Activiti REST in Weblogic

When trying to deploy the Activiti REST WAR in WebLogic servers, we found that the requests are reaching the server, but are filtered by the WebLogic server. To make sure your requests reach the Application bypassing the WebLogic filters, you must set the enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials property in config.xml -> security-configuration to false

...
<enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials>false</enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials>
</security-configuration>

From WebLogic servers 9.2 and above, client requests that use the HTTP BASIC authentication must pass WebLogic Server authentication, even if access control is not enabled on the target resource.

The setting of the Security Configuration MBean flag enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials determines this behavior. (The DomainMBean can return the new Security Configuration MBean for the domain.) It specifies whether or not the system should allow requests with invalid HTTP BASIC authentication credentials to access unsecured resources.

More info at “Understanding BASIC Authentication with Unsecured Resources“.

Create Web Services using Axis Java2WSDL, WSDL2Java and Eclipse for all Servers manually – Part 2

With all the basic configurations done as specified in the last Article we continue to develop the Business logic.

  1. Create a class named Calculator.java, place four public methods add, subtract, multiply and delete and place the appropriate logics in it.
    package com.itechgenie.services.impl;
    public class Calculator {
    	public int add(int a, int b) {
    		return a+b  ;
    	}
    
    	public int subtract(int a, int b) {
    		return a-b ;
    	}
    
    	public int multiply(int a, int b) {
    		return a * b ;
    	}
    
    	public int divide(int a, int b) throws ArithmeticException {
    		return a /b ;
    	}
    }
  2. This is the class that has to be exposed as the Web Service and we write the funky TestRunner.java class to do all out operations like creating WSDL file, creating stub file etc.
  3. Generate WSDL file using Java2WSDL: Axis has a tool called Java2WSDL, which generates a WSDL file for a web service using a Java class. Java2WSDL file takes the following arguments.
    1. o – name for WSDL file -> calculator.wsdl
    2. n – target namespace -> mx:com.itechgenie.services.Calculator
    3. l – url of web service -> http://<host:port>/<Project-Name>/services/calculator

    Summing up the above arguments the following command line arguments is created.

    String java2wsdlArgs[] = {"-ocalculator.wsdl", "-nmx:com.itechgenie.services.Calculator", "-v", "-lhttp://localhost:8080/axis/services/calculator", "com.itechgenie.services.Calculator"} ;

    Read this Article on how to run the command line java tools from Eclipse.
    You can run the Java2WSDL as follows in the TestRunner class. Naah, don’t ask how, just put the following lines the main method and press CTRL + F11.

    try {
    	Java2WSDL.main(java2wsdlArgs) ;
    } catch (Exception e) {
    	e.printStackTrace() ;
    }

    The Java2WSDL class has the System.exit(0); method called from inside. So lines after the Java2WSDL will not be executed. To get the other arguments supported you can just run Java2WSDL.main(new String[0]) ;. This will display all the arguments supported by Java2WSDL Utility and this works for other utilities also.
    After running this Utility you will find the calculator.wsdl file created in the root folder of the Project.

  4. Generate Server side and Client side codes using WSDL2Java: WSDL2Java is another tools provided by the AXIS, which can generate server side and client side Java classes using a WSDL file. These classes are needed for deploying the web service and also for accessing the web service using a Java client. This tool expects the following argument which includes the WSDL file generated in the last step.
    1. o – output folder -> src
    2. p – package for generated classes -> mx:com.itechgenie.services. generated
    3. s – generate server side classes as well
    4. *.wsdl – WSDL file of any web service

    Summing up the above arguments the following command line arguments is created.

    String wsdl2javaArgs[] = {"-osrc", "-pcom.itechgenie.generated.service", "-s", "calculator.wsdl", "-v"} ;

    Read this Article on how to run the command line java tools from Eclipse.
    Now run the WSDL2Java utility as follows.

    try {
    	WSDL2Java.main(wsdl2javaArgs) ;
    } catch (Exception e) {
    	e.printStackTrace() ;
    }

    Once the above command is run, Just refresh the project in eclipse, you will find the following files created inside the “com.itechgenie.generated.service” package.

    1. Calculator.java
    2. CalculatorService.java
    3. CalculatorServiceLocator.java
    4. CalculatorSoapBindingImpl.java
    5. CalculatorSoapBindingStub.java
    6. deploy.wsdd
    7. undeploy.wsdd

    The above files can be used in both Server and Clients side as Skeleton (CalculatorSoapBindingImpl.java) and the Stub (CalculatorSoapBindingStub.java) respectively.

