18 Sending and Receiving SOAP Headers

Overview of Sending and Receiving SOAP Headers

When you create a proxy or Dispatch client, the client implements the javax.xml.ws.BindingProvider interface. If you need to send or receive a SOAP header, you can downcast the Web service proxy or Dispatch client to com.sun.xml.ws.developer.WSBindingProvider and use the methods on the interface to send outbound or receive inbound SOAP headers.

Sending SOAP Headers Using WSBindingProvider

Use the setOutboundHeaders method to the com.sun.xml.ws.developer.WSBindingProvider to send SOAP headers. You create SOAP headers using the com.sun.xml.ws.api.message.Headers method.

For example, the following provides a code excerpt showing how to pass a simple string value as a header.

import com.sun.xml.ws.developer.WSBindingProvider;
import com.sun.xml.ws.api.message.Headers;
import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
...
HelloService helloService = new HelloService();
HelloPort port = helloService.getHelloPort();
WSBindingProvider bp = (WSBindingProvider)port;
 
bp.setOutboundHeaders(
  // Sets a simple string value as a header
  Headers.create(new QName("simpleHeader"),"stringValue")
);
...

Receiving SOAP Headers Using WSBindingProvider

Use the getInboundHeaders method to the com.sun.xml.ws.developer.WSBindingProvider to receive SOAP headers.

For example, the following provides a code excerpt showing how to get inbound headers.

import com.sun.xml.ws.developer.WSBindingProvider;
import com.sun.xml.ws.api.message.Headers;
import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import java.util.List;
...
HelloService helloService = new HelloService();
HelloPort port = helloService.getHelloPort();
WSBindingProvider bp = (WSBindingProvider)port;
 
List inboundHeaders = bp.getInboundHeaders();
...