cfinvoke throws axis exception when calling a web service method that returns an array of complex objects

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jamesmuso

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Nov 26, 2009, 9:33:07 AM11/26/09
to Railo
I've just started using Railo as I'd like to use it as an alternative
to CF9, but I've run into problems using the cfinvoke tag to
communicate with a web service. The code runs fine against CF9, so
I've raised this as a bug https://jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/RAILO-514,
but I've not got any response yet.

The details of the problem are on the bug, but basically I get the
following Axis error whenever using web service methods that return an
array of complex objects, or if it returns a complex object that
contains an array. All other web service calls work perfectly.

org.xml.sax.SAXException: Deserializing parameter 'return': could not
find deserializer for type {http://webservice.bot.muso.com/}
testSimpleReturnObject

Has anyone else had similar problems? What's the usual turnaround on
bugs? I'm asking as this one's a showstopper for us, and I'd need a
fix in the next few days, but I'd really prefer to use Railo if I can
just get past this one problem...

Dominik

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Nov 27, 2009, 2:33:40 AM11/27/09
to Railo
what a coincidence, we're experiencing just the same problem these
days.

we also want to switch from coldfusion to railo and this is the one
and only problem with our existing software which prevents that.
almost all of our existing (.net) webservices throw an exception
whilst (cf)invoking as soon as there is some kind of array in the
return. even if there is just an "ArrayOfStrings". i googled this
problem and there wasnt really much info on the web.
as a proof-of-concept i created a simple webservice which returns just
an array of strings:

<wsdl:definitions targetNamespace="example">
[...]
<s:complexType name="SimpleAnswer">
<s:sequence><s:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" name="stringarray"
type="tns:ArrayOfString"/></s:sequence>
</s:complexType>
<s:complexType name="ArrayOfString">
<s:sequence><s:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"
name="string" nillable="true" type="s:string"/></s:sequence>
</s:complexType>
[...]

when invoking in railo it returns the following exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.axis.encoding.ser.BeanDeserializer.onStartChild
(BeanDeserializer.java:314):314
[...]
but the exception you mentioned also occurred to me somehow while
playing around with the WS output...

the workaround for this so far, is to manually "invoke" the WS via
CFHTTP and manually parsing the returned soap/xml but this is not
really a feasible solution :(

i guess its "just" a problem with axis since its pretty old (2006 i
believe?!). i dont know what axis version coldfusion uses since
invoking the same webservice is not a problem there (tested with ACF7
and 9).

i'm also really looking forward to a solution on this one!

jamesmuso

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Dec 9, 2009, 9:47:23 AM12/9/09
to Railo
Yeah, it sounds like you're facing the same problem as me. I don't
think it's a problem with axis, as I can use the wsdl2java function of
axis to contact the web service without any problem.

I've not had any update on the bug - if you still need a fix can you
vote on it to show there's interest in getting it fixed?
https://jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/RAILO-514

Thanks.

Dominik

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Dec 10, 2009, 3:49:25 AM12/10/09
to Railo
we still need this fixed indeed, otherwise we're not able to switch
from ACF to railo :(

i signed up at jboss and voted for that issue. since there's only one
vote, i take it that you can't vote for issues reported by yourself?

what surprises me most is that it seems no one else had this issue
until now. i mean i dont like soap-webservices either but are there
really so few railo people out there using them? and you dont find
much by google'ing that topic at all neither.

anyways, lets hope for a fix soon ;)

dominik

On 9 Dez., 15:47, jamesmuso <jamespma...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah, it sounds like you're facing the same problem as me. I don't
> think it's a problem with axis, as I can use the wsdl2java function of
> axis to contact the web service without any problem.
>
> I've not had any update on the bug - if you still need a fix can you
> vote on it to show there's interest in getting it fixed?https://jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/RAILO-514
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