Making a SOAP server from WSDL files
What I spent the last two days learning is so under-documented on the Internet that I just had to write about it and publish it somewhere. So here goes. Step 0: Introduction to SOAP So you’ve been tasked with writing a server implementing some dinosaur communication protocol that uses SOAP instead of defining a REST API. Maybe something like MSV3, the German standard for the pharma industry that allows pharmacies to send digital orders to their suppliers. Let’s say there’s a working reference implementation, but it uses an ancient version of Java and you’re really not sure if trying to bend the reference implementation to your will is the best way forward. We’re talking about a standardized protocol, so how hard can it be to write your own compliant server? Besides, you really want to learn how to implement a SOAP application server from scratch… If you’ve never touched SOAP before, the first thing you might notice is that the documentation of whatever protocol you want t...