Before you start

Learn what to expect from this tutorial and how to get the most out of it.

About this series

This tutorial is the sixth in a series that describes the IBM Autonomic Integrated Development Environment (AIDE) toolkit and its use in the increasingly crucial area of information technology (IT) management. The preceding tutorials have explored the IT management value chain from the managed elements all the way up to the management applications. This tutorial focuses more deeply on two of the foundational elements of the AIDE package itself -- Axis and Tomcat.

In keeping with the style of the earlier tutorials in this series (see Resources), this tutorial explores the code examples bundled with the Axis distribution. So, when you have installed the Axis distribution, you can easily run the examples for yourself. Effective IT management solutions require powerful component technologies -- a theme further explored in this tutorial.

This series is for anyone who knows some Java™ programming and wants to be able to use Web services through AIDE technology and its components to create effective IT management systems. AIDE incorporates several powerful open source technologies, including Eclipse, Tomcat (or IBM WebSphere® Application Server), and Axis. The earlier tutorials have discussed Eclipse at some length. Apart from deployment and undeployment of touchpoints, you haven't yet seen too much on Axis and Tomcat. This tutorial is intended to fill this gap and simultaneously help you to deepen your knowledge of IT management.

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About this tutorial

For this sixth tutorial, the platform is still quite generic: Any platform that supports Eclipse, the AIDE toolkit, and Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) V5.0. For example, Microsoft® Windows® XP is more than adequate. All the example code was written and tested on a computer running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Axis and Tomcat include some management utilities, and you see and use these throughout this tutorial. The tutorial is divided into three major sections:

• The service-oriented background to Axis and Tomcat
• Using Axis and Tomcat
• Managing Axis and Tomcat

Section 1 sets the scene for why Axis and Tomcat (as well as other application servers) have become so important. Section 2 offers observations on AIDE and the way it builds, deploys, and consumes Axis-based services. The tutorial concludes with a discussion about how you can manage Axis and Tomcat.

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Objectives

Learn about the key roles that Axis and Tomcat play in AIDE.

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Prerequisites

This tutorial is written for programmers who have a reasonable knowledge of Java programming and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) elements. The ability to use Java EE elements, such as application servers, is helpful but not necessary. Detailed directions are provided throughout so that you can complete the tutorial either in conjunction with or in isolation from the other tutorials in the series.

Axis is an open source SOAP server and client. The Axis distribution includes comprehensive documentation. If you're not familiar with AIDE, be sure to review the Axis documentation -- in particular, the Axis installation instructions and user guide. These documents also provide good insight into the design philosophy and general approach that the Axis developers have taken.

One last point about the Axis documents: In cases where the latter provide comprehensive coverage of a topic (for example, service styles and Web Services Description Language, or WSDL), this tutorial does not cover the same ground. Instead, it refers you to the published documents.

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System requirements

To run the examples in this tutorial, the minimum platform requirements are a computer running Windows XP on which you've installed the AIDE software and Axis, Tomcat V5, and Java SE V5.0.

Note: You will use Axis and Tomcat in isolation from AIDE, which is why you must install them separately.

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Table of contents

• Before you start
• Getting started with Axis and Tomcat
• Using Axis and Tomcat
• Deploy and list a simple Axis Web service
• How does all this about Axis compare with using AIDE?
• Managing Axis and Tomcat
• Summary
• Resources
• About the author

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Next steps from IBM

WebSphere Application Server can leverage its built in Web Services support to expose services to remote consumers in an industry-standard way.

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• Try: The no-charge WebSphere Application Server Community Edition is a pre-integrated, lightweight Java 5 application server built on Apache Tomcat and includes built in Web Services support.
• Article: Learn how to use of the JAX-WS programming model to create dispatch and dynamic proxy clients and how to create an asynchronous Web service client.
• Tutorial: This tutorial takes you through the steps to deploy Data Web Services to the WebSphere Application Server Community Edition.
• Demo: This demo shows how to extract and install the IBM Java Platform, Java EE 5 SDK with WebSphere Application Server.
• Buy: WebSphere Application Server - Express

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