin</artifactId>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <id>generate-sources</id>
                <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                <configuration>
                    <sourceRoot>${basedir}/target/generated/src/main/java</sourceRoot>
                    <wsdlOptions>
                        <wsdlOption>
                            <wsdl>${basedir}/src/main/resources/service.wsdl</wsdl>
                            <extraargs>
                                <extraarg>-client</extraarg>
                                <extraarg>-wsdlLocation</extraarg>
                                <wsdlurl />
                            </extraargs>
                        </wsdlOption>
                    </wsdlOptions>
                </configuration>
                <goals>
                    <goal>wsdl2java</goal>
                </goals>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>

Update for CXF 3.1.7

In my case I put the WSDL files in src/main/resources and added this path to my Srouces in Eclipse (Right Click on Project-> Build Path -> Configure Build Path...-> Source[Tab] -> Add Folder).

Here is how my pom file looks like and as can be seen there is NO wsdlLocation option needed:

       <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
            <artifactId>cxf-codegen-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${cxf.version}</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>generate-sources</id>
                    <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                    <configuration>
                        <sourceRoot>${project.build.directory}/generated/cxf</sourceRoot>
                        <wsdlOptions>
                            <wsdlOption>
                                <wsdl>classpath:wsdl/FOO_SERVICE.wsdl</wsdl>
                            </wsdlOption>
                        </wsdlOptions>
                    </configuration>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>wsdl2java</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

And here is the generated Service. As can be seen the URL is get from ClassLoader and not from the Absolute File-Path

@WebServiceClient(name = "EventService", 
              wsdlLocation = "classpath:wsdl/FOO_SERVICE.wsdl",
              targetNamespace = "http://www.sas.com/xml/schema/sas-svcs/rtdm-1.1/wsdl/") 
public class EventService extends Service {

public final static URL WSDL_LOCATION;

public final static QName SERVICE = new QName("http://www.sas.com/xml/schema/sas-svcs/rtdm-1.1/wsdl/", "EventService");
public final static QName EventPort = new QName("http://www.sas.com/xml/schema/sas-svcs/rtdm-1.1/wsdl/", "EventPort");
static {
    URL url = EventService.class.getClassLoader().getResource("wsdl/FOO_SERVICE.wsdl");
    if (url == null) {
        java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(EventService.class.getName())
            .log(java.util.logging.Level.INFO, 
                 "Can not initialize the default wsdl from {0}", "classpath:wsdl/FOO_SERVICE.wsdl");
    }       
    WSDL_LOCATION = url;   
}

1) In some cases, yes. If the WSDL contains things like Policies and such that direct the runtime behavior, then the WSDL may be required at runtime. Artifacts are not generated for policy related things and such. Also, in some obscure RPC/Literal cases, not all the namespaces that are needed are output in the generated code (per spec). Thus, the wsdl would be needed for them. Obscure cases though.

2) I thought something like would work. What version of CXF? That sounds like a bug. You can try an empty string in there (just spaces). Not sure if that works or not. That said, in your code, you can use the constructor that takes the WSDL URL and just pass null. The wsdl wouldn't be used.

3) Just the limitations above.

Seriously, the top answer is not working for me. tried cxf.version 2.4.1 and 3.0.10. and generate absolute path with wsdlLocation every times.

My solution is to use the wsdl2java command in the apache-cxf-3.0.10\bin\ with -wsdlLocation classpath:wsdl/QueryService.wsdl.

