WsImport ant task and JDK 6

Question

I am trying to use jax-ws to generate web service proxy classes, using the wsimport ant task, similarly to this question, with the following follow-on question:

As I understand it, more recent versions of JDK 1.6 include jax-ws and the WsImport ant task is defined in the JDK's tools.jar file.

Why does ant not find this automatically?

Why does eclipse not find this automatically as well?

I found a few references to using jax-ws with JDK 6, but these seem to be based on copying a separately downloaded jax-ws library and dropping it into the JDK ext folder (which I assume is no longer required given that it is actually bundled with the JDK now).

What is the proper way to use the wsimport task with a version of JDK 1.6 that already includes jax-ws?

My build XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="wsproxy">
    <taskdef name="wsimport" classname="com.sun.tools.ws.ant.WsImport" />
    <target name="wsgentest">
        <wsimport
            wsdl="http://localhost/Service?wsdl"
            destdir="bin-gen"
            sourcedestdir="src-gen"
            keep="true"
            verbose="true"
            package="com.ws">
        </wsimport>
    </target>
</project>

Solution 1

It turns out the WsImport class that is in the JDK is not actually an ant task, but the actual wsimport command line tool. I misread the package name as well: com.sun.tools.internal.ws.

The actual ant task is available in webservices-tools.jar in the metro package here. You will need to drop it in the ant lib directory.

Solution 2

As far as I know, what is bundled with the JDK6 is the binary tool itself, not the actual Ant task.

I have Java 1.6.0_31 in my dev box, although a slightly special one (JRockit R28.2.3), and this is the only way I have found to use wsimport task properly.

1. Download a suitable version of JAX-WS from the official site. With JDK6 it should be a version up to 2.1.10. If you try to use version 2.2+, you will have a classpath conflict.
2. Install the JAR contents with java -jar {jaxwsJarName}, whatever name it is. This command will create a [jaxws-ri] folder.
3. Copy the contents of [jaxws-ri/lib] folder in the location of choice. In spite of the size, I like to have the external libraries along my own projects, to ensure anyone may be able to compile and package the code with no external artifacts.
4. Create the taskdef item and the wsimport task in your build file.

This is my taskdef item:

<taskdef
    name="wsimport"
    classname="com.sun.tools.ws.ant.WsImport">

    <classpath>
        <fileset dir="${lib.dir}/jaxws-ri-2.1.10">
            <include name="**/*.jar" />
        </fileset>
    </classpath>
</taskdef>

And this is my wsimport task:

<target name="generate-code">
    <wsimport
        wsdl="${wsdl.dir}/${wsdl.name}-${wsdl.version}.wsdl"
        sourcedestdir="${src.dir}"
        destdir="${build.debug.dir}"
        package="${generated.code.package}">

        <depends file="${wsdl.dir}/${wsdl.name}-${wsdl.version}.wsdl" />
        <produces dir="${build.debug.dir}" />
    </wsimport>
</target>