Re: Problems getting user exceptions to work

[Jack Lund]

Um, but that contradicts the section of the User's guide I quoted below. 
Is the User's guide wrong? That would be unfortunate, because I've 
wasted a couple of days on the assumption that it's correct.

What I'm trying to do is this: We've got a service, which is basically a 
POJO (i.e. no axis-isms or web service-isms) that we're deploying using 
wsdd (a minimal wsdd) without generating WSDL or any of that. On the 
client side, I'm creating a dynamic proxy which uses the sample code 
example to parse the axis-generated WSDL (the one you get from 
http://foo.com/axis/service/myService?wsdl) and figure out how to call 
the method and get everything back. Everything works just fine except 
for exceptions.

I'd rather not extend AxisFault for a couple of reasons:

1) My service right now has no knowledge that it's running within Axis, 
or even that it's a web service. I'd like to keep it that way
2) My client may be accessing web services which aren't in my control. I 
can't assume that they're going to throw exceptions which inherit from 
AxisFault.
3) There is no number 3. ;-)

It doesn't make much sense to me that axis would have this wonderful 
mechanism whereby we can install a fairly arbitrary Java class and turn 
it magically into a web service...unless you throw exceptions, in which 
case all bets are off. Of course, I've been wrong before.

Here's the wsdd file:

<deployment xmlns="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/"; 
xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/providers/java";>
   <service name="ClaimsData" provider="java:RPC">
       <parameter name="className" 
value="com.foo.ecommerce.dataservice.ClaimDataService"/>
       <parameter name="allowedMethods" value="*"/>
       <beanMapping qname="myNS:Claim" xmlns:myNS="urn:ClaimsData" 
languageSpecificType="java:com.foo.ecommerce.beans.Claim"/>
   </service>
</deployment>

Here's the generated WSDL:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wsdl:definitions targetNamespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; xmlns:apachesoap="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap"; 
xmlns:impl="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; xmlns:intf="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; xmlns:tns1="urn:ClaimsData" xmlns:tns2="http://beans.ecommerce.foo.com"; 
xmlns:tns3="http://dao.ecommerce.foo.com"; xmlns:tns4="http://hib.ecommerce.foo.com"; xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"; 
xmlns:wsdlsoap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"; xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";>
<!--WSDL created by Apache Axis version: 1.3
Built on Oct 05, 2005 (05:23:37 EDT)-->
<wsdl:types>
 <schema targetNamespace="urn:ClaimsData" 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";>
  <import namespace="http://hib.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="http://dao.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="http://beans.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>

  <complexType name="Claim">
   <sequence>
    <element name="amount" type="xsd:double"/>
    <element name="claimDate" nillable="true" type="xsd:dateTime"/>
    <element name="claimDesc" nillable="true" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="claimID" type="xsd:long"/>
    <element name="claimNumber" nillable="true" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="claimStatus" nillable="true" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="claimStatusName" nillable="true" type="xsd:string"/>

    <element name="formattedDate" nillable="true" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="policy" nillable="true" type="xsd:anyType"/>
    <element name="policyHolder" nillable="true" type="xsd:string"/>
    <element name="provider" nillable="true" type="xsd:anyType"/>
   </sequence>
  </complexType>
 </schema>
 <schema targetNamespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";>
  <import namespace="http://hib.ecommerce.foo.com"/>

  <import namespace="http://dao.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="urn:ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="http://beans.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
  <complexType name="ArrayOf_tns1_Claim">
   <complexContent>
    <restriction base="soapenc:Array">
     <attribute ref="soapenc:arrayType" wsdl:arrayType="tns1:Claim[]"/>
    </restriction>

   </complexContent>
  </complexType>
 </schema>
 <schema targetNamespace="http://beans.ecommerce.foo.com"; 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";>
  <import namespace="http://hib.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="http://dao.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="urn:ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>

  <complexType name="InvalidDateException">
   <sequence/>
  </complexType>
 </schema>
 <schema targetNamespace="http://dao.ecommerce.foo.com"; 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";>
  <import namespace="http://hib.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="urn:ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="http://beans.ecommerce.foo.com"/>

  <import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
  <complexType name="ClaimDataAccessException">
   <sequence/>
  </complexType>
 </schema>
 <schema targetNamespace="http://hib.ecommerce.foo.com"; 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";>
  <import 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"/>
  <import namespace="http://dao.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="urn:ClaimsData"/>

  <import namespace="http://beans.ecommerce.foo.com"/>
  <import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
  <complexType name="HibernateException">
   <sequence/>
  </complexType>
 </schema>
</wsdl:types>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByDateRequest">

     <wsdl:part name="beginDate" type="soapenc:string"/>

     <wsdl:part name="endDate" type="soapenc:string"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByProviderNameResponse">

     <wsdl:part name="getClaimsByProviderNameReturn" 
type="impl:ArrayOf_tns1_Claim"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="ClaimDataAccessException">

