Apache CXF - WSDL Client & Test

In this section, we will learn how to write a client that uses our service.

Developing Client

In the server application we've created in Apache CXF - Create WSDL Server chapter, HelloWorld is the interface that exposes our web service. The web service itself just provides a plain greeting message to the client. Usually, the web service interface is exposed to the outside world using WSDL (Web Services Description Language).

Writing the client in a CXF application is as important as writing a server. Here is the complete code for the client that essentially consists of only three lines, the rest of the lines just print the service information to the user.

Client.java

package com.tutorialspoint.helloworld;

public class Client {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
      //Create the service client with its default wsdlurl
      HelloWorldService helloServiceService = new HelloWorldService();
      System.out.println("service: " +
         helloServiceService.getServiceName());
      System.out.println("wsdl location: " +
         helloServiceService.getWSDLDocumentLocation());
      HelloWorldPortType helloService =
         helloServiceService.getHelloWorldPort();
      System.out.println(helloService.greetings
      (System.getProperty("user.name")));
   }
}

Update pom.xml to include client profile

pom.xml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>com.tutorialspoint</groupId>
   <artifactId>cxf-pojo</artifactId>
   <version>1.0</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <properties>
      <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
      <maven.compiler.source>24</maven.compiler.source>
      <maven.compiler.target>24</maven.compiler.target>
 	  <cxf.rt.version>4.1.3</cxf.rt.version>
   </properties>
   <build>
      <defaultGoal>install</defaultGoal>
      <pluginManagement>
         <plugins>
            <plugin>
               <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>3.2.2</version>
               <configuration>
                  <webXml>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml</webXml>
                  <webResources>
                     <resource>
                        <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
                        <targetPath>WEB-INF</targetPath>
                        <includes>
                           <include>*.wsdl</include>
                        </includes>
                     </resource>
                  </webResources>
               </configuration>
            </plugin>
         </plugins>
      </pluginManagement>
      <plugins>
         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
            <artifactId>cxf-codegen-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
            <executions>
               <execution>
                  <id>generate-sources</id>
                  <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                  <configuration>
                     <wsdlOptions>
                        <wsdlOption>
                           <wsdl>src/main/resources/Hello.wsdl</wsdl>
                           <faultSerialVersionUID>1</faultSerialVersionUID>
                        </wsdlOption>
                     </wsdlOptions>
                  </configuration>
                  <goals>
                     <goal>wsdl2java</goal>
                  </goals>
               </execution>
            </executions>
         </plugin>
      </plugins>
   </build>
   <profiles>
      <profile>
         <id>server</id>
         <build>
            <defaultGoal>test</defaultGoal>
            <plugins>
               <plugin>
                  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                  <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                  <version>1.6.0</version>
                  <executions>
                     <execution>
                        <phase>test</phase>
                        <goals>
                           <goal>java</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                           <mainClass>
                              com.tutorialspoint.helloworld.Server
                           </mainClass>
                        </configuration>
                     </execution>
                  </executions>
               </plugin>
            </plugins>
         </build>
         <dependencies>
            <dependency>
               <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
               <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http-jetty</artifactId>
               <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
            </dependency>
         </dependencies>
      </profile>
      <profile>
         <id>client</id>
         <build>
            <defaultGoal>test</defaultGoal>
            <plugins>
               <plugin>
                  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                  <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                  <executions>
                     <execution>
                        <phase>test</phase>
                        <goals>
                           <goal>java</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                           <mainClass>
                              com.tutorialspoint.helloworld.Client
                           </mainClass>
                        </configuration>
                     </execution>
                  </executions>
               </plugin>
            </plugins>
         </build>
      </profile>
   </profiles>

   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
         <artifactId>cxf-rt-features-logging</artifactId>
         <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
         <artifactId>cxf-rt-frontend-simple</artifactId>
         <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
         <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http</artifactId>
         <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
         <artifactId>cxf-rt-frontend-jaxws</artifactId>
         <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
      </dependency>
      <!-- Jetty is needed if you're using the CXFServlet -->
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
         <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http-jetty</artifactId>
         <version>${cxf.rt.version}</version>
      </dependency>
   </dependencies>
</project>

Running Client

Make sure that the server is still running on your machine. In case, if it has timed out, restart the server with the following command −

mvn -Pserver

You will see the following message on the console −

INFO: Setting the server's publish address to be http://localhost:9090/HelloServerPort
Server ready...

Now, before the server times out which we have set to 5 minutes, open another command line window and start the client with the following command −

mvn -Pclient

You will see a message similar to the following on the command line −

Here, we simply create an instance of our service HelloWorldService, get its port by calling getHelloWorldPort method, and then pass our greetings message to it. Run the client and you will see the following output −
service: {http://helloworld.tutorialspoint.com/}HelloWorldService
wsdl location: file:/Users/drsarang/Desktop/tutorialpoint/cxf-
wsdl/src/main/resources/Hello.wsdl
hi mahesh

So far you have learned how to use CXF with Apache CXF-First and WSDL-First architectures. In the Apache CXF-First approach, you used a POJO with ServerFactoryBean class from CXF libraries to create a server. To create a client you used ClientProxyFactoryBean class from CXF library. In the WSDL-First approach, you used Endpoint class to publish the service at the desired URL and a specified implementor. You can now extend these techniques to integrate different protocols and transports.