Spring Web Services is a product developed by the Spring community. It is created to facilitate contract-first SOAP service development. The tool allows users to create flexible web services that help to manipulate XML payloads. Spring Web Services is the preferred choice for most individuals as it enables the best web service practices. Let’s look at the features of Spring Web Services that set it apart from other SOAP stacks, making it the de facto choice in the Java developer community.
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Spring Web Services Features
Some of the key features of Spring web services are:
1. Multiple XML API Support
Libraries such as JDOM, dom4j, and XOM are also supported and the standard JAXP APIs.
2. WS-Security
You can sign, encrypt, decrypt, and authenticate SOAP messages easily with the WS-Security module.
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3. Acegi Security Support
Spring Web Services also provides support for Acegi security. You can use SOAP services with Acegi configuration, thanks to the WS-Security implementation of Spring Web Services.
4. XML Marshaling Support
Spring Web Services provides multiple API support to marshal XML. It can be used for non-web services code as well. It has support for JAXB 1 and 2, Castor, XMLBeans, JiBX, and XStream libraries.
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5. XML to Object Mapping
With Spring Web Services, XML based requests can be easily mapped to any of the objects using the information stored in the Message Payload or SOAP Action Header.
Now that you understand Spring Web Services features, let’s look at the Spring Web Services architecture.
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Spring Web Services Architecture
The Spring Web Services architecture is based on five modules. They are:
1. Spring-WS Core
The Spring-WS core is the main module for Spring Web Services architecture. It provides central interfaces like WebServiceMessage and SoapMessage.
2. Spring XML
The Spring XML module is used internally by the Spring Web Services framework. It is responsible for providing XML support classes for Spring Web Services.
3. Spring-WS Security
The Spring Web Services security module provides WS-security implementation with the core Web Service module. With this module, you can add principal tokens, sign, encrypt, and decrypt SOAP messages.
4. Spring-WS support
The Spring-WS support module provides support for Java Messaging Services, emails, etc.
5. Spring OXM
The Spring OXM module provides support classes for XML vs. object mapping.
Now, let’s see how to install Spring Web Services on your computer.
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Spring Web Services Installation
Spring Web Services can be easily set up on Windows and Linux-based computers. The system requirements for Spring Web Services are:
- JDK – JAVA SE 2 JDK 1.5 or above
- RAM – 1 GB
- Disk space – No minimum requirement
- Operating system – Windows XP or above, Linux
Steps to install Spring Web Services:
- Verify the Java installation
- Set your Java environment
- Download Maven archive
- Extract the Maven archive
- Set Maven environment variables
- Add Maven bin directory location to the system path
- Verify Maven installation
- Setup Eclipse IDE
- Setup Apache Tomcat
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Spring Web Services Project Steps
The following are the steps to create a Spring Web Services project:
1. Project Creation
You need to open a command console and create a project. You need to go to the C:\MVN path to create a new project by executing an mvn command. Once the command is executed, Maven will start processing it and create the complete Java Application Project Structure.
2. Project Build
To build the project, open a command console. Go to the C:\MVN and then the created Java application project directory and run the mvn clean package command. Maven will, then, start building the project.
3. Project Import in Eclipse
You, then, need to import the project in Eclipse. Go to the import option under the file menu and select the project location to import it.
4. Project Execution
Lastly, you need to export the project as a WAR file in Tomcat web apps. Start the Tomcat server and run the project file.
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Conclusion
Mastering Spring Web Services can open up a plethora of amazing career opportunities. You can easily see yourself in roles such as Spring Java Developer, Spring Application Developer, or Spring tech lead, to name a few. Each of these jobs is lucrative and can fetch an average annual income of around INR 3,50,000+ (Java Spring Developer). The pay increases exponentially based on experience and skills. The salaries are only expected to increase in the future. Thus, if you are interested in making a career in Spring Web Services, now is the right time to enter the field.
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What is SOAP?
Simple object access protocol or SOAP is an XML-based communication protocol that helps carry out communication on the Internet. SOAP may be sent across a number of lower-level protocols, including the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is used on the Internet. With a payload structure for delivering information, SOAP provides a header structure that describes the tasks that different SOAP components are required to execute on the message. SOAP provides features like identity, privacy, and format independence by routing a message via a series of nodes that fulfill distinct roles. The headers basically designate roles, which subsequently give the SOA functionality that SOAP ultimately connects to.
What are the advantages of using spring web services?
By using information included in the Message Payload, SOAP Action header, or an XPath Expression, XML-based queries can be linked to any entity on a spring web service platform. Different libraries are available on the spring web service in addition to the usual JAXP APIs for parsing incoming XML requests. The Object/XML Mapping module in Spring Web Services covers JAXB 1 and 2, Castor, XMLBeans, JiBX, and XStream libraries. The Object/XML Mapping package is also used in code that is not even related to web services. Spring Web Services configures itself using Spring Application Contexts, which have a similar design to Spring Web MVC. Users may Sign, Encrypt, Decrypt, and Validate SOAP Messages with the WS-Security module.
What are the disadvantages of using spring web services?
Although Spring web services are easy to use, they do have certain drawbacks. To begin with, it is necessary to match criteria because when a user establishes a service to serve a range of consumers, particular machine needs must be met. The second issue of spring web services is their availability, as they are not always available. The third disadvantage of spring web services is their lack of security, as they are accessible to the whole public via a http-based protocol. As a result, anyone may access and use online services. Guaranteed Execution is a key issue with spring web services since HTTP, or HyperText Transfer Protocol, is not a dependable protocol in the sense that it does not ensure answer delivery.