Using Java Web Services with CFMX

January 21, 2004 by Pete Freitag

JWS files are nothing more than a Java class with a .jws extension. But when placed on a web server with Axis installed (such as ColdFusion MX), you can expose that class as a web service. This works just like CFC's do in ColdFusion. Here's an example JWS we will call CaseService.jws:

public class CaseService
{
	public String toUpper(String str)
	{
		return str.toUpperCase();
	}
	public String toLower(String str)
	{
		return str.toLowerCase();
	}
}

If we add a ?wsdl to the url, it displays the WSDL for the service just like in CFMX. Let's try to invoke it in CFML:

<cfset case = CreateObject("webservice", "http://localhost:8500/CaseService.jws?wsdl")>
<cfset result = case.toUpper("Case Me uP!")>
<cfoutput>#result#</cfoutput>

It should display CASE ME UP!

This may be a better way to go than CFC's if your exposing Java classes as web services in CFMX. JWS files appear to work on both Pro and Enterprise versions of CFMX.