Detail:

    wsdl2java -encoding utf-8 -p com.jeiao.boss.testQueryService -impl -wsdlLocation classpath:wsdl/testQueryService.wsdl http://127.0.0.1:9999/platf/testQueryService?wsdl

Is it possible that you can avoid using wsdl2java? You can straight away use CXF FrontEnd APIs to invoke your SOAP Webservice. The only catch is that you need to create your SEI and VOs on your client end. Here is a sample code.

package com.aranin.weblog4j.client;

import com.aranin.weblog4j.services.BookShelfService;
import com.aranin.weblog4j.vo.BookVO;
import org.apache.cxf.jaxws.JaxWsProxyFactoryBean;

public class DemoClient {
    public static void main(String[] args){
        String serviceUrl = "http://localhost:8080/weblog4jdemo/bookshelfservice";
        JaxWsProxyFactoryBean factory = new JaxWsProxyFactoryBean();
        factory.setServiceClass(BookShelfService.class);
        factory.setAddress(serviceUrl);
        BookShelfService bookService = (BookShelfService) factory.create();

        //insert book
        BookVO bookVO = new BookVO();
        bookVO.setAuthor("Issac Asimov");
        bookVO.setBookName("Foundation and Earth");

        String result = bookService.insertBook(bookVO);

        System.out.println("result : " + result);

        bookVO = new BookVO();
        bookVO.setAuthor("Issac Asimov");
        bookVO.setBookName("Foundation and Empire");

        result = bookService.insertBook(bookVO);

        System.out.println("result : " + result);

        bookVO = new BookVO();
        bookVO.setAuthor("Arthur C Clarke");
        bookVO.setBookName("Rama Revealed");

        result = bookService.insertBook(bookVO);

        System.out.println("result : " + result);

        //retrieve book

        bookVO = bookService.getBook("Foundation and Earth");

        System.out.println("book name : " + bookVO.getBookName());
        System.out.println("book author : " + bookVO.getAuthor());

    }
}

You can see the full tutorial here http://weblog4j.com/2012/05/01/developing-soap-web-service-using-apache-cxf/

For those using org.jvnet.jax-ws-commons:jaxws-maven-plugin to generate a client from WSDL at build-time:

• Place the WSDL somewhere in your src/main/resources
• Do not prefix the wsdlLocation with classpath:
• Do prefix the wsdlLocation with /

Example:

• WSDL is stored in /src/main/resources/foo/bar.wsdl
• Configure jaxws-maven-plugin with <wsdlDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/resources/foo</wsdlDirectory> and <wsdlLocation>/foo/bar.wsdl</wsdlLocation>

We use

wsdlLocation = "WEB-INF/wsdl/WSDL.wsdl"

In other words, use a path relative to the classpath.

I believe the WSDL may be needed at runtime for validation of messages during marshal/unmarshal.

@Martin Devillers solution works fine. For completeness, providing the steps below:

1. Put your wsdl to resource directory like : src/main/resource

2. In pom file, add both wsdlDirectory and wsdlLocation(don't miss / at the beginning of wsdlLocation), like below. While wsdlDirectory is used to generate code and wsdlLocation is used at runtime to create dynamic proxy.

   <wsdlDirectory>src/main/resources/mydir</wsdlDirectory>
   <wsdlLocation>/mydir/my.wsdl</wsdlLocation>
   

3. Then in your java code(with no-arg constructor):

   MyPort myPort = new MyPortService().getMyPort();
   

4. Here is the full code generation part in pom file, with fluent api in generated code.

   <plugin>
   <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
   <artifactId>jaxws-maven-plugin</artifactId>
   <version>2.5</version>
   
   <dependencies>
       <dependency>
           <groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2_commons</groupId>
           <artifactId>jaxb2-fluent-api</artifactId>
           <version>3.0</version>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
           <groupId>com.sun.xml.ws</groupId>
           <artifactId>jaxws-tools</artifactId>
           <version>2.3.0</version>
       </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   
   <executions>
       <execution>
           <id>wsdl-to-java-generator</id>
           <goals>
               <goal>wsimport</goal>
           </goals>
           <configuration>
               <xjcArgs>
                   <xjcArg>-Xfluent-api</xjcArg>
               </xjcArgs>
               <keep>true</keep>
               <wsdlDirectory>src/main/resources/package</wsdlDirectory>
               <wsdlLocation>/package/my.wsdl</wsdlLocation>
               <sourceDestDir>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/annotations/jaxb</sourceDestDir>
               <packageName>full.package.here</packageName>
           </configuration>
       </execution>
   </executions>