Apache Axis2 1.0 Unleashed!

WSO2 is proud to be part of the Apache Axis2 1.0 release, the core engine and platform for next generation Web services and Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), Axis2 is a huge leap forward from its Axis and SOAP origins, being highly performant and extensible.

Apache Axis2 is a complete re-design and re-write of the widely used Apache Axis SOAP stack to build on the lessons learnt from Apache Axis. Apache Axis2 is more efficient, more modular and more XML-oriented than the older version. It is carefully designed to support the easy addition of plug-in “modules” that extend its functionality for features such as security and reliability.

A module supporting WS-Security (Apache Rampart) is available immediately and a module supporting WS-Reliable Messaging (Apache Sandesha) will be available within the next a few days.

Apache Axis2 not only supports SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2, but it also has integrated support for the widely popular REST style of Web services: the same business logic implementation can offer both a WS-* style interface as well as a REST style interface simultaneously.

Apache Axis2 is built on Apache Axiom, a new high performant, pull-based XML object model that was released two days ago.

Key features include -

  • Programming model

    • – Improved, XML-centric client API including full WSDL and policy support
    – Support for any message exchange pattern
    – Synchronous and asynchronous calls
    – Archived service deployment model supporting full service encapsulation with versioning support
    – Archived module deployment model supporting controlled

  • Extensibility with versioning support

    • – Hot deployment
    – WS-Policy driven code generation extensions
    – Flexible service lifecyle model
    – Support for querying service’s WSDL (using ?wsdl), schema (using ?xsd) and policies (using ?policy)

  • Supported specifications

    • – SOAP 1.1 and 1.2
    – Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM), XML Optimized Packaging (XOP) and SOAP with Attachments
    – WSDL 1.1, including both SOAP and HTTP bindings
    – WS-Addressing (submission and final)
    – WS-Policy
    – SAAJ 1.1

  • Transports

    • – HTTP
    – SMTP
    – JMS
    – TCP

  • Supported data bindings

    • – Axis Data Binding (ADB)
    – XMLBeans
    – JibX
    – JaxMe

  • Tools

    • – WSDL2Java: Generate Java stubs and skeletons from a WSDL document.
    – Java2WSDL: Generate a WSDL document from a Java class.
    – Eclipse Plugins
    – Intellij Idea Plugins
    – Web application for administering Apache Axis2

  • Extension modules

    • – Apache Rampart: Supporting WS-Security (and soon WS-Policy)
    – Apache Sandesha2: Supporting WS-Reliable Messaging

    Apache Axis2 comes built in with a module that supports WS-Addressing.

Download Apache Axis2 1.0 here
For articles on Axis2 see here