Soap webservice response object missing xmlns attributes for @PayloadRoot method

Question

I am developing a SOAP webservice application written in Spring soap webservice

The application simply returns the same object it receives from the client as response.

In CountryEndpoint.java

@PayloadRoot(namespace = "http://xml.dexter.com/Country", localPart = "CountryLocalPart")
public Country getCountry(SoapHeader soapHeader, @RequestPayload Country request, @SoapHeader(value = "MessageHeader") SoapHeaderElement messageHeader, MessageContext messageContext) {

    System.out.println("THE REQUEST: "+request);
    return request;
}

The request SOAP XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <SOAP-ENV:Header />
  <SOAP-ENV:Body>
    <ns2:Country xmlns="http://example.org" xmlns:ns2="http://xml.dexter.org/Country" xmlns:h="http://pqr.com/pqr.xsd xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
      <ns2:countryName>Spain</ns2:countryName>
      <ns2:population>1213123</ns2:population>
  </ns2:Country>
  </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

The response SOAP XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <SOAP-ENV:Header />
  <SOAP-ENV:Body>
    <ns2:Country xmlns:ns2="http://xml.dexter.com/Country">
      <ns2:countryName>Spain</ns2:countryName>
      <ns2:population>1213123</ns2:population>
  </ns2:Country>
  </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

The Country XML Root element seems to have the xmlns attributes missing.

This fails the JAXB unmarshalling step in the client.

The error is

ERROR: org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Tomcat].[localhost].
[/].[dispatcherServlet] - Servlet.service() for servlet [dispatcherServlet] in 
context with path [] threw exception [Request processing failed; nested 
exception is org.springframework.oxm.UnmarshallingFailureException: JAXB 
unmarshalling exception; nested exception is javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: 
unexpected element (uri:"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/", 
local:"Header"). Expected elements are <{http://www.....}Country>,<{http:
//www.....}Category>,<{http://www.....}SomeOther>] with root cause
javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: unexpected element 
(uri:"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/", local:"Header"). Expected 
elements are ...

I tried adding @PayloadRoots and also @Namespaces with array of @Namespace but nothing worked.

Is there a way I could have the response SOAP xml same as request SOAP xml?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The namespace URIs in the Country element on the request with the prefixes h, s, and default are superfluous as they don't correspond to any XML elements or attributes. There would be no reason to send them on the response and they would impact JAXB's ability to unmarshal the result assuming everything is properly mapped.

Based on your exception. Your JAXB client is trying to unmarshal the Header element and you need to unmarshal the Country element.