simplifies the creation of Web services with Wsas and eclipse

WEB services are now ubiquitous. This is a good opportunity if you need to create a WEB service for new applications or new features that you are developing. Not long ago, the creation of WEB services was a laborious task. WSO2 is aware of this situation and has created an Eclipse plug-in to help you use WEB services more easily. This article describes the WSO2 Web Services Application Server (WSAS) Eclipse plug-in and how it helps you develop a Web service.

What is WSO2 WSAS?

Before delving into the Web Services application Server (WSAS) plug-ins that apply to Eclipse, you need to discuss what WSAS is. WSAS is a Java™ application server for WEB services. It is an open source project published under the Apache Software License. WSAS contains tools that apply to all tasks (including creation, deployment, management, and so on) that need to be done with WEB services. It provides a particularly effective tool to enable many of the expected features in modern WEB services, including the various ws-* you've heard of. WSAS is a relatively new product, but it is built on the tested open source technology (including Axis2 and Apache Tomcat).

You can use WSAS in conjunction with other application servers, such as Tomcat or ibm®websphere®, but it can also run completely independently. In this article, we'll use WSAS in standalone mode, mainly introducing the Eclipse plug-in as part of WSAS, and seeing how it's easier to create a WEB service with the Eclipse plug-in and how it binds to WSAS.

wsas--and the WEB service standards themselves-some of the developers behind the WSO2 work, WSO2 is a company based on the Apache project to develop open source software and provide support, consulting and training services. Download WSAS from the WSO2 Developer Portal WSO2 Oxygen Tank.

System Requirements

You need to have Eclipse V3.3, WSO2 WSAS, and WSAS Eclipse Plug-ins to develop WEB services. The WSAS plug-in will take advantage of the Eclipse Web Tools Platform. The easiest way to meet this requirement is to use the Eclipse Java EE. You will also need the WSAS V2.1 and Java Development Kit (JDK) V5.0 or later versions of WSO2. This article uses Mac OS X, but all software is required to run in Windows® and linux®. Depending on the operating system, you may need to adjust the file location.

Eclipse Plug-in

WSAS has a powerful management application that we'll see later. It supports the deployment of various JAR-based archives into WEB services, and even the use of legacy Web service deployment descriptors in conjunction with Axis. However, you still need to write code and create these different artifacts. Developing Java applications is inseparable from using Eclipse. and using the WSAS plug-in makes it easy to convert Java applications to WEB services running on WSAS. However, before you start using it, you need to install and set it up first.

Installation

To install the WSAS plug-in, you must have Eclipse and WSAS installed. You also need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable if it is not already set. This environment variable should point to the installation directory of the JDK. When the settings are complete, go to the WSAS installed Bin directory and run the setup script. For Windows, this script is Install.bat, and for Linux and OS X, this script is install.sh. You should receive the output shown in Listing 1.

Listing 1. Run Setup Script

>./install.sh
Running　WSO2　Web　Services　Application　Server,　v2.1　installer...

###########################################################
#　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　#
#　　　　　　　　WSO2　WSAS　v2.1　Installation　　　　　　　　#
#　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　#
###########################################################

Please　select　your　installation　mode:
1)　Eclipse　WTP　Plugin　Installation
2)　Servlet　Container　Installation
3)　Windows　NT　Service　Installation
4)　Windows　NT　Service　Uninstallation
:

Select the 1th option, and you should see the output shown in Listing 2.

Listing 2. Select Eclipse Home Page

Selection:　Eclipse　WTP　Plugin　Installation

Starting　WSAS　Eclipse　WTP　Plugin　installation...
Please　shutdown　the　Eclipse　instance,　If　Already　Running　...
Please　enter　Eclipse　WTP　Home　: