Common-gcore-stubs

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common-gcore-stubs is a client-library that interacts with the JAX-WS runtime of the Java platform to generate dynamic JAX-WS proxies of remote gCore services. Architecturally, it operates at the lowest layer of the Featherweight Stack for gCube clients.

common-gcore-stubs is available through our Maven repositories with the following coordinates: 

<artifactId>common-gcore-stubs</artifactId>
<groupId>org.gcube.core</groupId>

Quick Tour

At the time of writing, most gCube services are JSR101 (JAX-RPC) services implemented and running on the gCore stack inside a gCube Hosting Node. common-gcore-stubs allows us to invoke such services without dependencies on that stack, hence from within arbitrary client environments. It does so by interacting on our behalf with the JSR224 (JAX-WS) runtime, which is part of the Java platform since version 1.6 as the standard for SOAP-based Web Services and Web Service clients. With common-gcore-stubs, we use a modern standard to call services that align with a legacy standard.

We provide the library with:

  • information about the target service, such as its gCube coordinates (service class, service name) and its WSDL coordinates (namespace, porttype name);
  • the address of a target endpoint of the services;
  • the Service Endpoint Interface (SEI) of the service, i.e. the local Java interface that models the remote API of the service and provides additional information about its endpoint through JSR-181 annotations.

The library gives us back a dynamically generated proxy implementation of the SEI, which is first synthesised by the JAX-WS runtime and then appropriately configured by the library to issue gCube calls to the target endpoint (i.e. propagate the call scope, target service coordinates, client identity, etc.).

The generated proxy can serve as a local stub for Acme endpoints. Typically, we use this stub in the context of higher-level proxying facilities, such as gCube Client Libraries. The SEI and the other required information may be distributed as a stand-alone component, like for JAX-RPC stubs. Alternatively, they may be integral part of the higher-level Client Library which uses them with common-gcore-stubs. The minimal footprint of these 'stubs', the fact that they do not need to be manually generated (though they can), and the fact that they serve a client-only role (as opposed to JAX-RPC stubs, which we use also service-side) makes the embedding option natural and appealing.

In the following, we run through a simple example to illustrate the process and relevant APIs.

A Sample Service

For the sake of simplicity, let us illustrate how to use common-gcore-stubs to call a fictional gCore Acme service. Let us assume that the remote API of Acme is defined by the following WSDL: 

<definitions name="Acme"
    targetNamespace="http://acme.org" xmlns:tns="http://acme.org" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
    xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
 
 	<types>
	<xsd:schema targetNamespace="http://acme.org">
 
               <xsd:element name="foo" type="xsd:string" />
	       <xsd:element name="fooResponse" type="xsd:string" />
 
	</xsd:schema>
	</types>
 
	<message name="fooInputMessage">
		<part name="request" element="tns:foo"/>
	</message>
	<message name="fooOutputMessage">
		<part name="response" element="tns:fooResponse"/>
	</message>
 
	<portType name="AcmePortType">
 
		<operation name="foo">
			<input message="tns:fooInputMessage"/>
			<output message="tns:fooOutputMessage"/>
		</operation>
 
	</portType>
 
      <binding name="binding:AcmePortTypeSOAPBinding" type="tns:AcmePortType" xlmns:binding=""http://acme.org/bindings"">
           <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
           <operation name="foo">
             <soap:operation soapAction="http://acme.org/StatelessPortType/fooRequest"/>
             <input>
                 <soap:body use="literal"/>
            </input>
           <output>
              <soap:body use="literal"/>
           </output>
         </operation>
       </binding>
 
       <service name="service:AcmeService" xlmns:service="http://acme.org/service">
         <port name="AcmePortTypePort" binding="binding:StatelessPortTypeSOAPBinding">
             <soap:address location="...some address..."/>
         </port>
       </service>
 
</definitions>

Like most gCore services, Acme:

  • defines a single porttype, AcmePortType. The porttype includes a single operation, foo that takes and returns a string;
  • foo can be invoked at a given Acme endpoint through SOAP over HTTP in a document/literal style. In particular, foo request and response messages contain a single part and this part is an element declared in the <types> section and named in such a way that the request can be easily dispatched to the service implementation.

