Running an unmanaged web services JAX-RPC client

WebSphere® Application Server Version 8.5 and the Application Client for WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 provides a thin Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 (Java SE 6) web services client runtime implementation that is based on the Java™ API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC) 1.1 specification. The Thin Client for JAX-RPC with WebSphere Application Server is a stand-alone Java SE 6 client environment that enables running unmanaged JAX-RPC web services client applications in a non-WebSphere environment to invoke web services that are hosted by the application server.

Before you begin

Supported configurations: You can use the Thin Client for JAX-RPC with WebSphere Application Server as a stand-alone client run time in a pure Java SE environment, or within an OSGi environment. The Thin Client for JAX-RPC is not supported when running within WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Client environments. In this version of the application server, with the exception of the Administration Thin Client, other Thin Client run times provided with the application server can also reside in the CLASSPATH and coexist with the Thin Client for JAX-RPC.

Before you can set up a JAX-RPC unmanaged client environment you will need to obtain the Thin Client for JAX-RPC Java archive (JAR) file. To obtain the Thin Client for JAX-RPC, you must either install the application server or the application client.

The Thin Client for JAX-RPC JAR file, com.ibm.ws.webservices.thinclient_8.5.0.jar, is located in the app_server_root\runtimes directory. Refer to the license agreements to ensure correct usage and for limitations on copies of the Thin Client for JAX-RPC outside of the WebSphere environment.

The Thin Client for JAX-RPC is supported in the following environments:

IBM® Software Development Kits (SDKs) Version 6.0
Sun Java Development Kit (JDK) Version 6.0 that are provided by IBM
non-IBM SDKs Version 6.0 with this limitation:
- Xerces limitation on non-IBM SDKs
  If you are using a non-IBM SDK, because of dependencies with the Xerces implementation, you will need to download Xerces-J version 2.6.2 and set it in the classpath before attempting to run the Thin Client for JAX-RPC.
- Equinox 3.6 OSGi runtime environments

About this task

Supported configurations:

Running web services clients that invoke web services before the application server, in which the client is running, has finished starting is not a supported scenario.
WS-Addressing is not supported for JAX-RPC web services in an unmanaged client environment. If you need to use WS-Addressing, or a web service standard that relies on WS-Addressing, such as WS-Notification, you must use the Thin Client for Java API for XML-based Web Services (JAX-WS) instead. To learn how to setup and run the Thin Client for JAX-WS, see the Thin Client for JAX-WS documentation.

Procedure

Configure the path.

You can add the Java bin directories to your path by typing:

set PATH=<your_JDK_bin_directory>;%PATH%

export PATH=<your_JDK_bin_directory>:$PATH

Configure the classpath.

set CLASSPATH=.;<your_web_services_thin_client_install_directory>\com.ibm.ws.webservices.thinclient_8.5.0.jar;
<your_application_jars>;%CLASSPATH%

export CLASSPATH=.:<your_web_services_thin_client_install_directory>/com.ibm.ws.webservices.thinclient_8.5.0.jar:
<your_application_jars>;$CLASSPATH

If you are using a non-IBM SDK, obtain a Xerces xml-apis.jar and xercesImpl.jar from the Xerces web site and configure the classpath definition.

set CLASSPATH=.;<your_Xerces_install_directory>\xml-apis.jar;<your_Xerces_install_directory>
\xercesImpl.jar;%CLASSPATH%

export CLASSPATH=.:<your_Xerces_install_directory>/xml-apis.jar:<your_Xerces_install_directory>
\xercesImpl.jar:$CLASSPATH

Configure SSL for the client.
1. Add the following system properties to the Java command:
```
-Dcom.ibm.SSL.ConfigURL=file:///home/sample/ssl.client.props
```
  You can obtain the ssl.client.props file from the WebSphere Application Server installation and modify the file to suit your environment. You must, at a minimum, update the location of the com.ibm.ssl.keyStore and com.ibm.ssl.trustStore key files in the ssl.client.props file to the match location of your target environment.
  For example, use these SSL configuration settings when running the application with a Sun JRE:
```
com.ibm.ssl.protocol=SSL
com.ibm.ssl.trustManager=SunX509
com.ibm.ssl.keyManager=SunX509
com.ibm.ssl.contextProvider=SunJSSE

com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreType=JKS
com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreProvider=SUN
com.ibm.ssl.keyStore=/home/user1/etc/key.jks

com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreType=JKS
com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreProvider=SUN
com.ibm.ssl.trustStore=/home/user1/etc/trust.jks
```
  The key store file and trust store file must be created using the Java keytool utility before the application runs. The automatic key file generation is not supported with a non-IBM product JRE.

Enter the following command to run your client application:

%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java -Dcom.ibm.SSL.ConfigURL=file:///home/sample/ssl.client.props <your_client_application>

$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -Dcom.ibm.SSL.ConfigURL=file:///home/sample/ssl.client.props <your_client_application>

Results

You have set up an unmanaged JAX-RPC client runtime environment that can be used to invoke web services hosted on a WebSphere Application Server.

Avoid trouble: The following command illustrates how to display to version of the thin client that you are running:

java -cp (wasHome)/runtimes/com.ibm.ws.webservices.thinclient_8.5.0.jar com.ibm.ws.webservices.Version

The following example illustrates the output of the command:

IBM Web services build: cf021412.02
IBM Web services release: 8.5.5
Time stamp: 5/14/14 21:11:46