Question

I am pretty new to webservices . We need to develop a web service using Axis2 .
Please tell me when to use Modules Concept , when using Axis2 .
Could anybody Please tell me a scenario where this Modules would be useful ??

Answer 1

Modules/handlers are extension points of axis2 – and they can be used to execute common logic that needs to be executed across all your services.

Modules have the concept of being ‘available’ and ‘engaged’. ‘Availability’ means the module is present in the system, but has not been activated, i.e., the handlers included inside the module have not been used in the processing mechanism. When a module is ‘engaged’ it becomes active and the handlers get placed in the proper phases. The handlers will act in the same way. Usually a module will be used to implement a WS-* functionality such as WS-Addressing, WS-Security.

For example, if you want to audit all the requests coming to all your services – you can write an audit module for that – which will intercept all your requests.

Another example is the Rampart. Rampart is an axis2 module which implements WS-Security specification. Once you engage rampart module to your service, it will intercept all requests coming to that service and will process the security headers.