What's New in Spring Web Services 1.5?

The 1.5 release includes two new transports: JMS and email. Using these new transports requires no Java code changes: just add a bit of configuration, and you're off! The JMS transport integrates nicely with Spring 2's Message-Driven POJO model, as indicated by the following piece of configuration taken from the airline sample application:

<bean class="org.springframework.jms.listener.DefaultMessageListenerContainer">
	<property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
	<property name="destinationName" value="RequestQueue"/>
	<property name="messageListener">
		<bean class="org.springframework.ws.transport.jms.WebServiceMessageListener">
	<property name="messageFactory" ref="messageFactory"/>
	<property name="messageReceiver" ref="messageReceiver"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

Besides the standard JMS configuration (connection factory and destination name to listen to), you only have to define a WebServiceMessageListener, and give it a reference to the message factory you're using (typically the SaajSoapMessageFactory), and the message dispatcher. If you're still stuck in EJB land, there's even a MessageDrivenBean for you to use! Check the airline sample or reference documentation for more details.

On the client side, it's just as easy. Configure the WebServiceTemplate to use a JmsMessageSender, and specify a jms: URL to send the message to. Here's an example, once again taken from the airline sample:

<bean id="jmsClient" class="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.client.jms.JmsClient">
    <property name="defaultUri" value="jms:RequestQueue"/>
    <property name="messageSenders">
        <bean class="org.springframework.ws.transport.jms.JmsMessageSender">
    <property name="connectionFactory" ref="connectionFactory"/>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>

Besides the JMS transport, Spring Web Services 1.5 introduces an email transport, thereby conforming to Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment . This transport will poll your POP3 or IMAP server for new messages, or—if your server supports it—use the IMAP IDLE command to receive new messages asynchronously.

WSS4J-based WS-Security implementation

Another new feature is the Apache WSS4J-based WS-Security implementation. In 1.0, Spring Web Services already had a WS-Security implementation based on SUN XWSS, but that required Java 1.5, and only worked on SUN JDKs. The WSS4J-based solution works on JDK 1.4 (as does the rest of Spring-WS), and also IBM JDKs used for WebSphere.

See the reference documentation for more details.

WS-Addressing support

WS-Addressing is a W3C specification that defines a transport-neutral routing mechanism. It is based on a To and Action SOAP header, which indicate the destination and intent of the SOAP message, respectively. Spring Web Services 1.5.0 implements both the 1.0 (May 2006) version of the WS-Addressing specification, as well as the August 2004 version, which is still in wide use.

You can configure WS-Addressing either through XML, in an application context, or through annotations:

package samples;

import org.springframework.ws.server.endpoint.annotation.Endpoint;
import org.springframework.ws.soap.addressing.server.annotation.Action

@Endpoint
public class AnnotationOrderEndpoint {
private final OrderService orderService;

public AnnotationOrderEndpoint(OrderService orderService) {
    this.orderService = orderService;
}

@Action("http://samples/RequestOrder")
public Order getOrder(OrderRequest orderRequest) {
    return orderService.getOrder(orderRequest.getId());
}

@Action("http://samples/CreateOrder")
public void order(Order order) {
    orderService.createOrder(order);
    }

}

In this case, if a WS-Addressing message comes in with a Action header value http://samples/RequestOrder it will invoke the getOrder() method. You can check the stockquote sample or reference documentation for more details.

Another neat new feature is that @Endpoints are now annotated with @Component, so if you are using Spring 2.5 component scanning, your endpoints are picked up automatically, and require no XML configuration! For configuration of Spring-WS components, we now offer two new namespaces, to configure OXM marshallers and other common constructs. For example, here is the configuration of a JAXB2 marshaller:

<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller" contextPath="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema"/>

Other New Features

Spring Web Services 1.5 also introduce the following other new features:

• Native support for Java 6, including JAXP 1.4, and the bundled SAAJ 1.3 and JAXB 2.0, as well as the embedded HTTP server. See the stockquote sample for more details,
• Spring-WS jars are now OSGi bundles, making them easier to use in your OSGi-based application,
• A new and improved XSD-to-WSDL generator that inlines included and imported XSDs, thus making your WSDL easier to serve for clients which don't follow these references,
• A new, client-side interception mechanism, including WS-Security support, and
• Support for Spring Security