The javax.xml.rpc.handler package contains the classes and interfaces used to create and manage handler chains on both the client and server sides of a JAX-RPC method call. A JAX-RPC message handler is a class that is placed on the message path between the sender of a message and the network on the client side, or between the network and the service implementation on the server side. A handler receives and may process any SOAP message that is sent along the message path in either direction; therefore it is somewhat akin to servlet filters. Any number of handlers may be grouped together to form a handler chain. The handlers in a chain may be related or completely independent of each other and/or the sender or recipient of the message. Typical uses for handlers include the processing and removal or insertion of message headers (so that they are not seen by the message sender or receiver), logging, encryption of some or all of a message, and so on. A message handler implements the Handler interface, and may, for convenience, be derived from GenericHandler, which provides dummy implementations of most of the interface methods.

A handler chain is associated with a Service object on the client side and with a service endpoint on the server side. The handlers that make up a chain are typically set in advance in the configuration files used by the wscompile utility on the client side and the wsdeploy or j2eec utilities on the server side. It is also possible to configure handler chains at runtime�in some cases, this is the only way to achieve the desired effect. See the description of the HandlerRegistry interface, later in this chapter, for further information.

Interfaces

public interface Handler;
public interface HandlerRegistry extends Serializable;
public interface MessageContext;

Collections

public interface HandlerChain extends java.util.List;

Other Classes

public abstract class GenericHandler implements Handler;
public class HandlerInfo implements Serializable;