Exception when calling web service from Oracle forms 10g

Question

Hi All,
I am trying to integrate Oracle Forms 10g(V 10.1.2.0.2.) with Web Services.
There is a java class named 'authenticate' which is generated using Oracle JDeveloper.
This class is included in the forms application by using "Import Java Class" feature.
Forms built the following funtion based on that class:
-- Method: authenticate (Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/String;
FUNCTION authenticate(
obj ORA_JAVA.JOBJECT,
a0 VARCHAR2,
a1 VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
BEGIN
args := JNI.CREATE_ARG_LIST(2);
JNI.ADD_STRING_ARG(args, a0);
JNI.ADD_STRING_ARG(args, a1);
message('here1');
RETURN JNI.CALL_STRING_METHOD(FALSE, obj, 'mypackage/AuthenticatorWebServiceServiceStub',
'authenticate', '(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/String;', args);
message('here2');
END;
However when the above code is invoked it shows the message 'here1' on the form and then throws the following exception: java.lang.Exception: java.lang.ClassCastException
Please suggest me what's wrong with the code. I appreciate your time and help.
Thanks,
Scott.

Answer 1

My primary skill is PL/SQL but the only information I found on Oracle's site to call a web service from a 10g Form was creating a jar file and importing the java class. Since I don't want to ask our corporate IT to make changes on the UNIX box for the jar files I went a different route.
I use UTL_HTTP.BEGIN_REQUEST to call a URL then load I load the data to a table as a CLOB since we have more than 4000 characters. Now I need to parse the XML and load it into a form. I have never done this so if there is a helpful site please let me know. I have looked at several sites but none do what I want.
Thanks