Note: since the WSDL describes an Acme endpoint, it includes also its address. However, this address is largely irrelevant to our purposes because we use the WSDL to call different endpoint, whose addresses we discover only at call time.

Note: gCore services are normally developed WSDL-first and use tooling to derive a WSDL complete with binding information from a partial WSDL that includes only logical definitions (types, port-types, operations). By design, the tooling spreads the derived WSDL across a number of files that follow a chain of imports. It also defines ad-hoc namespaces for the information it derives (e.g. http://acme.org/service for the <service> definitions, or http://acme.org/bindings for <binding> definitions). Here, we present the WSDL as a whole but keep using different namespaces for port-types, bindings, and service definitions so as to facilitate mapping the example to the WSDLs of real gCube services.

The WSDL provides the following coordinates about Acme, which we capture in a class of constants to use later with common-gcore-stubs: 

import ....
 
public class AcmeConstants {
 
  public static final String serviceNS = "http://acme.org/service";
  public static final String serviceLocalName = "AcmeService";
  public static final QName serviceName = new QName(serviceNS,serviceLocalName);
 
  public static final String porttypeNS = "http://acme.org";
  static final String porttypeLocalName = "AcmePortType";
}

The Service Endpoint Interface

In JAX-WS terminology, the SEI is a local Java interface that mirrors the remote API of the Acme service. Its declaration includes annotations that provide the JAX-WS runtime with (some of the) information required to generate an implementation of the interface which can correctly call an Acme endpoint.

One way to obtain a SEI is to derive it from the WSDL with tooling, such as the wsimport utility which ships with the JDK. For this example, however, we produce the SEI manually, which gives us more control and makes for cleaner code. 

import .............AcmeConstants.*; 
...
 
@WebService(name=porttypeLocalName,targetNamespace=porttypeNS)
public interface AcmeStub {
 
  @SOAPBinding(parameterStyle=ParameterStyle.BARE)
  String foo(String s);
 
}

We name the SEI to reflect that it acts as a stub of the Acme service. As required by JAX-WS, we annotate the SEI with @WebService, providing the coordinates of the porttype that includes the operations to be proxied through the SEI. For this, we use the constants of the AcmeConstants class defined above, which we statically import for improved legibility of the code.

We then declare the method foo with the expected signature. We also annotate the method with @SOAPBinding, to indicate that the input and output strings should be put/found in elements directly under the SOAP body, rather than inside some 'wrapper' element of sorts. In other words, specifying the "bare" parameter style tells the JAX-WS runtime that the WSDL declaration for foo does not follow the so-called wrapped pattern, which is otherwise assumed by default.

Note: For operations that take and return a single primitive type, such as foo the bare pattern is the natural choice (provided that we name the elements in such a way that the service runtime can easily dispatch requests).

The Service Descriptor

With the SEI under our belt, we're left with providing common-gcore-stubs with a descriptor for the Acme service, i.e. the remaining pieces of information which are needed to call it.We provide the descriptor as an instance of the GCoreService class, which we build in a fluent style with the help of a GCoreServiceBuilder. A convenient place to do this is directly the AcmeConstants class first introduced above.

The following example illustrates: 

import static org.gcube.common.clients.stubs.jaxws.GCoreServiceBuilder.*;
...
public class AcmeConstants {
 
 ...
 
 public static String service_class="....";
 public static String service_name="...";
 
 public static final GCoreService<AcmeStub> acme = service().withName(serviceName)
                                                            .coordinates(service_class,service_name)
                                                            .andInterface(AcmeStub.class); 
 
 
}

Since we will not need more than one instance of the descriptor, we create it once and for all as a constant named after the service. We use the static method GCoreServiceBuilder#service() to kick off the process and the follow the type system to provide the remaining information, using the constants already available within the class, pus the gCube coordinates of the service. The static 'star' import is just a convenience to improve further the legibility of the code.

