This series of articles employs IBM tools and technologies to develop and deploy Web services-based applications. Specifically, the articles describe how to use the IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer to develop and test Web services and Web applications, how to deploy the Web services on IBM WebSphere Application Server, and how to publish and find Web services in the IBM WebSphere UDDI Registry.

Introduction

IBM believes Web services are a catalyst for the next generation of e-business, that of dynamic e-business. IBM has stated that the company will "enable dynamic e-business using open Internet standards so that our customers gain the highest level of business advantage" (see the Resources section below for more details). This series demonstrates how IBM is fulfilling this commitment. These articles focus on the following IBM tools and technologies:

• WebSphere Studio Application Developer Use to develop and test Web services and J2EE applications.
• WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 Use to deploy Web services and J2EE.

The articles show how you can use these IBM tools and technologies to create Web services-based solutions for dynamic e-business.

The series covers the following:

• Part 1, this article, demonstrates how to use Application Developer to create and test a Web service.
• Part 2 demonstrates how to use Application Developer to publish the Web service in the UDDI Registry and find the Web service in the UDDI Registry, import WSDL (Web Services Description Language) files, and create a client of the published Web service.
• Part 3 demonstrates how to use Application Developer to create and test a Web application that uses the Web service.
• Part 4 demonstrates how to deploy the Web service into WebSphere Application Server 4.0 and access the deployed Web service from a Web application running in Application Developer.

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WebSphere Studio Application Developer

WebSphere Studio Application Developer offers the application developer a number of capabilities, including Web application development and testing, XML development and testing, and Web services development and testing (which is the focus of this series). After you have installed Application Developer, you should spend some time going through Application Developer's online help documentation; it is extremely informative. In particular, you should read the Task topic, "Developing Web Services," and the Samples topic, "Tutorial: Creating a Web service from a Bean."

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The Web service

In this article, we'll create a Web service that produces weather forecasts. The Web service provides actual weather forecasts obtained in real time from the National Weather Service.

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Creating a Web service using Application Developer

We'll execute the following steps to create the Web service:

1. Create a Web project.
2. Import the JavaBean and the additional resources required.
3. Generate the WSDL and deployment descriptor describing the Web service, a proxy that assists a client in using the Web service, and a test client for the Web service.

Creating the Web project

If you have not already started Application Developer, do so. First, create a Web Project by selecting File => New => Web Project. The Create a Web Project wizard prompts you to enter a project name. In the Project name field, enter WForecast. Here, enter the name of the Enterprise Application archive; for this example, use WForecastEAR.

Click Next to go to the Module Dependencies pane. Click Next. You will now see the Define Java Build Settings pane.

We need to add to the build path because will be working with XML. Select the Libraries tab. On the subsequent pane, select Add External JARs. Browse to <install_path>/plugins/com.ibm.etools.websphere.runtime/lib and select xerces.jar, where <install_path> refers to where you placed the source code. Then, click OK. Click Finish to complete the creation of the Web Project.

Importing the Web service JavaBean and resources

Now we will import the Java and resource files for the Web service. To do so, you must first download and unzip the source code provided with this series of articles; see the Download section below.

Select the source folder in the WForecast project and select File => Import. In the resulting Import wizard, select File System and then click Next. In the File System pane of the Import wizard, select Browse and browse to where you unzipped the source code. Select the folder WForecast/source/and click OK. Expand the source folder and select the checkbox next to forecast, and then click Finish.

Application Developer will import WeatherForecast.java, a properties file and two HTML files. Your Application Developer Navigator view now looks as follows:

You can double-click on WeatherForecast.java to examine the JavaBean using Application Developer. The following figure shows key aspects of the source code for the bean; the references offer more details. The constructor (not shown) reads a properties file; the file contains a single property indicating whether the Web service should actually contact the National Weather Service (NWS) for the forecast, or used "canned" data. The method getStates() returns a DOM Element containing a list of state abbreviations; this information is hard-coded in the bean (as STATES). The getCities() method returns a DOM Element containing a list of reporting cities in the requested state; the city list is retrieved from the NWS, if online (using the harvestResults() method), and from a file, if not online; the method caches state and city information to improve performance. The getForecast() method returns a DOM Element containing a forecast for a city; the forecast is retrieved from the NWS if online and from a file if not; the method uses the cached state and city information to improve performance.

