WSDL parsing exception creating Webservice client with CXF JaxWSClientFactoryBean

Question

I've written some code to create and run webservice client using CXF. I used JaxWsClientFactoryBean (not sure it's the best solution) to create client from .wsdl file. The goal here was to do this programmatically avoiding Spring etc. Just pure code with Java and CXF.

JaxWsClientFactoryBean cfb = new JaxWsClientFactoryBean();
cfb.setAddress(getServiceProperty(intClass, PROPERTY_KEY_URL_SUFFIX));
cfb.setServiceClass(intClass);
cfb.setOutInterceptors(getOutInterceptors(intClass));
cfb.setServiceName(SERVICE_NAME);
cfb.setWsdlURL("classpath:wsdl/" + intClass.getSimpleName() + ".wsdl");
cfb.setEndpointName(ENDPOINT_NAME);
Client client = cfb.create();
ClientProxy cp = new ClientProxy(client);
I intService = (I) 
   Proxy.newProxyInstance(intClass.getClassLoader(), new Class[] { intClass }, cp);

I'm really not sure if this is done correctly, but it works when I run this code locally and when I deploy it on Tomcat.

Unfortunatelly I need to run this code on Weblogic and this results in strange exception:

Caused by: javax.wsdl.WSDLException: WSDLException: faultCode=PARSER_ERROR: org.w3c.dom.DOMException: HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: An attempt was
made to insert a node where it is not permitted.
        at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLManagerImpl.loadDefinition(WSDLManagerImpl.java:235)
        at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLManagerImpl.getDefinition(WSDLManagerImpl.java:186)
        at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLServiceFactory.<init>(WSDLServiceFactory.java:92)
        ... 26 more
Caused by: org.w3c.dom.DOMException: HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: An attempt was made to insert a node where it is not permitted.
        at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom.ParentNode.internalInsertBefore(ParentNode.java:356)
        at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom.ParentNode.insertBefore(ParentNode.java:284)
        at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom.CoreDocumentImpl.insertBefore(CoreDocumentImpl.java:399)
        at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom.NodeImpl.appendChild(NodeImpl.java:235)
        at org.apache.cxf.staxutils.StaxUtils.readDocElements(StaxUtils.java:1019)
        at org.apache.cxf.staxutils.StaxUtils.readDocElements(StaxUtils.java:939)
        at org.apache.cxf.staxutils.StaxUtils.read(StaxUtils.java:866)
        at org.apache.cxf.wsdl11.WSDLManagerImpl.loadDefinition(WSDLManagerImpl.java:226)
        ... 28 more

This happens during application deployment. It looks like there is something wrong with .wsdl file, but wait... It was working on Tomcat!

I think that there could be some difference in com.sun.org.apache.xerces.* classes implementation within Weblogic with its JRockit VM and standard JVM, but I have no idea how to solve it.

I spent many hours trying differend ways of client creation. Most of them worked locally and in Tomcat, but none on WebLogic.

Any hints what to try next? I'm kinda tired of this topic :D

Answer 1

I agree with your suspicion that the problem is related to the used version of Xerces. The stacktrace shows that the Sun implementation of Xerces which is derivative of the Apache Xerces is used in your case.

Please check the Apache CFX Application Server Configuration Guide instructions related to WebLogic.

WebLogic ClassLoading

In WebLogic Server, any .jar file present in the system classpath is loaded by the WebLogic Server system classloader. All applications running within a server instance are loaded in application classloaders which are children of the system classloader. In this implementation of the system classloader, applications cannot use different versions of third-party jars which are already present in the system classloader. Every child classloader asks the parent (the system classloader) for a particular class and cannot load classes which are seen by the parent.

For example, if a class called com.foo.Baz exists in both $CLASSPATH as well as the application EAR, then the class from the $CLASSPATH is loaded and not the one from the EAR. Since weblogic.jar is in the $CLASSPATH, applications can not override any WebLogic Server classes.

In order to use an alternate version of Xerces you have to create a FilteringClassLoader.

Usage of FilteringClassLoader

The FilteringClassLoader provides a mechanism for you to configure deployment descriptors to explicitly specify that certain packages should always be loaded from the application, rather than being loaded by the system classloader. This allows you to use alternate versions of applications such as Xerces and Ant.

The FilteringClassLoader sits between the application classloader and the system. It is a child of the system classloader and the parent of the application classloader. The FilteringClassLoader intercepts the loadClass(String className) method and compares the className with a list of packages specified in weblogic-application.xml file.

In conclusion, check the steps included in the Apache CFX Application Server Configuration Guide and take care to explicitly specify that the org.apache.xerces.* package is loaded from the application, rather than being loaded from the system classloader.

For example the weblogic-application.xml file in the META-INF should look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<weblogic-application xmlns="http://www.bea.com/ns/weblogic/90">
    <application-param>
        <param-name>webapp.encoding.default</param-name>
        <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
    </application-param>
    <prefer-application-packages>
        <package-name>javax.jws.*</package-name>
        <package-name>org.apache.xerces.*</package-name>
    </prefer-application-packages>
</weblogic-application>

I hope this helps.