When i was new to Android and mobile plateform. My need was to call a webservice deployed in Jboss which accepts a complex input and responds back with a complex output. I searched tro the internet was not able to find a complete guide for the same. I would like to contribute this small tutorial,
Calling a Webservice using Android
Introduction
This tutorial talks about how to consume a webservice (in this case a service deployed into Jboss) from Android 2.2. For this purpose the following tools and SDK’s are used,
1. Android SDK 2.2
2. JDK 1.6
3. Eclipse 3.5 with Android Plug-in
4. Jboss 5.0
5. KSOAP2 2.4
Here kSOAP is a SOAP web service client library for constrained Java environments such as Applets or J2ME applications (CLDC / CDC / MIDP)
Organization of the Tutorial
Part1: About the Webservice (Only the WSDL part)
Part2: Calling the webservice with complex request object
Part3: Receiving a complex response object and parsing the same
Part1: About the Webservice (Only the WSDL part)
This Sample webservice has one operation with a complex input parameter and a complex output parameter. The following is the WSDL,
From the webservice the following are clear,
Service Name: AndroidSampleWebservice
Operation: getComplexData
Input: getComplexDataRequest (A complex request)
Output: getComplexDataResponse (A complex response)
Part2: Calling the webservice with complex request object
The structure of the input is:
Step1:
The first step would be constructing the SoapObject. The following code demonstrates the construction,
Step2:
Now we have got the SoapObject after this point we would be creating a Soap envelop, putting the envelop into a HTTP transport and calling the required method in the service. In most of the cases the step 2 would remain the same.
The following is the code for it,
With this we have called the webservice.
Part3: Receiving a complex response object and parsing the same
After Part2 the webservice implementation would do the required work and respond back with the data. Now this data is available in the envelop from the previous part. To extract the body out of the envelop the following has to be done,
SoapObject loresponse = (SoapObject) envelope.bodyIn;
Here since out response type is a complex type we are type casting it into a Soapobject. Now this object would represent the xml tag “outData” in the WSDL. From this loResponseObject we can then extract the aData or acData or the gData tags and in the similar way the inner tags. For doing the following see the following code,
The following is the complete code for the example:
If you need to work with the same, the following has to be done,
1. Generate a webservice using the WSDL that i have provided.
2. Deploy the webservice
3. Create a Android project
4. Use the activity code above.
The following are the references for this material,
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-2002/jw-0823-wireless.html?page=1
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-2002/jw-0823-wireless.html?page=1
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ListActivity.html
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-Development/Example-of-KSoap2-Wrapper-classes/m-p/473088
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/webservices/CallWebServiceFromkSOAP.aspx
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1052300/how-to-call-a-net-webservice-from-android-using-ksoap2
http://android.amberfog.com/?p=45
http://www.google.co.in/search?q=ksoap2+example&hl=en&ei=10xlTJKuIY3CcbessboK&start=10&sa=N
http://www.blackberryforums.com/developer-forum/155972-blackberry-ksoap2-tutorial.html
http://devcentral.f5.com/Tutorials/TechTips/tabid/63/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/102/The-Minimum-
Calling a Webservice using Android
Introduction
This tutorial talks about how to consume a webservice (in this case a service deployed into Jboss) from Android 2.2. For this purpose the following tools and SDK’s are used,
1. Android SDK 2.2
2. JDK 1.6
3. Eclipse 3.5 with Android Plug-in
4. Jboss 5.0
5. KSOAP2 2.4
Here kSOAP is a SOAP web service client library for constrained Java environments such as Applets or J2ME applications (CLDC / CDC / MIDP)
Organization of the Tutorial
Part1: About the Webservice (Only the WSDL part)
Part2: Calling the webservice with complex request object
Part3: Receiving a complex response object and parsing the same
Part1: About the Webservice (Only the WSDL part)
This Sample webservice has one operation with a complex input parameter and a complex output parameter. The following is the WSDL,
- CODE: SELECT ALL
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wsdl:definitions xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
xmlns:tns="http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/"
xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
name="AndroidSampleWebservice"
targetNamespace="http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/">
<wsdl:types>
<xsd:schema targetNamespace="http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/">
<xsd:element name="complexInData" type="tns:inData"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="ComplexOutData" type="tns:outData"></xsd:element>
<xsd:complexType name="inData">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="firstName" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="lastName" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="outData">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="generalData" type="tns:gData"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="addressData" type="tns:aData"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="accountData" type="tns:acData"></xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="gData">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="firstName" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="lastName" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="age" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="sex" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="aData">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="street1" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="street2" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="postBox" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="state" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="country" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="acData">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="accountno" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="bank" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="accounttype" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="balance" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:schema>
</wsdl:types>
<wsdl:message name="getComplexDataRequest">
<wsdl:part element="tns:complexInData" name="parameters"/>
</wsdl:message>
<wsdl:message name="getComplexDataResponse">
<wsdl:part element="tns:ComplexOutData" name="parameters"/>
</wsdl:message>
<wsdl:portType name="AndroidSampleWebservice">
<wsdl:operation name="getComplexData">
<wsdl:input message="tns:getComplexDataRequest"/>
<wsdl:output message="tns:getComplexDataResponse"/>
</wsdl:operation>
</wsdl:portType>
<wsdl:binding name="AndroidSampleWebserviceSOAP" type="tns:AndroidSampleWebservice">
<soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
<wsdl:operation name="getComplexData">
<soap:operation soapAction="http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/getComplexData"/>
<wsdl:input>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</wsdl:input>
<wsdl:output>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</wsdl:output>
</wsdl:operation>
</wsdl:binding>
<wsdl:service name="AndroidSampleWebservice">
<wsdl:port binding="tns:AndroidSampleWebserviceSOAP" name="AndroidSampleWebserviceSOAP">
<soap:address location="http://<your ip and port>/"/>
</wsdl:port>
</wsdl:service>
</wsdl:definitions>
From the webservice the following are clear,
Service Name: AndroidSampleWebservice
Operation: getComplexData
Input: getComplexDataRequest (A complex request)
Output: getComplexDataResponse (A complex response)
Part2: Calling the webservice with complex request object
The structure of the input is:
- CODE: SELECT ALL
<xsd:element name="complexInData" type="tns:inData"></xsd:element>
<xsd:complexType name="inData">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="firstName" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="lastName" type="xsd:string"></xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
Step1:
The first step would be constructing the SoapObject. The following code demonstrates the construction,
- CODE: SELECT ALL
private static final String NAMESPACE = "http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/";
private static final String METHOD_NAME = "complexInData";
SoapObject loSoapObject = new SoapObject(NAMESPACE, METHOD_NAME);
//At this point our loSoapObject here refers to the inData complex type.
//After this we have to set the elements firstName and the lastName into the loSoapObject
loSoapObject.addProperty("firstName","Dwarka");
loSoapObject.addProperty("lastName","Damodaran");
Step2:
Now we have got the SoapObject after this point we would be creating a Soap envelop, putting the envelop into a HTTP transport and calling the required method in the service. In most of the cases the step 2 would remain the same.
The following is the code for it,
- CODE: SELECT ALL
private static final String SOAP_ACTION = "http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/getComplexData";
private static final String URL = "http://172.25.108.49:8080/AndroidWebservice/AndroidSampleWebservice?wsdl";
SoapSerializationEnvelope envelope = new SoapSerializationEnvelope(SoapEnvelope.VER11);
envelope.setOutputSoapObject(loSoapObject);
AndroidHttpTransport httpTransport = new AndroidHttpTransport(URL);
httpTransport.debug = true;
httpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION, envelope);
With this we have called the webservice.
Part3: Receiving a complex response object and parsing the same
After Part2 the webservice implementation would do the required work and respond back with the data. Now this data is available in the envelop from the previous part. To extract the body out of the envelop the following has to be done,
SoapObject loresponse = (SoapObject) envelope.bodyIn;
Here since out response type is a complex type we are type casting it into a Soapobject. Now this object would represent the xml tag “outData” in the WSDL. From this loResponseObject we can then extract the aData or acData or the gData tags and in the similar way the inner tags. For doing the following see the following code,
- CODE: SELECT ALL
SoapObject logObject = (SoapObject)loresponse.getProperty("generalData");
SoapObject loaObject = (SoapObject)loresponse.getProperty("addressData");
SoapObject loacObject = (SoapObject)loresponse.getProperty("accountData");
Log.d("WS", "logObject: "+logObject);
Log.d("WS", "loaObject: "+loaObject);
Log.d("WS", "loacObject: "+loacObject);
Log.d("WS", "firstName: "+logObject.getProperty("firstName"));
Log.d("WS", "lastName: "+logObject.getProperty("lastName"));
Log.d("WS", "age: "+logObject.getProperty("age"));
Log.d("WS", "sex: "+logObject.getProperty("sex"));
The following is the complete code for the example:
- CODE: SELECT ALL
package com.android.example;
import java.io.IOException;
import org.ksoap2.SoapEnvelope;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.SoapObject;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.SoapSerializationEnvelope;
import org.ksoap2.transport.AndroidHttpTransport;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
public class WebserviceConsumer extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
private static final String NAMESPACE = "http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/";
private static final String METHOD_NAME = "complexInData";
private static final String SOAP_ACTION = "http://www.example.org/AndroidSampleWebservice/getComplexData";
private static final String URL = "http://172.25.108.49:8080/AndroidWebservice/AndroidSampleWebservice?wsdl";
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
Log.d("WS", "Inside onCreate");
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
Log
.d("WS",
"--------------------- Webservice Part Begins ---------------------");
Log.d("WS", "1. SoapObject Construction");
SoapObject loSoapObject = new SoapObject(NAMESPACE, METHOD_NAME);
// If this is not a direct type i.e. a primitive or string then you
// have to construct another SoapObject and put in the place of the
// obejct
loSoapObject.addProperty("firstName", "Dwarka");
loSoapObject.addProperty("lastName", "Damodaran");
Log.d("WS", "Construction of SOAP Object End !!!");
SoapSerializationEnvelope envelope = new SoapSerializationEnvelope(
SoapEnvelope.VER11); // put all required data into a soap
// envelope
Log.d("WS", "2. Envelop Created");
envelope.setOutputSoapObject(loSoapObject); // prepare request
Log.d("WS", "3. Request Into Envelop");
AndroidHttpTransport httpTransport = new AndroidHttpTransport(URL);
Log.d("WS", "4. Transport Created");
httpTransport.debug = true; // this is optional, use it if you don't
// want to use a packet sniffer to check
// what the sent message was
// (httpTransport.requestDump)
Log.d("WS", "5. Transport Level to True");
try {
httpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION, envelope);
if (envelope != null)
{
SoapObject loresponse = (SoapObject) envelope.bodyIn;
SoapObject logObject = (SoapObject)loresponse.getProperty("generalData");
SoapObject loaObject = (SoapObject)loresponse.getProperty("addressData");
SoapObject loacObject = (SoapObject)loresponse.getProperty("accountData");
Log.d("WS", "logObject: "+logObject);
Log.d("WS", "loaObject: "+loaObject);
Log.d("WS", "loacObject: "+loacObject);
Log.d("WS", "firstName: "+logObject.getProperty("firstName"));
Log.d("WS", "lastName: "+logObject.getProperty("lastName"));
Log.d("WS", "age: "+logObject.getProperty("age"));
Log.d("WS", "sex: "+logObject.getProperty("sex"));
}
else
{
Log.d("WS", "Response Envelop Error");
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (XmlPullParserException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
If you need to work with the same, the following has to be done,
1. Generate a webservice using the WSDL that i have provided.
2. Deploy the webservice
3. Create a Android project
4. Use the activity code above.
The following are the references for this material,
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-2002/jw-0823-wireless.html?page=1
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-2002/jw-0823-wireless.html?page=1
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ListActivity.html
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-Development/Example-of-KSoap2-Wrapper-classes/m-p/473088
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/webservices/CallWebServiceFromkSOAP.aspx
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1052300/how-to-call-a-net-webservice-from-android-using-ksoap2
http://android.amberfog.com/?p=45
http://www.google.co.in/search?q=ksoap2+example&hl=en&ei=10xlTJKuIY3CcbessboK&start=10&sa=N
http://www.blackberryforums.com/developer-forum/155972-blackberry-ksoap2-tutorial.html
http://devcentral.f5.com/Tutorials/TechTips/tabid/63/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/102/The-Minimum-
