Programming Tutorials

How to Deploy a Java Web Service

By: Emiley J in WebServices Tutorials on 2013-07-10  

Having written your web services, the next step is to deploy the web services in a production environment. There are multiple options for deploying a web service. My favourite option is to host it in Tomcat, because thats where I host my other JSPs.

Core Java only

This is the easiest approach that makes it easy to get web services and their clients up and running. The only required software is the JDK, core Java 6 or later. Web services can be deployed easily using the Endpoint, HttpServer, and HttpsServer classes. A tutorial on how to write your first web service with just JDK shows this approach.

Core Java with the current Metro release

This approach takes advantage of Metro features not yet available in the core Java bundle. In general, each Metro release makes it easier to write web services and clients. The current Metro release also indicates where JAX-WS is moving. The Metro release also can be used with core Java 5 if core Java 6 is not an option.

Standalone Tomcat

This approach builds on the familiarity among Java programmers with standalone web containers such as Apache Tomcat, which is the reference implementation. Web services can be deployed using a web container in the same way as are servlets, JSPs, and JSF.

GlassFish

This approach allows deployed web services to interact naturally with other enterprise components such as Java Message Service topics and queues, a JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) provider, a backend database system and the @Entity instances that mediate between an application and the database system, and an EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) container. GlassFish works seamlessly with Metro, including its advanced features, and with popular IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) such as NetBeans and Eclipse.

An appealing feature of JAX-WS is that the API can be separated cleanly from deployment options. Same web service can be deployed in different ways to suit different needs. Core Java alone is good for learning, development, and even lightweight deployment. A standalone web container such as Tomcat provides additional support.A Java application server such as GlassFish promotes easy integration of web services with other enterprise technologies.