Types Supported by JAX-RPC - The J2EE 1.4 Tutorial

Types Supported by JAX-RPC

Behind the scenes, JAX-RPC maps types of the Java programming language to XML/WSDL definitions. For example, JAX-RPC maps the java.lang.String class to the xsd:string XML data type. Application developers don't need to know the details of these mappings, but they should be aware that not every class in the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) can be used as a method parameter or return type in JAX-RPC.

J2SE SDK Classes

JAX-RPC supports the following J2SE SDK classes:
java.lang.Boolean
java.lang.Byte
java.lang.Double
java.lang.Float
java.lang.Integer
java.lang.Long
java.lang.Short
java.lang.String

java.math.BigDecimal
java.math.BigInteger

java.net.URI

java.util.Calendar
java.util.Date 
Primitives

JAX-RPC supports the following primitive types of the Java programming language:
boolean
byte
double
float
int
long
short 
Arrays

JAX-RPC also supports arrays that have members of supported JAX-RPC types. Examples of supported arrays are int[] and String[]. Multidimensional arrays, such as BigDecimal[][], are also supported.

Value Types

A value type is a class whose state can be passed between a client and a remote service as a method parameter or return value. For example, in an application for a university library, a client might call a remote procedure with a value type parameter named Book, a class that contains the fields Title, Author, and Publisher.

To be supported by JAX-RPC, a value type must conform to the following rules:

It must have a public default constructor.

It must not implement (either directly or indirectly) the java.rmi.Remote interface.

Its fields must be supported JAX-RPC types.

The value type can contain public, private, or protected fields. The field of a value type must meet these requirements:

A public field cannot be final or transient.

A nonpublic field must have corresponding getter and setter methods.

JavaBeans Components

JAX-RPC also supports JavaBeans components, which must conform to the same set of rules as application classes. In addition, a JavaBeans component must have a getter and a setter method for each bean property. The type of the bean property must be a supported JAX-RPC type. For an example of using a JavaBeans component in a web service, see JAX-RPC Coffee Supplier Service.