Stubbed Calls

When it's finally time to call an Acme endpoint, we use the SEI and the GCoreService descriptor to obtain a an implementation of the SEI configured for the target endpoint: 

import ......AcmeConstants.*;
import static org.gcube.common.clients.stubs.jaxws.StubFactory.*;
 
...
 
String address = 
 
AcmeStub stub = stubFor(acme).at(address);
 
String response = stub.foo("...");

We build our AcmeStub using the static method stubFor(GCoreService) of the StubFactory class, which as usual we statically import for convenience. We provide the factory with the acme descriptor that we've defined earlier in the AcmeConstants</code?> class, which we also statically import. We also provide the address of the target endpoint, here modelled as a string in the assumption that the service is stateless. We shall see later how to model reference instances of stateful services.

Finally, we use the stub returned by the <code>StubFactory to call the endpoint through the SEI.

Note: as we're calling a gCube service, we need to do so in a given scope or the stub will refuse to go ahead. The classic way to associate the call with a scope is to set it on the current thread:

ScopeProvider.instance.set('..some scope...");

Writing SEIs

The example above considers the simplest case of remote operation, where inputs and outputs are single atomic values. The range of remote operations we can encounter across gCore services is in fact quite wide, and different are also the patterns used by services to describe those inputs and outputs in WSDLs. While the ultimate reference to annotating SEIs is provided by the JAX-WS specifications and the [http://jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/mrel/jsr222 specifications (JAXB), we consider some of the common cases below, for convenience.

In all the cases, we ask the same question:

how do we define and annotate the methods of the SEI so that the implementation generated by the JAX-WS runtime: a) sends requests which are understood by the service, and b) understands the responses produced by the service?

As it turns out, for each case, the answer depends on how the service describe operations in its WSDL. In what follows we assume that, like for the Acme service of our earlier example:

  • the WSDL follows a document/literal style for its SOAP/HTTP binding, with requests and responses defined by a single element in accordance to WS-I profile;
  • the request element is named after the corresponding operation and the response element is named like the request element with the addition of the "Response" suffix. This convention follows best practices, as it allows SOAP engines to unambiguously dispatch requests.

The definitions of <message>, <portType>, <binding> and <service> elements become then boilerplate for our discussion, and we can omit it to concentrate solely on the definitions of request and response elements. In fact, we can simplify the presentation further if we agree to omit namespace prefixes altogether. Then we can illustrate each case by instantiating the following template: 

<element name="op">
   ....
</lement>
 
<element name="opResponse">
   ....
</element>

Wrapped or Bare?

An important way in which operations differ within and across services is in the general 'pattern' adopted in the WSDL to define their request and response elements. We've already discussed briefly the difference between the BARE and WRAPPED patterns:

  • in the BARE pattern, request and response elements are the actual payloads of the operation, i.e. the inputs and outputs.
  • In the WRAPPED pattern, request and response elements serve solely as operation-specific containers for the actual payloads.

In the example above, Acme used the BARE pattern for its payloads made of single atomic values: 

<element name="op" type="string" />
<element name="opResponse" type="string" />

In the SEI, op was then modelled as follows: 

@SOAPBinding(parameterStyle=ParameterStyle.BARE)
String op(String s);

The JAX-WS runtime generates a request element called after the operation, op, and includes in it the input string as simple content. Similarly, it expects a response element called opResponse with simple content.


Had Acme used the WRAPPED pattern, its WSDL would have included something like this: 

<element name="op" >
  <complexType>
         <element name="param" type="string">  
  </complexType>
</element>
 
<element name="opResponse">
  <complexType>
         <element name="return" type="string">  
  </complexType>
</element>

A service may choose this pattern to make its clients more resilient to future changes in the remote API. If op evolves to take further inputs, perhaps optional ones, clients that used to send a single string may still interact with the service.

