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Posted to soap-user@ws.apache.org by Stefan Henke <st...@gmx.de> on 2001/11/14 11:18:54 UTC

Complex datatypes and interoperability

Hi,

I have a general question about using complex datatypes with soap and wsdl.
I´m using WSTK 2.4 with Apache SOAP. I´m looking for expiriences for the issue of complex datatypes and interoperability?
Have you already tried to send complex datatypes between Apache SOAP and .NET? If yes, did you also use wsdl for description?

Thanks
Stefan

Re: Complex datatypes and interoperability

Posted by Nicholas Quaine <nq...@soapuser.com>.

Stefan,

I have some experience with Apache SOAP on server side and .NET client (MS SOAP Toolkit)

If using the low level API there is no issue (see http://www.soapuser.com/client4.html for instructions)
But there is no wsdl file involved in that case

If using the high level API then a wsdl file is necessary and it is true that complex types can be difficult
I have managed to make everything work for simple types, arrays of simple types, complex types (structs).
But as soon as you try to send an array of complex types as a parameter or return type then things start to break down

here are the highlights of the highlevelAPI/wsdl related interop issues I have identified/solved...

1. ensure that your WSDL file specifies UTF-8 encoding - ie. first line should
be : <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> rather than UTF-16 as you see in
some wsdl file examples

2. the classic obstacle to ms-apache interop is the xsi:type problem. The MS
high level API does not put xsi:type into the request. Apache soap 2.1 (or later) has the
functionality to get around this (so you cannot use apache soap 2.0) - the way
to exploit this is described in Sanjiva's change comments available here
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=soap-dev&m=97901982213396&w=2
(you basically need to make some additional entries in your deployment descriptor for the
primitives and deploy)

3. Apache will put "Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8" in the response
packet. If you use MS toolkit prior to 2.0 beta 2 then it will only want to
see "Content-Type: text/xml" - a hack into the apache code is required
- note this was a Microsoft acknowledged bug and was fixed in
MS SOAP Toolkit 2.0 beta 2 so ensure youhave that version at least.

Note that you will be able to pass primitives and user-defined types back and
forth. Although for user-defined types you will need to define VB classes (sort
of beans) for each type and a wsml file describing your mapping from the types
as mentioned in the soap message to your VB beans. This is OK for flat beans
(ie. ones that are composed only of primitive types). If you have non-flat beans
then the beans become a piece of work in themselves since, as described in the
toolkit help, you must define extra classes with special methods
(ISoapTypeMapper_write ISoapTypeMapper_read) which handle the soap envelope
writing and reading for the nested beans using the low level API and the DOM
parsing functionality respectively - so using the high level API, you can't
really get away from the low level API / DOM parsing complexity anyway.
AFAIK arrays of beans are not supported
If you do manage to get that working please let me know...

regards,
Nicholas Quaine

Visit http://www.soapuser.com/

nquaine@soapuser.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Stefan Henke
To: soap-user@xml.apache.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 11:18 AM
Subject: Complex datatypes and interoperability

Hi,

I have a general question about using complex datatypes with soap and wsdl.
I´m using WSTK 2.4 with Apache SOAP. I´m looking for expiriences for the issue of complex datatypes and interoperability?
Have you already tried to send complex datatypes between Apache SOAP and .NET? If yes, did you also use wsdl for description?

Thanks
Stefan