     <wsdl:part name="fault" type="tns3:ClaimDataAccessException"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByProviderRequest">

     <wsdl:part name="providerID" type="soapenc:string"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByProviderNameRequest">

     <wsdl:part name="providerID" type="soapenc:string"/>

     <wsdl:part name="name" type="soapenc:string"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="addClaimRequest">

     <wsdl:part name="claim" type="tns1:Claim"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="addClaimResponse">

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByProviderDateRequest">

     <wsdl:part name="providerID" type="soapenc:string"/>

     <wsdl:part name="beginDate" type="soapenc:string"/>

     <wsdl:part name="endDate" type="soapenc:string"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByProviderResponse">

     <wsdl:part name="getClaimsByProviderReturn" 
type="impl:ArrayOf_tns1_Claim"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByProviderDateResponse">

     <wsdl:part name="getClaimsByProviderDateReturn" 
type="impl:ArrayOf_tns1_Claim"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="getClaimsByDateResponse">

     <wsdl:part name="getClaimsByDateReturn" type="impl:ArrayOf_tns1_Claim"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="InvalidDateException">

     <wsdl:part name="fault" type="tns2:InvalidDateException"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:message name="HibernateException">

     <wsdl:part name="fault" type="tns4:HibernateException"/>

  </wsdl:message>

  <wsdl:portType name="ClaimDataService">

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByDate" parameterOrder="beginDate endDate">

        <wsdl:input message="impl:getClaimsByDateRequest" 
name="getClaimsByDateRequest"/>

        <wsdl:output message="impl:getClaimsByDateResponse" 
name="getClaimsByDateResponse"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:ClaimDataAccessException" 
name="ClaimDataAccessException"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:InvalidDateException" 
name="InvalidDateException"/>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByProvider" parameterOrder="providerID">

        <wsdl:input message="impl:getClaimsByProviderRequest" 
name="getClaimsByProviderRequest"/>

        <wsdl:output message="impl:getClaimsByProviderResponse" 
name="getClaimsByProviderResponse"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:ClaimDataAccessException" 
name="ClaimDataAccessException"/>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByProviderName" parameterOrder="providerID 
name">

        <wsdl:input message="impl:getClaimsByProviderNameRequest" 
name="getClaimsByProviderNameRequest"/>

        <wsdl:output message="impl:getClaimsByProviderNameResponse" 
name="getClaimsByProviderNameResponse"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:ClaimDataAccessException" 
name="ClaimDataAccessException"/>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByProviderDate" parameterOrder="providerID 
beginDate endDate">

        <wsdl:input message="impl:getClaimsByProviderDateRequest" 
name="getClaimsByProviderDateRequest"/>

        <wsdl:output message="impl:getClaimsByProviderDateResponse" 
name="getClaimsByProviderDateResponse"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:ClaimDataAccessException" 
name="ClaimDataAccessException"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:InvalidDateException" 
name="InvalidDateException"/>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="addClaim" parameterOrder="claim">

        <wsdl:input message="impl:addClaimRequest" name="addClaimRequest"/>

        <wsdl:output message="impl:addClaimResponse" name="addClaimResponse"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:ClaimDataAccessException" 
name="ClaimDataAccessException"/>

        <wsdl:fault message="impl:HibernateException" 
name="HibernateException"/>

     </wsdl:operation>

  </wsdl:portType>

  <wsdl:binding name="ClaimsDataSoapBinding" type="impl:ClaimDataService">

     <wsdlsoap:binding style="rpc" 
transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByDate">

        <wsdlsoap:operation soapAction=""/>

        <wsdl:input name="getClaimsByDateRequest">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://dataservice.ecommerce.foo.com"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:input>

        <wsdl:output name="getClaimsByDateResponse">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:output>

        <wsdl:fault name="ClaimDataAccessException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="ClaimDataAccessException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

        <wsdl:fault name="InvalidDateException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="InvalidDateException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByProvider">

        <wsdlsoap:operation soapAction=""/>

        <wsdl:input name="getClaimsByProviderRequest">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://dataservice.ecommerce.foo.com"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:input>

        <wsdl:output name="getClaimsByProviderResponse">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:output>

        <wsdl:fault name="ClaimDataAccessException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="ClaimDataAccessException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByProviderName">

        <wsdlsoap:operation soapAction=""/>

        <wsdl:input name="getClaimsByProviderNameRequest">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://dataservice.ecommerce.foo.com"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:input>

        <wsdl:output name="getClaimsByProviderNameResponse">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:output>

        <wsdl:fault name="ClaimDataAccessException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="ClaimDataAccessException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="getClaimsByProviderDate">

        <wsdlsoap:operation soapAction=""/>

        <wsdl:input name="getClaimsByProviderDateRequest">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://dataservice.ecommerce.foo.com"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:input>

