A stable version of Metro is integrated in GlassFish V2 and the latest nightlies of stand-alone bundle are also available. The stand-alone bundle comes with an install scipt (wsit-on-tomcat.xml) that allows it install on Tomcat 5.x. I followed the steps in Rama's blog to install Metro on Tomcat 6.x. But first, a little bit of explanation and then the actual code fragments.

Tomcat's classloading mechanism has changed slightly between 5.x and 6.x. The first change is that Tomcat 5.x used to have shared/lib directory to share classes across all web applications. This directory in turn used to be specified as value of shared.loader property in  conf/catalina.properties. In Tomcat 6.x, the property still exists but it's value is set to nothing and shared/lib directory no longer exists in the default installation. I see the motivation behind this change as it keeps the Tomcat installation directory clean and any shared resources can still be specified in conf/catalina.properties. But this means that wsit-on-tomcat.xml script, that copies the files in shared/lib directory, will work on Tomcat 5.x only. In order for this script to work on Tomcat 6.x, the value of shared.loader property need to be changed to include Metro jars.

Now, the code fragments! The value of shared.loader property in Tomcat 5.x is:

shared.loader=${catalina.base}/shared/classes,${catalina.base}/shared/lib/*.jar

And in Tomcat 6.x is the value of this property is:

shared.loader=

If Metro is installed in c:\metro then changing its value to:

shared.loader=file:///c:/metro/lib/*.jar

will enable Tomcat 6.x to host Secure, Reliable, Transactional and .NET 3.0-Interoperable Web services. And this mechanism will work for Tomcat 5.x too, so changing the value of this property in Tomcat 5.x installation to:

shared.loader=${catalina.base}/shared/classes,${catalina.base}/shared/lib/*.jar,file:///c:/metro/lib/*.jar

instead of copying the files in shared/lib will be sufficient as well.

The second change in Tomcat's classloading mechanism is required if you are using Java SE 6. Tomcat 5.x used to have common/endorsed directory which no longer exists in Tomcat 6.x. Java SE 6 is bundled with JAX-WS 2.0 and Metro needs JAX-WS 2.1. So if you are using Java SE 6 then copy webservices-api.jar in c:/jdk6/jre/lib/endorsed directory. Read Endorsed Directory Mechanism for more details.

Several screencasts are available that show how to develop Secure, Reliable and Transactional and Interoperable Web service. All the screencasts use NetBeans IDE but if you are more of a command-line user then follow this entry that shows how to develop a reliable endpoint and invoke it from WCF and vice versa.

Technorati: projectmetro webservices wsit jax-ws glassfish tomcat