Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) General Discussion

Hi,

I've been experimenting with various platforms that I can use to test some interop scenarios between .NET ASMX web services and Java clients and vice versa.

I got Sun Studio Ent. 8.1 for the client side of the house so far.

I use a contract first approach for service design, using XML Spy to define the types, request/response messages, and WSDL. Then use .NET's wsdl.exe to generate service side interface.

Anyways, my types.xsd has a PublicationType complex type defined as abstract. I derive MagazineType and BookType from that by extension.

I have a GetPublicationsResponse element in messages.xsd which has a Publications element whose type is PublicationType and unbounded, so essentially an array of PublicationType.

In a .NET to .NET scenario, everything works as I would expect, and can determine the concrete type at runtime:

foreach (PublicationType t in response.Publications)
{
if (t is MagazineType )
//
else if ( t is BookType )
//
}

I tried the same with a Java client in Sun Studio.

I created a new Java standalone app, added a main GUI form to it (apologies for the lack of Java terminology here), added a Web Service Client to the project. I pointed the Web Service Client at a physical WSDL file for the service, to get the contract first side of the client going.

I examined the generated .class(s) and noticed only PublicationType generated. So, I cannot examine the response message for MagazineType or BookType, and get this exception when I invoke the service operation:

Runtime exception; nested exception is:
unexpected element type: expected={http://wiseowlbooks.com/schemas/types.xsd}PublicationType, actual={http://wiseowlbooks.com/schemas/types.xsd}MagazineType

That's just from calling the service. If I didn't get an exception, I would code something similiar to the snip posted above to determine the concrete type.

Basically, is abstract complexTypes and derived types inappropriately used in this scenario?

On another note, I developed a client in JBuilder and got the expected results, in that I was able to iterate the collection of PublicationType in the response, and determine their concrete implementation.

Thanks,
Ron