Re: Amazon and Axis

[Dennis Sosnoski]

Came across this thread when sorting through my backlog. Just for the 
sake of anyone trying this, Axis is unable to work with the Amazon web 
service interface. The problem is that Axis always sends elements with 
xsi:nil="true" for values you set to null, even when the schema does not 
mark those elements as nillable. This causes problems with Amazon, where 
one element in particular is only supposed to have a particular value if 
present (though that information is not included in the schema). Here's 
an example schema fragment from the WSDL:

       <xs:element name="ItemSearch">
           <xs:complexType>
               <xs:sequence>
                   <xs:element name="SubscriptionId" type="xs:string" 
minOccurs="0"/>
                   <xs:element name="AssociateTag" type="xs:string" 
minOccurs="0"/>
                   <xs:element name="XMLEscaping" type="xs:string" 
minOccurs="0"/>
                   <xs:element name="Validate" type="xs:string" 
minOccurs="0"/>
                   <xs:element name="Shared" 
type="tns:ItemSearchRequest" minOccurs="0"/>
                   <xs:element name="Request" 
type="tns:ItemSearchRequest" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
               </xs:sequence>
           </xs:complexType>
       </xs:element>

Here's what Axis generates:
POST /onca/soap?Service=AWSECommerceService HTTP/1.0
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
Accept: application/soap+xml, application/dime, multipart/related, text/*
User-Agent: Axis/1.2RC3
...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <soapenv:Envelope 
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"; 
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"; 
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";>
     <soapenv:Body>
        <ItemSearch 
xmlns="http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2005-01-19";>
           <SubscriptionId>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</SubscriptionId>
           <AssociateTag xsi:nil="true"/>
           <XMLEscaping xsi:nil="true"/>
           <Validate xsi:nil="true"/>
           <Shared>
              <Count lowestSetBit="2">12</Count>
              <ResponseGroup>Medium</ResponseGroup>
              <SearchIndex>Books</SearchIndex>
              <Title>Java XML</Title>
           </Shared>
           <Request xsi:nil="true"/>
        </ItemSearch>
     </soapenv:Body>
  </soapenv:Envelope>

Note the AssociateTag, XMLEscaping, and Validate elements in this request.
The problem was supposed to have been fixed some time ago: 
http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AXIS-530 :-)  Unfortunately the fix 
doesn't work, as can be seen by the above results from RC3. :-(  From 
this and other experiences with Axis releases (including the >1 year 
cycle for a point release) I'm starting to wonder if Axis has just 
gotten to be such a mess of spaghetti code that it's no longer usable in 
production. I've been training developers on Axis for some time. It's 
embarrassing to have to spend much of the training time discussing known 
issues and ways to work around them, but there doesn't appear to be any 
alternative at present.

 - Dennis
Dennis M. Sosnoski
Enterprise Java, XML, and Web Services
Training and Consulting
http://www.sosnoski.com
Redmond, WA  425.885.7197
BTW, the work-around for this case is to edit the Amazon WSDL and strip 
out the optional elements you're not going to be using from the request 
schema definitions.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Johan Meyer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
   

Sorry Johan,
I can not give you an url where you will find a finished service but I can
tell you some information you would need.
First of all you must register by amazon, so you will get an subscription
Id which you need.
Then you need for each request you send some filled standard informations.
Therefore I can send you this link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aws/landing.html/ref=gw1_mm_4/104-3068958-8487102
or look under the amaozon website>male money>web service
On this pages you will find some api's how to use the amazon wsdl.
Hope this might help you a bit.
Greetings Olaf
 

Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 11:25 AM
To: axis-user@ws.apache.org
Subject: Amazon and Axis
Importance: High
Hello
I am a new Java Axis user and would like to know if anybody
knows where I can find a demo on how to use Amazon's web
services with Axis.
Any help will be appreciated.
Johan
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