        <wsdl:output name="getClaimsByProviderDateResponse">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:output>

        <wsdl:fault name="ClaimDataAccessException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="ClaimDataAccessException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

        <wsdl:fault name="InvalidDateException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="InvalidDateException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

     </wsdl:operation>

     <wsdl:operation name="addClaim">

        <wsdlsoap:operation soapAction=""/>

        <wsdl:input name="addClaimRequest">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://dataservice.ecommerce.foo.com"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:input>

        <wsdl:output name="addClaimResponse">

           <wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:output>

        <wsdl:fault name="ClaimDataAccessException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="ClaimDataAccessException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

        <wsdl:fault name="HibernateException">

           <wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"; 
name="HibernateException" namespace="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"; 
use="encoded"/>

        </wsdl:fault>

     </wsdl:operation>

  </wsdl:binding>

  <wsdl:service name="ClaimDataServiceService">

     <wsdl:port binding="impl:ClaimsDataSoapBinding" name="ClaimsData">

        <wsdlsoap:address 
location="http://staportal01.stratarc.net:8080/axis/services/ClaimsData"/>

     </wsdl:port>

  </wsdl:service>

</wsdl:definitions>


Thanks.

-Jack

Dies Koper wrote:

Hello Jack,

As Jarmo pointed out, all client-side (generated) exceptions extend 
AxisFault. Are you not using the generated exceptions?
The WSDL defines the interface, including the faults. Either you let 
Axis do the mapping to Java using its own generated classes, or you do 
not. I don't think Axis could do its job without them.

There is no need to catch an AxisFault first and then doing an 
instanceof. Jarmo must have written that code before he had his coffee ;)
Your client does not (and should not) need to know that AxisFault is 
being used internally.

Could you show us the WSDL that defines your fault (complexType + 
<message>, etc.), the SOAP response containing the fault, and the code 
you use to catch the exception?

Regards,
Dies

Jack Lund wrote:

Yeah, I can see that that would be easier. Unfortunately, I have no 
control over the exceptions being thrown - I just need the 
client-side to be able to catch them *as* the exceptions that are 
originally thrown. I also am doing dynamic proxying rather than 
stubs/skeletons, so it makes it that more complicated.

 From the debugging I've been able to do, it looks like the fault 
coming across contains the fully-qualified package name of the 
exception class, but for some reason on the client side it's not 
creating the exception. Since this is an area where there's 
practically no documentation, I'm finding myself pretty much randomly 
trying different things and seeing if they work.

The user's guide is really vague about this subject:

"If a method is marked as throwing an Exception that is not an 
instance or a subclass of java.rmi.RemoteException, then things are 
subtly different. The exception is no longer a SOAP Fault, but 
described as a wsdl:fault in the WSDL of the method. According to the 
JAX-RPC specification, your subclass of Exception must have accessor 
methods to access all the fields in the object to be marshalled /and/ 
a constructor that takes as parameters all the same fields (i.e, 
arguments of the same name and type). This is a kind of immutable 
variant of a normal JavaBean 
<http://java.sun.com/products/javabeans>. The fields in the object 
must be of the datatypes that can be reliably mapped into WSDL.

If your exception meets this specification, then the WSDL describing 
the method will describe the exception too, enabling callers to 
create stub implementations of the exception, regardless of platform."

I was kind of hoping someone else out there would have had some 
experience with getting this to work.

-Jack

Jarmo Doc wrote:

I have an Axis client stub which was generated from WSDL.  *All* of 
the client-side user-defined exceptions extend 
org.apache.axis.AxisFault.

The equivalent exceptions at the server also extend 
org.apache.axis.AxisFault, rather than Exception.

This is a decidedly dodgy area, imo, especially when it comes to 
interop with non-Axis clients.


From: Jack Lund <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
Subject: RE: Problems getting user exceptions to work
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 14:51:47 -0600

Nope, didn't work. Wouldn't think it would - AxisFault isn't a 
subclass of InvalidDateException.

-Jack

Jarmo Doc wrote:

Try doing this:

catch (AxisFault ex)
{
if (ex instanceof InvalidDateException)
{
InvalidDateException myex = (InvalidDateException)ex;
// deal with myex here
}
// deal with others here
}


From: Jack Lund <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
Subject: Problems getting user exceptions to work
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 12:21:33 -0600

Hi. I'm using axis 1.2.1, and I'm trying to get the exceptions 
sent by my service thrown to the client. For instance, my service 
can throw an "InvalidDateException" exception, which is a 
subclass of java.lang.Exception, and I want the client code to 
get that exception. What little is said on the axis website about 
this implies that it should "just work", but it doesn't seem to - 
what I get on the other side is an AxisFault with the message 
string from my exception embedded inside.

Is there something special I have to do, on either side, to get 
this to work?

Thanks.

-Jack