  5. Binding the business logic with the Skeleton: Take the Skeleton file and you will find the exact methods that were available in our Business logic class (Calculator.java.).
    Create a instance of the Business class and invoke the appropriate method from the skeleton as follows (Find the lines highlighted in yellow.).

    package com.itechgenie.generated.service;
    
    import com.itechgenie.services.Calculator;
    
    public class CalculatorSoapBindingImpl implements com.itechgenie.generated.service.Calculator{
    
    	Calculator calculatorImpl = new Calculator() ;
    
        public int add(int in0, int in1) throws java.rmi.RemoteException {
        	return calculatorImpl.add(in0, in1) ;
        }
    
        public int subtract(int in0, int in1) throws java.rmi.RemoteException {
        	return calculatorImpl.subtract(in0, in1) ;
        }
    
        public int divide(int in0, int in1) throws java.rmi.RemoteException {
        	return calculatorImpl.divide(in0, in1) ;
        }
    
        public int multiply(int in0, int in1) throws java.rmi.RemoteException {
        	return calculatorImpl.multiply(in0, in1) ;
        }
    
    }

    That’s it; we are now done with the development part of the Web Service. All we have to do is to configure to make the service up and running.

  6. Last configurations to make our service available: Open the server-config.wsdd file inside the WEB-INF folder. You will find the following lines.
      <!--  Your Service from the deploy.wsdd file - Starts here -->
    
      <!--  Your Service from the deploy.wsdd file - Ends here -->

    Keep the file aside and open the deploy.wsdd from the WSDL2Java generated files. Copy the <service> … </service> tag completely and paste in between the comments said above.

  7. Conclusion: You can follow the steps 6 to 11 and create as many services as you want and paste them in the server-config.wsdd.
    With this the configurations for the Web Service is over. Export the Project as a War and deploy it in Web Server and point to the URL http://<host:port>/<Project-Name>/services
  8. This URL should display all the services generated from steps 6 to 11 with the links the WSDL files for the above.

    Click here to download the sample project.

Create Web Services using Axis Java2WSDL, WSDL2Java and Eclipse for all Servers manually – Part 1

There a lot of Web Service implementations available in market. The most widely used among them is the Axis way of implementation. There are a lot of Examples available in the web to create expose, consume the Web services using the Axis packages. But it is not feasible to work get the Axis complete packages inside corporate offices all of a sudden and yes I faced the same situation.

After some investment of time I found some funky stuff in web to create a Web Service with just a couple of jars in hand and off-course with the help of Eclipse.

Prerequisites:

  1. Eclipse, any version should be ok, but I was using the Eclipse Indigo with Ant installed in it.
  2. The set of jars needed. Jars are included in the Project sample.
    1. axis.jar
    2. commons-discovery-0.2.jar
    3. commons-logging.jar
    4. jaxrpc.jar
    5. log4j-1.2.15.jar
    6. saaj.jar
    7. wsdl4j.jar
    8. The sample web.xml, server-config.wsdd (These will be used later in the development steps).

Steps to develop Web Services:

  1. Create a Dynamic Web Project “SampleWebService” in Eclipse.
  2. Place the above said jars in the WEB-INF/jars folder.
  3. Open the Web.xml file and copy the following contents into it somewhere between tags. These contents are available in the sample attached.
      <servlet>
        <display-name>Apache-Axis Servlet</display-name>
        <servlet-name>AxisServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.axis.transport.http.AxisServlet</servlet-class>
      </servlet>
      <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>AxisServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/servlet/AxisServlet</url-pattern>
      </servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>AxisServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.jws</url-pattern>
      </servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>AxisServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/services/*</url-pattern>
      </servlet-mapping>
      <servlet>
        <display-name>Axis Admin Servlet</display-name>
        <servlet-name>AdminServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.axis.transport.http.AdminServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>100</load-on-startup>
      </servlet>
      <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>AdminServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/servlet/AdminServlet</url-pattern>
      </servlet-mapping>
  4. Copy the server-config.wsdd next to web.xml file. We will reuse this file once again after complete the business logic of the server.
  5. Now the basic configurations are complete, we have to develop the business logic for the Web Service. In my example I have taken the Old school Calculator sample.
    Click here to go to the next Part of this article.

What happened to Sun.com

Last night when i checked for the Sun Microsystems site (http://www.sun.com), i was shocked to see that the site has been redirected to Oracle.com. This is the reflection of Oracle’s acquisition of Sun.

On January 27, 2010, Oracle announced it finalized its acquisition of Sun. This combination will transforms the IT industry. With the addition of servers, storage, SPARC processors, the Solaris operating system, Java, and the MySQL database to Oracle’s portfolio of database, middleware, and business applications, it plans to engineer and deliver open and integrated systems—from applications to disk—where all the pieces fit and work together out of the box.

It is belived that each layer of the stack will be architected to improve performance, leverage innovation and centralize management so that IT will be more predictable, more supportable, and more secure. If all these are achived customers will be benefited with their system performance, reliability and security going up and their system integration and management costs going down. The changes are effected from the web site of the Sun Microsystems.

At last the giant Oracle has got power over the Sun Microsystems and they started the changes over the Sun website. Those who wants to get accessed to Sun’s site may look at the right top corner for the “Sun Quick Links“.