In this case, we have two ways of modelling op in the SEI. In the first, we first define bean classes that bind to request and response messages. At their simplest, they may look as follows: 

public class Op {
 
  @XmlElement
   public param; 
}
 
public class OpResponse {
 
  @XmlElement
   public return; 
 
}

Note: there is not strong incentive to make these beans more complex than they are, e.g. add accessors and mutators over private fields. The act solely ad data carriers.

We then model op in the SEI as follows: 

@SOAPBinding(parameterStyle=ParameterStyle.BARE)
OpResponse op(Op s);

Here, the JAX-WS runtime prepares an op request element but it delegates to the JAXB runtime the task of creating its children. The JAXB runtime creates the param child accordingly. Similarly for the response element.


Alternatively, we can signal to the JAX-WS runtime that the parameter style is WRAPPED (the default) and add annotations that instruct JAX-WS how to generate the wrapping request and response elements for us: 

@WebResult(name="return")
String op(@WebParameter(name="param") String s);

@WebResult tells the JAX-WS runtime the name of the element in opResponse that contains the string we declare to return. Similarly, WebParameter indicates to it the child element of the op request that contains the string that we declare to take.

When we manually generate the SEI, this latter approach reduces the number of bean classes that we need to produce. It is accordingly the approach we prefer.

Note: in some cases, we may find WSDLs that mix BARE and WRAPPED styles for the same operation, e.g. take a wrapper request element but return an unwrapped response element. In this case, the corresponding method of the SEI will need to use a BARE parameter style and defined a bean class for the wrapper request element.

The Empty Case

Let us now consider an operation that expects no input: 

<element name="op" >
  <complexType />
</element>

There are two ways to model the operation in the SEI, depending on the pattern used for the output, say a string.

If the pattern is WRAPPED, i.e.: 

<element name="opResponse">
  <complexType>
         <element name="return" type="string">  
  </complexType>
</element>

then we can model the operation as follows: 

@WebResult(name="return")
String nothing();

which is just a specialisation of the previous example.

If instead the output of the operations are modelled in the BARE pattern, i.e.

<element name="opResponse" type=string>

then we're forced to adopt the same pattern in the SEI and use an empty bean class as the input. For convenience, an Empty bean class is included JAXWSUtils class of common-gcore-clients: 

@SOAPBinding(parameterStyle=ParameterStyle.BARE)
void op(Empty empty);

The SEI method may then be invoked as follows: 

import static ....JAXWSUtils.*;
 
...
 
stub.op(empty);

where empty is a constant of type Empty provided by JAXWSUtils.

Complex Parameters

Assume Acme exposes an operation complex that takes and returns complex objects. Omitting the declaration of operation and messages, the WSDL will contain these new element declarations: 

....
 
 <xsd:element name="complex">
  <xsd:complexType>
     <xsd:sequence>
         <xsd:element name="in1" type="xsd:string"/>
         <xsd:element name="in2" type="xsd:integer"/>
     </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>		
</xsd:element>
 
<xsd:element name="complexResponse">
  <xsd:complexType>
	<xsd:sequence>
           <xsd:element name="out" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
	</xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>		
</xsd:element>
 
...

In this case, our SEI could declare the following method: 

@SOAPBinding(parameterStyle=ParameterStyle.BARE)
ComplexOutput complex(ComplexInput input);

where ComplexInput and ComplexOutput may be as simple as the following field-only, JAXB-annotated beans: 

@XmlRootElement
public class ComplexInput {
 
   @XMLElement
   public String in1;
 
   @XMLElement
   public int in2;
 
}
 
...
 
@XmlRootElement
public class ComplexOutput {
 
   @XMLElement
   public List<String> out;
 
}


Alternatively, the SEI could declare the following method: 

@SOAPBinding(parameterStyle=ParameterStyle.WRAPPED)
@WebResult(name="out") 
List<String> complex(@WebParam(name="in1") String in1, @WebParam(name="in2") int in2);

i.e. use the WRAPPED mapping style, with the onus

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