package forecast; 
public class WeatherForecast { 
    public Element getStates() { 
       DocumentImpl doc = new DocumentImpl(); 
       try { 
            // formulate a response 
            System.out.println("in getStates"); 
            Element response = doc.createElement("states"); 
            doc.appendChild(response); 
            for (int i=0; i<STATES.length; i++) { 
                createElementWithContent(doc, response, 
                  "state", STATES[i]); 
            } 
        } catch (Exception ex) { 
            ex.printStackTrace(); 
        } 
        return doc.getDocumentElement(); 
    } 
 
    public Element getCities(String state) { 
        DocumentImpl doc = new DocumentImpl(); 
        int i; 
        for (i=0; i<URL_MAP.length; i++) { 
            if (URL_MAP[i][1].equals(state)) { 
                break; 
            } 
        } 
        String result = null; 
        if (!offline) { 
            result = harvestResults(URL_BASE + URL_MAP[i][0]); 
        } 
        ... 
        stateCached = state; 
        cityCache = findCities(result); 
        Enumeration cities = cityCache.elements(); 
        cityCache = new Vector(); 
        try { 
            // formulate a response 
            Element response = doc.createElement("cities"); 
            doc.appendChild(response); 
            response.setAttribute("state", state); 
            while (cities.hasMoreElements()) { 
                String [] ce = processCity((String) 
                  cities.nextElement()); 
                cityCache.addElement(CE); 
                createElementWithContent(doc, response, "city", CE[1]); 
            } 
        } catch (Exception ex) { 
            ex.printStackTrace(); 
        } 
        return doc.getDocumentElement(); 
    } 
 
    public Element getForecast(String state, String city) { 
        DocumentImpl doc = new DocumentImpl(); 
        Vector tmpCities = null; 
        if (state.equals(stateCached)) { // used cached city info 
            //System.out.println("using cached info for "+city+", 
              "+state); 
        } else { // must get new city info 
            getCities(state); 
        } 
        tmpCities = (Vector) cityCache.clone(); 
        // find the city url in the cache 
        String url = null; 
        for (int i=0; i<tmpCities.size(); i++) { 
            String [] info = (String []) tmpCities.elementAt(i); 
            if (info[1]Equals(city)) { 
                url = info[0]; 
                break; 
            } 
        } 
        // get the forecast 
        String result; 
        if (url == null) { 
            throw new Exception("Invalid city"); 
        } else { 
            if (!offline) { 
                result = harvestResults(url); 
            } ... 
        } 
        try { 
            // formulate a response 
            Element response = doc.createElement("forecasts"); 
            doc.appendChild(response); 
            // process the forecast 
            int beg = result.indexOf("<PRE"); 
            String [] content = null; 
            // get the header 
            content = extractContent(result, beg, "<B>", "\n", "</F"); 
            createElementWithContent(doc, response, "location", 
              content[0]); 
            createElementWithContent(doc, response, "issued", 
              content[1]); 
            // get the "middle" day forecasts 
            beg = Integer.parseInt(content[2]) + 10; 
            for (int j=0; j<4; j++) { 
                // extract DOW forecast 
                content = extractContent(result, beg, "<B>", 
                  "</FONT></B>", "<B>"); 
                beg = Integer.parseInt(content[2]); 
                Element el = createElementWithContent(doc, response, 
                  "forecast", content[1]); 
                el.setAttribute("period", content[0]); 
            } 
            // get the last day forecast 
            content = extractContent(result, beg, "<B>", "</FONT></B>", 
              "</PRE>"); 
            Element El = createElementWithContent(doc, response, 
              "forecast", content[1]); 
            el.setAttribute("period", content[0]); 
        } catch (Exception ex) { 
            ex.printStackTrace(); 
        } 
 
        return doc.getDocumentElement(); 
    } 
}

Creating the WSDL, deployment descriptor, proxy and sample client

The WeatherForecast Web service methods all return a generic DOM Element; this is something that you may want if you don't care to have the Web service infrastructure do validity checking of your information. For a description of the process of creating a Web service with simple data types, see the Application Developer online help documentation.

