Sending SOAP request to a specific service

Question

Okay, so I'm totally new to webservices and for a project I'm working on I'm trying to wrap my head around the whole SOAP thing. I think I have a vague understanding of what is going on, but I'm missing some specific information and I simply can't find anything helpful by googling.

I've read the questions others asked like this one SOAP request to WebService with java but I still can't fully figure out what is going on.

Specifically I'm trying to use the service provided here http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vatRequest.html with its wsdl file here http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/checkVatService.wsdl

I tried adapting the example given in the above question, but I just can't figure out what values to add where so it works with this specific service. All I get is a "405 Method not allowed" response. Here is my attempted adaption:

package at.kmds.soaptest;

import javax.xml.soap.*;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        try {
            // Create SOAP Connection
            SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
            SOAPConnection soapConnection = soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();

            // Send SOAP Message to SOAP Server
            String url = "http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vatRequest.html";
            SOAPMessage soapResponse = soapConnection.call(createSOAPRequest(), url);

            // Process the SOAP Response
            printSOAPResponse(soapResponse);

            soapConnection.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Error occurred while sending SOAP Request to Server");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private static SOAPMessage createSOAPRequest() throws Exception {
        MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
        SOAPMessage soapMessage = messageFactory.createMessage();
        SOAPPart soapPart = soapMessage.getSOAPPart();

        String serverURI = "http://ec.europa.eu/";

        // SOAP Envelope
        SOAPEnvelope envelope = soapPart.getEnvelope();
        envelope.addNamespaceDeclaration("example", serverURI);

        // SOAP Body
        SOAPBody soapBody = envelope.getBody();
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem = soapBody.addChildElement("checkVat");
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem1 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement("countryCode");
        soapBodyElem1.addTextNode("...");
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem2 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement("vatNumber");
        soapBodyElem2.addTextNode("...");

        MimeHeaders headers = soapMessage.getMimeHeaders();
        headers.addHeader("SOAPAction", serverURI  + "checkVat");

        soapMessage.saveChanges();

        /* Print the request message */
        System.out.print("Request SOAP Message = ");
        soapMessage.writeTo(System.out);
        System.out.println();

        return soapMessage;
    }

    private static void printSOAPResponse(SOAPMessage soapResponse) throws Exception {
        TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
        Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
        Source sourceContent = soapResponse.getSOAPPart().getContent();
        System.out.print("\nResponse SOAP Message = ");
        StreamResult result = new StreamResult(System.out);
        transformer.transform(sourceContent, result);
    }
}

If someone could explain to me what exactly I'm doing wrong and how to fix it or maybe even give me a working example I'd be eternally grateful...

Ramachandran.A.G · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-20T15:25:20.000

The code has to be slightly modified to hit the service.

String url = "http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/services/checkVatService";

is the endpoint you have to hit (this is from the wsdl)

<wsdlsoap:address location="http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/services/checkVatService"/>

Note that when i hit this , i get a soap fault.Looks like the SOAPBody constructed will have to be checked again.

Request SOAP Message = <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:example="http://ec.europa.eu/"><SOAP-ENV:Header/><SOAP-ENV:Body><checkVat><countryCode>...</countryCode><vatNumber>...</vatNumber></checkVat></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Response SOAP Message = <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Body><soap:Fault><faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode><faultstring>Unexpected wrapper element checkVat found.   Expected {urn:ec.europa.eu:taxud:vies:services:checkVat:types}checkVat.</faultstring></soap:Fault></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>

Edit a full program that works (looks like) , gives me invalid input because i am passing dots (...).

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import javax.xml.soap.*;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        try {
            // Create SOAP Connection
            SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
            SOAPConnection soapConnection = soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();

            // Send SOAP Message to SOAP Server
            String url = "http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/services/checkVatService";
            SOAPMessage soapResponse = soapConnection.call(createSOAPRequest(), url);

            // Process the SOAP Response
            printSOAPResponse(soapResponse);

            soapConnection.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Error occurred while sending SOAP Request to Server");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private static SOAPMessage createSOAPRequest() throws Exception {
        MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
        SOAPMessage soapMessage = messageFactory.createMessage();
        SOAPPart soapPart = soapMessage.getSOAPPart();

        String serverURI = "http://ec.europa.eu/";

        // SOAP Envelope
        SOAPEnvelope envelope = soapPart.getEnvelope();
        envelope.addNamespaceDeclaration("tns1", "urn:ec.europa.eu:taxud:vies:services:checkVat:types");
        envelope.addNamespaceDeclaration("impl", "urn:ec.europa.eu:taxud:vies:services:checkVat");

        // SOAP Body
        SOAPBody soapBody = envelope.getBody();
        QName bodyQName = new QName("urn:ec.europa.eu:taxud:vies:services:checkVat:types",
                "checkVat", "tns1");
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem = soapBody.addChildElement(bodyQName);

        SOAPElement soapBodyElem1 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement(new QName("urn:ec.europa.eu:taxud:vies:services:checkVat:types",
                "countryCode", "tns1"));
        soapBodyElem1.addTextNode("...");
        SOAPElement soapBodyElem2 = soapBodyElem.addChildElement(new QName("urn:ec.europa.eu:taxud:vies:services:checkVat:types",
                "vatNumber", "tns1"));
        soapBodyElem2.addTextNode("...");

        MimeHeaders headers = soapMessage.getMimeHeaders();
        headers.addHeader("SOAPAction", serverURI  + "checkVat");

        soapMessage.saveChanges();

        /* Print the request message */
        System.out.print("Request SOAP Message = ");
        soapMessage.writeTo(System.out);
        System.out.println();

        return soapMessage;
    }

    private static void printSOAPResponse(SOAPMessage soapResponse) throws Exception {
        TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
        Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
        Source sourceContent = soapResponse.getSOAPPart().getContent();
        System.out.print("\nResponse SOAP Message = ");
        StreamResult result = new StreamResult(System.out);
        transformer.transform(sourceContent, result);
    }
}

Gives back

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
   <soap:Body>
      <soap:Fault>
         <faultcode>soap:Server</faultcode>
         <faultstring>INVALID_INPUT</faultstring>
      </soap:Fault>
   </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Thank you so much, it works now! Do you think you could be so kind to ELI5 how you knew which values to use where? Or do you know of a tutorial that explains this stuff? I never would have been to find this myself... — Szernex, Sep 20 '16 at 15:44
Glad it helped. I just referred https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19879-01/819-3669/bnbhw/index.html. I basically copy pasted your code. I found that the name space is not right by generating a sample SOAP request on SOAP UI tooling. I figured that the namespace needed to be added , i just did that. — Ramachandran.A.G, Sep 20 '16 at 15:52

Sending SOAP request to a specific service

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