RE: Calling a document style web service operation with no input para meters

[Tom Jordahl <to...@macromedia.com>]

Thomas,
 
The interop test "docLit", found in test/wsdl/interop3/docLit, has an echoVoid operation which takes no arguments.
I believe this is what you are trying to do.
 
The message is defined in the WSDL like this:
    <message name="echoVoid"/>
    <message name="echoVoidResponse"/>

And the operation:
        <operation name="echoVoid">
            <input message="tns:echoVoid" name="echoVoid"/>
            <output message="tns:echoVoidResponse" name="echoVoidResponse"/>
        </operation>
 
I hope this helps.
 
-- 
Tom Jordahl 
Macromedia Server Development 
-----Original Message-----
From: thomas.cherel@ascentialsoftware.com [mailto:thomas.cherel@ascentialsoftware.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 6:12 PM
To: axis-dev@xml.apache.org
Subject: Calling a document style web service operation with no input para meters




When calling a document style web service operation (using the Axis client API and the classes generated by WSDL2Java), the SOAP request is looking like that:

POST /periodictable.asmxHTTP/1.0 
Host: www.webservicex.net 
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8 
SOAPAction: "  <http://www.webservicex.net/GetAtoms> http://www.webservicex.net/GetAtoms" 
Content-Length: 316  

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv=" http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/ <http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/> " 
                     xmlns:xsd=" http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema> " 
                         xmlns:xsi=" http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance> "> 
 <soapenv:Body> 
  <GetAtoms xmlns=" http://www.webservicex.net <http://www.webservicex.net> "/> 
 </soapenv:Body> 
</soapenv:Envelope> 

I was actually expecting to have an empty soapenv:Body. Any good reasons for not being empty? 
I actually think that I know the answer: in the WSDL, I have the following declarations: 

<s:element name="GetAtoms"> 
  <s:complexType /> 
</s:element> 

<message name="GetAtomsSoapIn"> 
  <part name="parameters" element="s0:GetAtoms" /> 
</message> 

WSDL/SOAP specifications say that in document style, parts appear directly under the soap body element. In this case, the WSDL specifies that I have one part called GetAtoms and I need the element for it (even if this is empty). But then, I have the following questions:

- The WSDL/SOAP spec is not 100% explicit about the fact that even if the part is an empty element, the element must be there.

- If I declare an empty message (with no part sub element, which seems to be valid from WSDL1.1 point of view), then WSDL2Java does not work anymore. Does it mean that this is required for Axis? Is it required for maximum interoperability? The SOAPAction header is what should really be used to find which operation to call, isn't it (if I put the operation overloading aside ....)?

- I tried similar type of things using visual studio .net and I can make it work (not as easy as if the message is not empty, but I can still make it work).

I have no real problem with this empty element to provide, but I am trying to understand how important this is from an interoperability point of view.

Thomas