To turn the JavaBean into a Web service, return to the Web Project perspective, select the WForecast project, and select File => New => Web Service. You will now see the first pane of the Web Service wizard. Verify that the WForecast Web project is identified and click Next.

You will see the Web Service Type Selection pane. It should have WeatherForecast.java highlighted. Click Next.

On the subsequent Java Bean Selection pane, simply click Next.

The Web Service JavaBean Identity pane allows you to configure the JavaBean-based Web service. You can accept all the defaults with one exception. You must change the Scope field to Session and then select Next. The Session scope ensures a new instance for each user, allowing caching to work properly.

The Web Service Java Beans Methods pane allows you to select the methods to deploy. In this case, accept the default (all public methods). You can also modify the encoding style used for inputs and outputs. The default (SOAP encoding of the input strings and Literal XML encoding of the output DOM Elements) is correct. You should simply click Next.

On the subsequent Binding Proxy Generation pane, click Next. A SOAP-based proxy for the Web service will be generated.

On the subsequent Test Client pane, click Next because we don't want the Test Client to be started. The Test Client is a generic framework for testing EJBs and Web services (see the Application Developer online help documentation) and can deal with more complex data types, but it does not provide an example on using the generated proxy. We will use the Sample client instead.

You will now see the Web Service Sample Generation pane. Check Generate a sample and Launch the sample, then click Finish.

Application Developer generates the WSDL files describing the Web service, generates a SOAP deployment descriptor, and deploys the Web service in the Application Developer WebSphere Test Environment.

Application Developer also generates a proxy that a client can use to access the Web service and generates the sample client (a set of JSPs) that can be used to test the proxy and the Web service.

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Testing the Web service

When you created the Web service, in addition to creating the WSDL description of the service, the proxy, the sample client, etc., Application Developer automatically deployed the Web service and the client in the built-in WebSphere Test Environment and starts the environment. The run-time architecture looks as follows:

Notice that the Web service itself and the client of the Web service both run in the Application Developer test environment. The WeatherForecast Web service accesses the National Weather Service over the Internet.

To test the Web service, in the Application Developer Navigator view, expand the WForecast project, expand the webApplication/sample/WeatherForecast folder, right-click on TestClient.jsp, and select Run on Server. When you run TestClient.jsp, Application Developer starts a browser pointed to the JSP page. When the browser starts and the JSP finishes compiling, you will see the Test Client, as shown in the following figure:

The sample client exposes all the methods offered by the Web service proxy. You will see the "business" operations for getting the states, cities and forecast, as well as methods for setting and getting the "endpoint," or URI for the Web service; the latter allows you to route requests through filters, etc.

To test the Web service using the sample client, select getForecast in the Methods pane. The Inputs pane will change. Enter a state abbreviation and a city name (the state and city names have to be available from the NWS, and you can use the getCities() method to find valid cities for a state. Click Invoke. In the Result pane, you will see the XML document with the forecast; for this example, use TX and Austin. The results are shown in the following figure:

If you want to run the Web service without a connection to the Internet, you can edit the OFFLINE property in the forecast.properties file. If you do so, you will need to restart the WebSphere Application Server server that is running the Web service. The easiest way to do so is to select (or open) the Server Perspective and then select the Server Control Panel tab. Right-click on WebSphere v4.0 Test Environment and select Restart.

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Summary

This article walked through the steps necessary to use WebSphere Studio Application Developer to create and test a Web service. Application Developer automates, and therefore greatly simplifies a number of steps in the process, making the creation and testing of Web services much easier.

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Download

Name	Size	Download method
workspace.zip	10 KB	FTP|HTTP

Information about download methods

Resources

• Part 2 of the series describes how to publish and import a Web service using Application Developer.
  
  
• Part 3 of the series describes how to create an application using the Web service.
  
  
• Part 4 of the series describes how to deploy the completed Web service to a production WebSphere Application Server Version 4.0 and then run the application using the production version of the Web service.
  
  
• Learn more about dynamic e-business and IBM's activities in support of dynamic e-business at Web services by IBM: Foundation for dynamic e-business.
  
  
• The Web Services Zone on IBM developerWorks offers a number of articles and tutorials on the standards and technologies underlying Web services.
  
  

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• WebSphere Studio Application Developer
• The Web service
• Creating a Web service using Application Developer
• Testing the Web service
• Summary
• Download
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments