Code Generator Tool Guide for Command Line and Ant Task

The Code Generator tool consists of a command line version and an Ant Task. This document will list the command line references and Ant task references. Also in detail, this document shows how to build file using custom Ant task and invoking the Code Generator from Ant.

This tool is bundled with the Axis2 Binary Distribution.

Content

Introduction

This basic tool is implemented by the WSDL2Code class and just for the convenience in the case of Java (which would be the majority) there is another WSDL2Java class. One can choose to run the main classes directly or use one of the scripts to run the WSDL2Code and WSDL2Java appropriately. (the scripts are found in the bin directory of the Standard Binary Distribution)

Command Line Version

For those users who wish to use the command line version of the tool, this section will be of value.

Option Reference

Usage WSDL2Code <option_reference>

E.g. :- WSDL2Code -uri <Location of WSDL>

Short Option Long Option Description
-uri <Location of WSDL> None WSDL file location. This should point to a WSDL file in the local file system.
-o <output Location> --output <output Location> Output file location. This is where the files would be copied once the code generation is done. If this option is omitted the generated files would be copied to the working directory.
-l <language> --language <language> Output language. Currently the code generator can generate code in Java but it has the ability to be extended to support other languages.
-p <package name> --package <package name> The target package name. If omitted, a default package (formed using the target namespace of the WSDL) will be used.
-a --async Generate code only for async style. When this option is used the generated stubs will have only the asynchronous invocation methods. Switched off by default.
-s --sync Generate code only for sync style . When this option is used the generated stubs will have only the synchronous invocation methods. Switched off by default. When used with the -a option, this takes precedence.
-t --test-case Generates a test case. In the case of Java it would be a JUnit test case.
-ss --server-side Generates server side code (i.e. skeletons). Default is off.
-sd --service-description Generates the service descriptor (i.e. server.xml). Default is off. Only valid with -ss, the server side code generation option.
-d <databinding> --databinding-method <databinding> Specifies the Databinding framework. Valid values are xmlbeans, adb, jibx, and none. Default is adb.
-g --generate-all Generates all the classes. This option is valid only with the -ss (server side code generation) option. When on, the client code (stubs) will also be generated along with the skeleton.
-u --unpack-classes Unpack classes. This option specifies whether to unpack the classes and generate separate classes for the databinders.
-sn <service name> --service-name <service name> Specifies the service name to be code generated. If the service name is not specified, then the first service will be picked.
-pn <port name> --port-name <port name> Specifies the port name to be code generated. If the port name is not specified, then the first port (of the selected service) will be picked.
-ns2p --namespace2package Specifies a comma separated list of namespaces and packages where the given package will be used in the place of the auto generated package for the relevant namespace. The list will be the format of ns1=pkg1,ns2=pkg2.
-ssi --serverside-interface Generate an interface for the service skeleton.
-wv --wsdl-version WSDL Version. Valid Options : 2, 2.0, 1.1
-S --source-folder Specify a directory path for generated source
-R --resource-folder Specify a directory path for generated resources
-em --external-mapping Specify an external mapping file
-f --flatten-files Flattens the generated files
-uw --unwrap-params Switch on un-wrapping
-xsdconfig Use XMLBeans .xsdconfig file. Valid only with -d xmlbeans
-ap --all-ports Generate code for all ports
-or --over-ride Overwrite the existing classes
-b --backword-compatible Generate Axis 1.x backword compatible code
-sp --suppress-prefixes Suppress namespace prefixes (Optimzation that reduces size of soap request/response)
--noBuildXML Don't generate the build.xml in the output directory
--noWSDL Don't generate WSDL's in the resources directory
--noMessageReceiver Don't generate a MessageReceiver in the generated sources

Apart from these mentioned options one can pass extra options by prefixing them with -E (uppercase). These extra options will be processed by the extensions. The extra options that can be passed are documented separately with the extensions documentation (For example with ADB).

Ant Task

The code generator also comes bundled with an Ant task. The ant task is implemented by the org.apache.axis2.tool.ant.AntCodegenTask class. Following are the ant task attributes.

Ant Task Reference

wsdlfilename WSDL file location. Maps to the -uri option of the command line tool.
output Output file location. This is where the files would be copied once the code generation is done. If this option is omitted the generated files would be copied to the working directory. Maps to the -o option of the command line tool.
language Output language. Currently the code generator can generate code in Java. Maps to the -l option of the command line tool.
packageName The target package name. If omitted, a default package (formed using the target namespace of the WSDL) will be used. Maps to the -p option of the command line tool.
databindingName Data binding framework name. Maps to the -d option of the command line tool. Possible values include "adb", "xmlbeans", "jibx","jaxbri".
serviceName The name of the service in the case of multiple services. Maps to -sn options of the command line tool.
portName The name of the port in the presence of multiple ports. Maps to -pn options of the command line tool.
asyncOnly Generate code only for async style. When this option is used the generated stubs will have only the asynchronous invocation methods. Defaults to false if omitted. Only true and false are applicable as values. Maps to the -a option of the command line tool.
syncOnly Generate code only for sync style. When this option is used the generated stubs will have only the synchronous invocation methods. Defaults to false if omitted. Only true and false are applicable as values. Maps to the -s option of the command line tool.
serverSide Generates server side code (i.e. skeletons). Only true and false are applicable as values. Default is false. Maps to the -ss option of the command line tool.
testcase Generates a test case. Possible values are true and false. Maps to the -t options of the command line tool.
generateServiceXml Generates server side code (i.e. skeletons). Only true and false are applicable as values. Default is false. Maps to the -sd option of the command line tool.
unpackClasses Unpacks the generated classes. This forces the databinding classes to be generated separately, which otherwise would have been generated as inner classes.
generateAllClasses Generates all the classes including client and server side code. Maps to the -g option of the command line tool.
namespaceToPackages A list of namespace to package mappings.
serverSideInterface Flag stating whether to generate an interface for the server side skeleton.
repositoryPath Sets the repository path to be used. Maps to the -r option of the command line tool.
wsdlVersion Sets the version of the wsdl that is being used during codegeneration. This deafults to 1.1 and one can set this to 2, when trying to work with a WSDL 2.0 document. Maps to the -wv option of the command line tool.
externalMapping Location of the external mapping file to be used. Maps to the -em option of the command line tool.
targetSourceFolderLocation Rather than dumping all the code in the same location, one has the option to make the sources to be generated in a different location, given using this option. Maps to the -S option of the command line tool.
targetResourcesFolderLocation Rather than dumping all the code in the same location, one has the option to make the resources to be generated in a different location, given using this option. Maps to the -R option of the command line tool.
unwrap This will select between wrapped and unwrapped during code generation. Default is set to false. Maps to the -uw option of the command line tool.

Example Build File Using the Custom Ant Task

Following is an example ant build file that uses the custom Ant task. You can use any wsdl file to test the example. Replace the "CombinedService.wsdl" with the name of your wsdl file in the following script.

1 <?xml version="1.0"?>
    2 <project name="CodegenExample" default="main" basedir=".">
    3
    4 <path id="example.classpath">
    5 <fileset dir="classes">
    6 <include name="**/*.jar" />
    7 </fileset>
    8 </path>
    9
    10 <target name="declare" >
    11 <taskdef name="codegen"
    12 classname="org.apache.axis2.tool.ant.AntCodegenTask"
    13 classpathref="example.classpath"/>
    15 </target>
    16
    17 <target name="main" depends="declare">
    18 <codegen
    19 wsdlfilename="C:\test\wsdl\CombinedService.wsdl"
    20 output="C:\output"
    21 serverside="true"
    22 generateservicexml="true"/>
    23 </target>
    24
    25 </project>

In the above build script, from line 4 to 8 it sets the classpath and includes all the .jar files (which are listed below) into the classpath. From line 10 to 15 it creates a target to declare a task called "codegen" and sets the appropriate class (org.apache.axis2.tool.ant.AntCodegenTask) within the classpath in line 12. From line 17 to 23 it creates the "main" target to generate the code from the given wsdl. There are some arguments set form line 19 to 22. Here in line 19 it sets the location of the wsdl. In line 20 it sets the output directory in which the code is generated. Line 21 indicates that this build generates the server side code(skeleton) and line 22 indicates that the services.xml is also generated.

Notice the main target that uses the "codegen" task which will use the org.apache.axis2.tool.ant.AntCodegenTask class and run the code generation tool internally while passing the relevant arguments and do the proper generation. If a user types

>ant or >ant main

it will generate the server side code and services.xml for the given WSDL file (C:\test\wsdl\CombinedService.wsdl -in the above instance) and the generated code will be written to the specified output path (C:\output - in the above instance).

For this Ant task to work the following jars need to be in the class path.

  • axis2-*.jar (from the Axis2 distribution)
  • wsdl4j-1.6.2.jar or higher (The WSDL4J implementation jar. Bundled with the Axis2 distribution)
  • stax-api-1.0.1.jar (The StAX API's that contain the javax.xml.namespace.QName class. This jar may be replaced by any other jar that contains the javax.xml.namespace.QName implementation. However Axis2 uses this class from the stax-api-1.0.1.jar which comes bundled with the Axis2 distribution)
  • commons-logging-1.1.jar, neethi-2.0.jar and XmlSchema-1.2.jar (from the Axis2 distribution)
  • axiom-api-1.2.1.jar and axiom-impl-1.2.1.jar (from the Axis2 distribution)
  • activation-1.1.jar (from the Axis2 distribution)
  • wstx-asl-3.1.0.jar (from the Axis2 distribution)

Invoking the Code Generator From Ant

Since the users may find altering their ant class path a bit daunting they can also follow an easier technique. The code generator main class can be invoked directly through the build file.

Below is an example of a full build.xml needed to run WSDL2Java and generate the Java source files, compile the sources, and build an AAR file ready for deployment (These are done one by one, by calling the targets in the build file separately):

<!DOCTYPE project>

<project name="wsdl2java-example" default="usage" basedir=".">

<property name="project-name" value="wsdl2java-example"/>
<property file="build.properties"/>

<property name="build" value="build"/>
<property name="src" value="src"/>
<property name="build.classes" value="build/classes" />

<path id="axis.classpath">
<pathelement location="build/classes" />
<fileset dir="${axis.home}/lib">
<include name="**/*.jar" />
</fileset>
<pathelement location="${build.classes}" />
</path>

<path id="axis_client.classpath">
<pathelement location="build/classes" />
<fileset dir="${axis.home}">
<include name="**/*.jar" />
</fileset>
<fileset dir="lib">
<include name="*.jar" />
</fileset>
<pathelement location="${build.classes}" />
</path>

<target name="usage" description="Build file usage info (default task)">
<echo message=" " />
<echo message="${project-name} " />
<echo message="-------------------------------------------------------" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message="Available Targets:" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message=" Compiling:" />
<echo message=" compile - Compiles the WSDL2Java source code" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message=" Compiling client:" />
<echo message=" compile_client - Compiles the client source code" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message=" Cleaning up:" />
<echo message=" clean - Delete class files" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message=" WSDL:" />
<echo message=" wsdl2java - Generate source from WSDL" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message=" AAR:" />
<echo message=" aar - Generate an .aar for deployment into WEB-INF/services" />
<echo message=" " />
<echo message=" Executing:" />
<echo message=" runLogin - Execute the runLogin client" />
</target>

<target name="prepare" >
<mkdir dir="${build.classes}" />
</target>

<target name="clean" >
<delete dir="${build}" />
<delete dir="${dist}" />
</target>

<target name="compile">
<echo message="Compiling wsdl2 files"/>

<javac
srcdir="output"
destdir="${build.classes}"
deprecation="true"
failonerror="true" debug="true">

<classpath refid="axis.classpath"/>
</javac>

</target>

<target name="wsdl2java" depends="clean,prepare">
<delete dir="output" />
<java classname="org.apache.axis2.wsdl.WSDL2Java" fork="true">
<classpath refid="axis.classpath"/>
<arg value="-d"/>
<arg value="xmlbeans"/>
<arg value="-uri"/>
<arg file="wsdl/LoginEndpoint.wsdl"/>
<arg value="-ss"/>
<arg value="-g"/>
<arg value="-sd"/>
<arg value="-o"/>
<arg file="output"/>
<arg value="-p"/>
<arg value="org.example.types"/>
</java>

<!-- Move the schema folder to classpath-->
<move todir="${build.classes}">
<fileset dir="output/resources">
<include name="**/*schema*/**/*.class"/>
<include name="**/*schema*/**/*.xsb"/>
</fileset>
</move>

</target>

<target name="jar_wsdl" depends="compile">
<jar jarfile="lib/axis2_example_wsdl.jar" >
<fileset dir="${build.classes}" />
</jar>
</target>

<!-- build an .aar file for axis2 web services -->
<target name="aar" depends="compile">
<delete dir="${build.classes}/META-INF" />
<mkdir dir="${build.classes}/META-INF" />
<copy todir="${build.classes}/META-INF" >
<fileset dir="output/resources" >
<!-- axis2 web services definitions file -->
<include name="services.xml"/>
</fileset>
<fileset dir="wsdl" >
<include name="LoginEndpoint.wsdl"/>
</fileset>
</copy>
<jar jarfile="dist/LoginEndpoint.aar" >
<fileset dir="${build.classes}" />
</jar>
</target>

<target name="compile_client">
<echo message="Compiling client files"/>

<javac
srcdir="src"
destdir="${build.classes}"
deprecation="true"
failonerror="true" debug="true">

<classpath refid="axis.classpath"/>
</javac>

</target>

<target name="runLogin" depends="prepare,compile_client" description="run simple Login client">
<java classname="org.client.LoginClient" >
<classpath refid="axis_client.classpath"/>
</java>
</target>

</project>

Place the above build.xml file in the 'bin' directory of the axis2 binary distribution. Then create a build.properties file in the same directory and specify the axis.home path pointing to the axis2 binary distribution

E.g. :- axis.home=C://Axis2//axis2-1.1-bin

The above build.xml example also assumes three empty directories exist, 'dist', 'lib', and 'src'.

Below is a validated WSDL Document following the Document/Literal Style. The name of this file matches the name used in the WSDL2Java ant task above, LoginEndpoint.wsdl.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

    <definitions name="LoginService" targetNamespace="http://login" xmlns:tns="http://login"
    xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns:ns2="http://login/types">

    <types>
    <schema targetNamespace="http://login/types" xmlns:tns="http://login/types"
    xmlns:soap11-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
    <element name="returnWebLoginElement">
    <complexType>
    <sequence>

    <element ref="tns:soap_session_idElement"/>
    <element ref="tns:web_user_nameElement"/>
    </sequence>
    </complexType>
    </element>
    <element name="webLoginElement">

    <complexType>
    <sequence>
    <element ref="tns:user_nameElement"/>
    <element ref="tns:user_passwordElement"/>
    </sequence>
    </complexType>

    </element>
    <element name="user_nameElement" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="user_passwordElement" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="soap_session_idElement" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="web_user_nameElement" type="xsd:string"/>
    </schema></types>

    <message name="LoginEndpoint_webLogin">
    <part name="parameters" element="ns2:webLoginElement"/>
    </message>
    <message name="LoginEndpoint_webLoginResponse">
    <part name="result" element="ns2:returnWebLoginElement"/>
    </message>

    <portType name="LoginEndpoint">
    <operation name="webLogin">
    <input message="tns:LoginEndpoint_webLogin" name="LoginEndpoint_webLogin"/>
    <output message="tns:LoginEndpoint_webLoginResponse" name="LoginEndpoint_webLoginResponse"/>
    </operation>
    </portType>

    <binding name="LoginEndpointBinding" type="tns:LoginEndpoint">
    <soap:binding transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http" style="document"/>
    <operation name="webLogin">
    <soap:operation soapAction="webLogin"/>
    <input name="LoginEndpoint_webLogin">
    <soap:body use="literal"/>

    </input>
    <output name="LoginEndpoint_webLoginResponse">
    <soap:body use="literal"/>
    </output>
    </operation>
    </binding>

    <service name="LoginService">
    <port name="LoginEndpointPort" binding="tns:LoginEndpointBinding">
    <soap:address location="http://localhost:8080/axis2/services/LoginService"/></port>
    </service></definitions>

Place the above file, named LoginEndpoint.wsdl, in the directory 'wsdl' which is also inside the 'bin' directory. Run the wsdl2java command via the ant task defined above (>ant wsdl2java), and there will be a directory called 'output' created. This directory contains the WSDL2Java generated source.

An important detail is that an XMLBean class file is also generated by WSDL2Java, TypeSystemHolder.class. That file is placed into build/classes by the above ant task and will be needed to compile the generated sources. A frequent problem is users get an error such as:

ClassNotFoundException : Cannot load SchemaTypeSystem. Unable to load class with name schemaorg_apache_xmlbeans.system.s68C41DB812F52C975439BA10FE4FEE54.TypeSystemHolder. Make sure the generated binary files are on the classpath.

The TypeSystemHolder.class generated by WSDL2Java must be placed in your classpath in order to avoid this error.

The next step is to modify the generated Skeleton Java Source file - the Web service. This file as generated returns null and needs to be updated to contain the business logic.

After the WSDL2Java command runs the file LoginEndpoint.wsdl, edit the following file:

output/src/org/example/types/LoginServiceSkeleton.java. You should see the following code:

/**
    * LoginServiceSkeleton.java
    *
    * This file was auto-generated from WSDL
    * by the Apache Axis2 version: 1.0-RC4 Apr 28, 2006 (05:23:23 IST)
    */
    package org.example.types;
    /**
    * LoginServiceSkeleton java skeleton for the axisService
    */
    public class LoginServiceSkeleton {


    /**
    * Auto generated method signature

    * @param param0

    */
    public login.types.ReturnWebLoginElementDocument webLogin
    (login.types.WebLoginElementDocument param0 )

    {
    //Todo fill this with the necessary business logic
    throw new java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException();
    }

    }

Replace the contents of this file with the following, which uses the complex types generated by WSDL2Java and the example wsdl file:

