TomEE, @WebServiceRef and configuration

TomEE+ integrates JAX-WS thanks to CXF implementation. It allows you
to develop Pojo or EJB webservices but TomEE takes care to keep all CXF features.

This means you can use openejb-jar.xml to configure your webservice.

As a quick reminder the configuration (openejb-jar.xml) looks like the following one for an EJB:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<openejb-jar xmlns="http://www.openejb.org/openejb-jar/1.1">
  <ejb-deployment ejb-name="CalculatorBean"> <!-- configure the bean, values are in resources.xml -->
    <properties>
      cxf.jaxws.in-interceptors = serviceIdInResourcesXml,com.foo.FullyQualifiedInterceptor
      cxf.jaxws.out-interceptors = abc
      cxf.jaxws.in-fault-interceptors = def
      cxf.jaxws.out-fault-interceptors = hgi
      cxf.jaxws.features = jkl
      cxf.jaxws.debug = true
    </properties>
  </ejb-deployment>
</openejb-jar>

For a Pojo webservice it is the same but using pojo-deployment instead of ejb-deployment.

TomEE also has (historically) some specific integration with wss4j but with
the previous configuration it is pretty useless now. Only thing to know
about wss4j is openejb provides WSS4JInInterceptorFactory factory
to ease initialization of WSS4JInInterceptor interceptor (because it has
two constructors with a single parameter and it can be ambiguous in some cases).

Finally to configure wss4j you can do a resources.xml like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<resources>
  <Service id="wss4jin" class-name="org.apache.openejb.server.cxf.config.WSS4JInInterceptorFactory" factory-name="create">
    passwordType = PasswordDigest
    action = UsernameToken
    passwordCallbackClass = com.foo.MyCallbackHandler
  </Service>
</resources>

And an openejb-jar.xml like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<openejb-jar xmlns="http://www.openejb.org/openejb-jar/1.1">
  <ejb-deployment ejb-name="CalculatorBean"> <!-- configure the bean, values are in resources.xml -->
    <properties>
      cxf.jaxws.in-interceptors = org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.saaj.SAAJInInterceptor,wss4jin,org.apache.openejb.server.cxf.WSSPassThroughInterceptor
    </properties>
  </ejb-deployment>
</openejb-jar>

This is great but it has a pitfall: it is only for the server side!

This is the reason it was recently enhanced (will be available in next 1.7.2 and 2.x versions) to
support almost the same configuration for clients.

In JavaEE clients are done thanks to @WebServiceRef. TomEE already optimizes them
using local invocation when the service is deployed int the same instance and doesn’t need
remote invocation (ie it has no webservice handler) but if you needed to customize
the client for remote case (ading security, adding logging, …) you needed
to cast it thanks to CXF APIs and programmtically customize the port.

When @WebServiceRef is used to get injected a port (ie a real client) you can now simply
configure CXF client like on server side.

However client doesn’t match pojo-deployment or ejb-deployment. That is why it uses
application.properties (in WEB-INF folder). Syntax is exactly the same but in properties
format. Prefix is “cxf.jaxws.client.” or “cxf.jaxws.client.{namespace}PortName”.
Take care first one is global (ie shared for all clients) and second one is specific to a port.

Like explaining such a configuration would not be that efficient here a sample:

cxf.jaxws.client.{http://cxf.server.openejb.apache.org/}MyWebservicePort.out-interceptors = wss4jout

wss4jout = new://Service?class-name=org.apache.cxf.ws.security.wss4j.WSS4JOutInterceptor&constructor=properties
wss4jout.properties = $outProperties

# using a pass-through class to configure more easily properties
outProperties = new://Service?class-name=org.apache.openejb.config.sys.MapFactory
outProperties.action = UsernameToken
outProperties.passwordType = PasswordDigest
outProperties.passwordCallbackClass = com.foo.MyClientCallbackHandler

Bonus: a Service (or a subclass of Service) can be injected as well. Customization doesn’t go as far as for the port but you
can set WSFeatures using the key: cxf.jaxws.client.xxx.wsFeatures and the value has to be a list of id or fully qualified name
of WSFeatures.

On recent version using resources.xml for Service should be possible as well, mainly a taste
question :).

TomEE CXF configuration tip: link Services and Resources

TomEE CXF configuration is mainly done in openejb-jar.xml to either use qualified name or service id to reference to more complicated objects.

For instance you can reference jsonProvider in openejb-jar.xml and define it in resources.xml like it:

<Service id="jsonProvider" class-name="org.superbiz.MyJsonProvider">
  rootName = foo
</Service>

It is also possible to link two services together using $:

CXF schema validation with TomEE

One of important updates for TomEE done recently (last releases) was to allow the user to configure CXF endpoints (ang get access to advanced configuration/features of CXF). One of them is the schema (xsd) validation of INPUT/OUTPUT messages.

This post will only deal with it but the way to activate it is the same for all properties of the JAXWS CXF endpoint.

Configuring CXF bus in TomEE or OpenEJB standalone

Configuring the CXF bus is a common need in particular in development where we often activate the logging. The key point here is to add the LoggingFeature of CXF.

To do so in TomEE (same for OpenEJB) you can of course configure either your endpoint (webservice jaxws or jaxrs) or your application (jaxrs) to add this feature but it is done in openejb-jar.xml in the application.

Some tips for TomEE and JAXRS config

TomEE+ supports JAXRS but some configuration can look a bit hidden.

I’ll try in this post to give you some few hints.