Axis sessions using non-Axis client?

[Ma...@wildfire.com]

Hi all.

I've been reading several of the archived posts regarding Axis sessions,
and I've found some very useful information.

However, I have not found any information specifically about using Axis
only as a server while maintaining session state for clients (someone
alluded to this being possible in their post, but no specific information
was provided).

I am very interested in using Axis to provide a service - but I must meet
the following requirements:
  1. Clients cannot be tied to Axis (they must be able to use JAX-RPC
without having to use any Axis specific API's).
  2. Clients may be written in any language (Java, C++, Perl, etc.) using
standard SOAP API's for clients, for going over HTTP to Axis.

I know that Axis can maintain sessions based on either cookies, or using
SOAP headers.  However, it appears that the Axis client class
org.apache.axis.client.Service MUST be used to enable sessions.  Is there a
way of supporting sessions with either cookies or SOAP headers that
does not require using any Axis specific client classes?  Can anyone point
me in the direction of any examples that show how to do this?

I did see the session example (TestSimpleSession.java, included in the test
directory of the Axis source release) which uses the SOAP header method,
but it still uses the org.apache.axis.client.Service.setMaintainSession()
function, so I'm not sure this will do what I expect.

Thanks.

-Mark