Logging JAX-WS SOAP messages in Spring

Whenever you’re using JAX-WS within Spring you’ll probably want to log the incoming and outgoing SOAP messages – if only for debugging during development. So the first thing to do is increase the log levels, right? Unfortunately this will have no effect. What you will have to do is to make use of the javax.xml.ws.handler.HandlerResolver interface. So how do we do this?

First of all, you’ll want to create a class that implements the HandlerResolver interface. This is a very basic class that will be used to get control over the handler chain. It could look something like the following:

package it.jdev.example.ws;

import java.util.List;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.Handler;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.HandlerResolver;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.PortInfo;

public class DefaultHandlerResolver implements HandlerResolver {

    private List<Handler> handlerList;

    @Override
    public List<Handler> getHandlerChain(final PortInfo portInfo) {
        return handlerList;
    }

    public void setHandlerList(final List<Handler> handlerList) {
        this.handlerList = handlerList;
    }

}

package it.jdev.example.ws;

import java.util.List;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.Handler;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.HandlerResolver;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.PortInfo;

public class DefaultHandlerResolver implements HandlerResolver {

private List<Handler> handlerList;

@Override

public List<Handler> getHandlerChain(final PortInfo portInfo) {

return handlerList;

}

public void setHandlerList(final List<Handler> handlerList) {

this.handlerList = handlerList;

}

We then have to implement the class that will do the actual logging. This class will have to implement the SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> interface. A very simple implementation that only logs the message using SLF4J:

package it.jdev.example.ws;

import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPMessage;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPHandler;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPMessageContext;

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class LoggingHandler implements SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> {

    private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());

    @Override
    public boolean handleMessage(final SOAPMessageContext context) {
        final SOAPMessage msg = context.getMessage();
        final boolean request = ((Boolean) context.get(SOAPMessageContext.MESSAGE_OUTBOUND_PROPERTY)).booleanValue();
        if (request) { // This is a request message.
            logMessage(msg);
        } else { // This is the response message
            logMessage(msg);
        }
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean handleFault(final SOAPMessageContext context) {
        logMessage(context.getMessage());
    }

    private void logMessage(final SOAPMessage msg) {
        try {
            // Write the message to the output stream
            final ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
            msg.writeTo(baos);
            LOGGER.info(baos.toString());
            baos.close();
        } catch (final Exception e) {
            LOGGER.error("Caught exception: " + e.getMessage(), e);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void close(final MessageContext context) {
        // Not required for logging
    }

    @Override
    public Set<QName> getHeaders() {
        // Not required for logging
        return null;
    }

}

package it.jdev.example.ws;

import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;

import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;

import java.util.Set;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;

import javax.xml.soap.SOAPMessage;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPHandler;

import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPMessageContext;

import org.slf4j.Logger;

import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class LoggingHandler implements SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> {

private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());

@Override

public boolean handleMessage(final SOAPMessageContext context) {

final SOAPMessage msg = context.getMessage();

final boolean request = ((Boolean) context.get(SOAPMessageContext.MESSAGE_OUTBOUND_PROPERTY)).booleanValue();

if (request) { // This is a request message.

logMessage(msg);

} else { // This is the response message

logMessage(msg);

}

return true;

}

@Override

public boolean handleFault(final SOAPMessageContext context) {

logMessage(context.getMessage());

}

private void logMessage(final SOAPMessage msg) {

try {

// Write the message to the output stream

final ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

msg.writeTo(baos);

LOGGER.info(baos.toString());

baos.close();

} catch (final Exception e) {

LOGGER.error("Caught exception: " + e.getMessage(), e);

}

@Override

public void close(final MessageContext context) {

// Not required for logging

}

@Override

public Set<QName> getHeaders() {

// Not required for logging

return null;

}

Finally, we’ll have to wire things together in Spring. Using xml configuration, all you have to do is add a new bean definition:

	<bean id="handlerResolver" class="it.jdev.example.ws.DefaultHandlerResolver">
		<property name="handlerList">
			<list>
				<bean class="it.jdev.example.ws.LoggingHandler" />
			</list>
		</property>
	</bean>

<list>

</list>

</property>

</bean>

And that’s all there is to it. Your application should now log all JAX-WS SOAP messages.

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