Axis

From Informatics

Apache axis is an implementation of SOAP, which is an xml based protocol used to exchange information in a "decentralized, distributed environment".

Axis is used as part of the globus toolkit, which is used in caGrid 1.0 and geWorkbench. One of the recurring issues I've seen with Axis is inconsistent api changes. More specifically, the Axis development team will release an api, and then in a later version release an api with certain exposed methods either changed or completely removed (hence all the different versions of Axis in geWorkbench). This is really annoying as it breaks client code! So, if you plan on using Axis, be careful and make sure it doesn't already exist in the project (either as a jar or embedded in another project ie. gominer.jar).

Configuring Logging

If you want to activate logging in Axis, See CaGrid Debugging

Monitoring SOAP Messages

• Do the following command:
  • cd to the directory that contains your axis.jar (or put axis.jar on the path)
  • execute java -classpath axis.jar org.apache.axis.utils.tcpmon 8060 localhost 8080

In the above command, your client must try and ping the server at localhost:8060. Tcpmon then intercepts this, and forwards the request to 8080 where the server is running. See also: http://ws.apache.org/axis/java/user-guide.html#AppendixUsingTheAxisTCPMonitorTcpmon