Assembling a web services-enabled client JAR file into an EAR file

Now that you have generated your application artifacts, you need to assemble these artifacts to create an enterprise archive (EAR) file that is used in the web services application. Assemble a web services-enabled client JAR file that enables the application client to access a web service into an EAR file.

Before you begin

For Java™ API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS) web service applications, you need the portable artifacts that are generated by the wsimport command-line tool when starting from a WSDL file to complete this task. The wsimport tool processes a WSDL file as input and generates the following portable artifacts:
  • Service Endpoint Interface (SEI)
  • Service class
  • Exception classes that are mapped from the wsdl:fault class (if any)
  • Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) generated type values which are Java classes mapped from XML schema types
  • An assembled client module that contains the implementation, all of the classes generated by the wsimport command-line tool and the ejb-jar.xml deployment descriptor or the application-client.xml deployment descriptor. This module can be:
    • An application client module that contains the META-INF/application-client.xml file.
    • An Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) module that contains the META-INF/ejb-jar.xml file.
For Java API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC) web service applications, you need the following artifacts that are generated from the WSDL2Java command-line tool to complete this task:
  • An assembled client module that contains the implementation, all of the classes generated by the WSDL2Java command-line tool and the ejb-jar.xml deployment descriptor or the application-client.xml deployment descriptor. This module can be:
    • An application client module that contains the META-INF/application-client.xml file.
    • An Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) module that contains the META-INF/ejb-jar.xml file.
  • The WSDL file that you used to develop the client.
  • The templates for the ibm-webservicesclient-ext.xmi and ibm-webservicesclient-bnd.xmi deployment descriptor, if used.
  • A generated Java API for XML-based remote procedure call (JAX-RPC) mapping deployment descriptor.
Restriction: Do not include a pound sign (#) in the name of files that are packaged within an application archive. Due to internal processing, the application server fails to correctly deploy the application when a pound sign is included in a file name within the application archive. When this failure occurs, an exception might occur when the application is being processed. Also, parts of the application might be missing after the application is deployed. To address this issue, rename any file names within the application archive so that they do not contain a pound sign.

About this task

You can use assembly tools included with WebSphere® Application Server to assemble web services-enabled client applications. If you use Rational® Application Developer for the assembly, refer to the Rational Application Developer documentation.

Assemble the client code and artifacts that enable the application client to access a web service with the following steps.

Procedure

  1. Start an assembly tool.
  2. If you have not done so already, configure the assembly tool so that it works on Java EE modules. You need to make sure that the Java EE and Web categories are enabled.
  3. Import the client implementation and the artifacts generated by the command-line tooling into the assembly tool.
  4. Migrate JAR files created with the Rational Application Developer assembly tool. To migrate files, import your JAR files to the assembly tool.
  5. Assemble the JAR file into an enterprise archive (EAR) file using typical assembly techniques if the client runs in a container.

Results

You have assembled the artifacts required to enable the client application for web services into an EAR file.

Example

This example of the assembly process uses the AddressBookClient.jar JAR file the AddressBookClient.ear EAR file: 
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
META-INF/application-client.xml
META-INF/wsdl/AddressBook.wsdl
META-INF/AddressBook_mapping.xml

com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/Address.class
com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/AddressBook.class
com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/AddressBookClient.class
com/ibm/websphere/samples/webservices/addr/AddressBookService.class
...other generated classes...
After assembling the AddressBookClient.jar file into the AddressBookClient.ear file, the AddressBookClient.ear file contains the following files: 
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF 
AddressBookClient.jar 
META-INF/application.xml

What to do next

For Java API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS) applications, you are ready to deploy the web services client application.

For Java API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC) applications, you need to configure the client deployment descriptor bindings with an assembly tool so that the client can communicate with a web service that is deployed on a server.