Asynchronous Web Service

[Geevee Joseph]

Could anyone please explain how to develop asynchronous webservice using Spring framework?
Thanks in advance.

[Ivan Krizsan]

Hi!
Do you want a web service that processes requests asynchronously or a client that sends requests and receives responses asynchronously?
Is there any particular part of the Spring framework you want to use?
Best wishes!

[Geevee Joseph]

I'm pretty new to Spring WS. Have worked on client side Spring WS using WebServiceTemplate.
I didnt get the actual meaning in your comment - 'Do you want a web service that processes requests asynchronously or a client that sends requests and receives responses asynchronously?'
What I'm looking for is a client which can asynchronously use a service. Shouldn't it be a asynchronous WS to achieve this?
What I want to know is whether Spring supports this and steps involved in development.

[Ivan Krizsan]

Hi!
No, the web service itself does not have to be asynchronous in order to be accessed by an asynchronous client.
If you were to use pure JAX-WS, you add a file like the following using the -b option with the wsimport command to create client artifacts that allow you to obtain a client that can asynchronously access a synchronous web service:

<bindings
    xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
    wsdlLocation="http://localhost:8080/JAX-WS_Server_wsgen/CalculatorService?wsdl"
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxws">
    
    <bindings node="//wsdl:portType[@name='Calculator']">
        <bindings node="wsdl:operation[@name='addNumbers']">
            <enableAsyncMapping>true</enableAsyncMapping>
        </bindings>
    </bindings>
</bindings>

This will result in the generated service interface containing methods that return a Future object that can be polled for a result.

As far as I know, there is no support for asynchronous clients with Spring WS. There is a workaround, see this thread: http://forum.springsource.org/showthread.php?t=54887
Do correct me if I am wrong!
Best wishes!

[Geevee Joseph]

Thanks Ivan for the response.