/**
    * LoginServiceSkeleton.java
    *
    * This file was auto-generated from WSDL
    * by the Apache Axis2 version: 1.0-RC4 Apr 28, 2006 (05:23:23 IST)
    */
    package org.example.types;
    import login.types.ReturnWebLoginElementDocument;
    import login.types.ReturnWebLoginElementDocument.*;
    import login.types.WebLoginElementDocument;
    import login.types.WebLoginElementDocument.*;

    /**
    * Auto generated java skeleton for the service by the Axis code generator
    */
    public class LoginServiceSkeleton {

    /**
    * Auto generated method signature

    * @param webLoginElementDocument changed from param0

    */
    public ReturnWebLoginElementDocument webLogin
    (WebLoginElementDocument webLoginElementDocument ){

    //Todo fill this with the necessary business logic
    System.out.println("LoginServiceSkeleton.webLogin reached successfully!");

    // Get parameters passed in
    WebLoginElement webLoginElement = webLoginElementDocument.getWebLoginElement();
    String userName = webLoginElement.getUserNameElement();
    String password = webLoginElement.getUserPasswordElement();
    System.out.println("LoginServiceSkeleton.webLogin userName: " + userName);
    System.out.println("LoginServiceSkeleton.webLogin password: " + password);

    // input paramaters would be used here

    // prepare output
    ReturnWebLoginElementDocument retDoc =
    ReturnWebLoginElementDocument.Factory.newInstance();

    ReturnWebLoginElement retElement = ReturnWebLoginElement.Factory.newInstance();

    retElement.setWebUserNameElement("joe sixpack");
    retElement.setSoapSessionIdElement("some_random_string");
    System.out.println("validate retElement: " + retElement.validate());

    retDoc.setReturnWebLoginElement(retElement);
    System.out.println("validate retDoc: " + retDoc.validate());

    System.out.println("LoginServiceSkeleton.webLogin returning...");

    return retDoc;

    }
    }

The next steps assume the axis2.war has been deployed and has expanded in a servlet container.

Run the 'jar_wsdl' ant task from the example build.xml (>ant jar_wsdl), which generates a jar file axis2_example_wsdl.jar in the 'bin/lib' directory. This jar will be used to compile the client, and also will be placed in the servlet container.

Next, run the 'aar' ant task from the example build.xml (>ant aar), which generates the deployable axis2 Web service. Place dist/LoginEndpoint.aar into axis2/WEB-INF/services . Place lib/axis2_example_wsdl.jar into axis2/WEB-INF/lib . Verify the happy axis page loaded the services correctly - there should be the service 'LoginEndpoint' with the available operation 'webLogin' displayed.

The last step is to create and run the client. In the src directory create the file org.client.LoginClient.java, with the contents below:

package org.client;

    import org.apache.axis2.AxisFault;

    import login.types.ReturnWebLoginElementDocument;
    import login.types.ReturnWebLoginElementDocument.*;
    import login.types.WebLoginElementDocument;
    import login.types.WebLoginElementDocument.*;
    import org.example.types.LoginServiceStub;

    /**
    * Login.
    *
    */
    public class LoginClient {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {

    System.out.println("webLogin, firing...");
    LoginServiceStub stub = new LoginServiceStub();

    WebLoginElementDocument webLoginElementDocument
    = WebLoginElementDocument.Factory.newInstance();
    WebLoginElement webLoginElement =
    WebLoginElement.Factory.newInstance();
    webLoginElement.setUserNameElement("joe");
    webLoginElement.setUserPasswordElement("sixpack");

    webLoginElementDocument.setWebLoginElement(webLoginElement);

    System.out.println("validate: " + webLoginElement.validate());
    stub.webLogin(webLoginElementDocument);

    ReturnWebLoginElementDocument returnWebLoginElementDocument =
    stub.webLogin(webLoginElementDocument);

    System.out.println("Client returned");

    ReturnWebLoginElementDocument.ReturnWebLoginElement
    retElement = returnWebLoginElementDocument.getReturnWebLoginElement();

    System.out.println("WebUserName: " + retElement.getWebUserNameElement());
    System.out.println("SOAPSessionId: " + retElement.getSoapSessionIdElement());
    System.out.println("webLogin, completed!!!");

    } catch (AxisFault axisFault) {
    axisFault.printStackTrace();
    } catch (Exception ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
    }
    }
    }

Now run the ant task 'runLogin' (>ant runLogin). The following output should appear:

runLogin:
    [echo] running the webLogin client
    [java] webLogin, firing...
    [java] validate: true
    [java] Client returned
    [java] WebUserName: joe sixpack
    [java] SOAPSessionId: some_random_string
    [java] webLogin, completed!!!

Appendix