How to do a SOAP Web Service call from Java class?

I understand your problem boils down to how to call a SOAP (JAX-WS) web service from Java and get its returning object. In that case, you have two possible approaches:

1. Generate the Java classes through wsimport and use them; or
2. Create a SOAP client that:
   1. Serializes the service’s parameters to XML;
   2. Calls the web method through HTTP manipulation; and
   3. Parse the returning XML response back into an object.

About the first approach (using wsimport):

I see you already have the services’ (entities or other) business classes, and it’s a fact that the wsimport generates a whole new set of classes (that are somehow duplicates of the classes you already have).

I’m afraid, though, in this scenario, you can only either:

• Adapt (edit) the wsimport generated code to make it use your business classes (this is difficult and somehow not worth it – bear in mind everytime the WSDL changes, you’ll have to regenerate and readapt the code); or
• Give up and use the wsimport generated classes. (In this solution, you business code could “use” the generated classes as a service from another architectural layer.)

About the second approach (create your custom SOAP client):

In order to implement the second approach, you’ll have to:

1. Make the call:
   • Use the SAAJ (SOAP with Attachments API for Java) framework (see below, it’s shipped with Java SE 1.6 or above) to make the calls; or
   • You can also do it through java.net.HttpUrlconnection (and some java.io handling).
2. Turn the objects into and back from XML:
   • Use an OXM (Object to XML Mapping) framework such as JAXB to serialize/deserialize the XML from/into objects
   • Or, if you must, manually create/parse the XML (this can be the best solution if the received object is only a little bit differente from the sent one).

Creating a SOAP client using classic java.net.HttpUrlConnection is not that hard (but not that simple either), and you can find in this link a very good starting code.

I recommend you use the SAAJ framework:

SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) is mainly used for dealing directly with SOAP Request/Response messages which happens behind the scenes in any Web Service API. It allows the developers to directly send and receive soap messages instead of using JAX-WS.

See below a working example (run it!) of a SOAP web service call using SAAJ. It calls this web service.

import javax.xml.soap.*;

public class SOAPClientSAAJ {

    // SAAJ - SOAP Client Testing
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        /*
            The example below requests from the Web Service at:
             https://www.w3schools.com/xml/tempconvert.asmx?op=CelsiusToFahrenheit


            To call other WS, change the parameters below, which are:
             - the SOAP Endpoint URL (that is, where the service is responding from)
             - the SOAP Action

            Also change the contents of the method createSoapEnvelope() in this class. It constructs
             the inner part of the SOAP envelope that is actually sent.
         */
        String soapEndpointUrl = "https://www.w3schools.com/xml/tempconvert.asmx";
        String soapAction = "https://www.w3schools.com/xml/CelsiusToFahrenheit";

        callSoapWebService(soapEndpointUrl, soapAction);
    }

    private static void createSoapEnvelope(SOAPMessage soapMessage) throws SOAPException {
        SOAPPart soapPart = soapMessage.getSOAPPart();

        String myNamespace = "myNamespace";
        String myNamespaceURI = "https://www.w3schools.com/xml/";

        // SOAP Envelope
        SOAPEnvelope envelope = soapPart.getEnvelope();
        envelope.addNamespaceDeclaration(myNamespace, myNamespaceURI);

            /*
            Constructed SOAP Request Message:
            <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:myNamespace="https://www.w3schools.com/xml/">
                <SOAP-ENV:Header/>
                <SOAP-ENV:Body>
                    <myNamespace:CelsiusToFahrenheit>
                        <myNamespace:Celsius>100</myNamespace:Celsius>
                    </myNamespace:CelsiusToFahrenheit>
                </SOAP-ENV:Body>
            </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
            */

        // SOAP Body
        SOAPBody soapBody = envelope.getBody();
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem = soapBody.addChildElement("CelsiusToFahrenheit", myNamespace);
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem1 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement("Celsius", myNamespace);
        soapBodyElem1.addTextNode("100");
    }

    private static void callSoapWebService(String soapEndpointUrl, String soapAction) {
        try {
            // Create SOAP Connection
            SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
            SOAPConnection soapConnection = soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();

            // Send SOAP Message to SOAP Server
            SOAPMessage soapResponse = soapConnection.call(createSOAPRequest(soapAction), soapEndpointUrl);

            // Print the SOAP Response
            System.out.println("Response SOAP Message:");
            soapResponse.writeTo(System.out);
            System.out.println();

            soapConnection.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println("\nError occurred while sending SOAP Request to Server!\nMake sure you have the correct endpoint URL and SOAPAction!\n");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private static SOAPMessage createSOAPRequest(String soapAction) throws Exception {
        MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
        SOAPMessage soapMessage = messageFactory.createMessage();

        createSoapEnvelope(soapMessage);

        MimeHeaders headers = soapMessage.getMimeHeaders();
        headers.addHeader("SOAPAction", soapAction);

        soapMessage.saveChanges();

        /* Print the request message, just for debugging purposes */
        System.out.println("Request SOAP Message:");
        soapMessage.writeTo(System.out);
        System.out.println("\n");

        return soapMessage;
    }

}

About using JAXB for serializing/deserializing, it is very easy to find information about it. You can start here: http://www.mkyong.com/java/jaxb-hello-world-example/.