Doug Kohlert's Blog

JAX-RPC 2.0 renamed to JAX-WS 2.0

This was done for a number of reasons, but the main reasons are:

1. The JAX-RPC name is misleading, developers assume that all JAX-RPC is about is just RPC, not Web Services. By renaming JAX-RPC to JAX-WS we can eliminate this confusion.
2. JAX-RPC 2.0 uses JAXB for all databinding. This has introduced a number of source compatibility issues with JAX-RPC 1.1 because the bindings are different. The migration from JAX-RPC 1.1 to JAX-RPC 2.0 is not cookie cutter as generated Java code and schemas will be different than those generated by JAX-RPC 1.1. Although the renaming does not ease this migration, it does let the developer know that these are two separate technologies, hence the more difficult migration is more palatable.
3. Maintaining binary compatibility with the JAX-RPC 1.1 APIs, was hindering our goal of ease-of-development. Because we had this binary compatibility requirement, many legacy APIs were exposed such as the various methods on javax..xml.rpc.Service and the javax.xml.rpc.Call. Having these legacy APIs around would confuse developers. By renaming JAX-RPC 2.0 to JAX-WS 2.0 we no longer have this binary compatibility requirement and we can rid the APIs of these legacy methods and interfaces and we can focus on a new set of APIs that are easier to understand and use.

For more information on JAX-RPC and JAX-WS 2.0 check out the JAX-RPC project

For more information on JAXB check out the JAXB project

Comments

• What exactly then "JAX-RPC and JAX-WS can co-exist" (from java.net FAQ) mean in this scenario?

  a) JAX-RPC clients can access newer JAX-WS based webservices.
  b) JAX-WS clients can access older JAX-RPC based webservices.
  c) Both a) & b).
  d) None of the above :S

  Posted by: mnsharif on August 05, 2006 at 02:14 PM

• "JAX-RPC and JAX-WS can co-exist" means that you can have JAX-RPC endpoints and JAX-WS endpoints co-exist in the same container, you don't have to choose one or the other. JAX-RPC clients can access JAX-WS endpoints and JAX-WS clients can acess JAX-RPC endpoints. However, since JAX-RPC defaults to rpc/encoded and JAX-WS does not support this mode since document/literal is specified by BP 1.1, JAX-WS clients may not be able to easily access JAX-RPC rpc/encoded endpoints. To do so one must use JAX-WS's Dispatch interface.

  Posted by: kohlert on August 05, 2006 at 06:17 PM

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