Circular reference during serialization error

Question

I am getting the following error when invoking an operation on my web service that returns a 'Make' object:
ERROR OWS-04046 circular reference detected while serializing: com.edmunds.vehicle.definition.Make circular reference detected while serializing: com.edmunds.vehicle.definition.Make
I am running oc4j-101310.
I can successfully call a 'createMake' operation as it returns 'void' so i know the WS is deployed correctly. The only values I am using to create the make are "Make.name" & "Manufacturer.name" so there isn't much to it. I know there are object graphs with 'models' and a parent reference to 'Manufacturer so I don't know if this has anything to do with it.
One weird thing is that this worked the first time i deployed it but then started breaking on subsequent re-deployments (maybe I'm smoking crack)...
Any help is appreciated!!
Make object:
public class Make implements Serializable {
private Long id;
private Set models;
private String name;
private Manufacturer manufacturer;
public Set getModels() {
return models;
public void setModels(Set models) {
this.models = models;
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
public String getName() {
return name;
public void setManufacturer(Manufacturer manufacturer) {
this.manufacturer = manufacturer;
public Manufacturer getManufacturer() {
return manufacturer;
public void setId(Long id) {
this.id = id;
public Long getId() {
return id;
Here is the SOAP request:
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ws="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/">
<soapenv:Header/>
<soapenv:Body>
<ws:findMakeElement>
<ws:Long_1>22</ws:Long_1>
</ws:findMakeElement>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>
Here is the SOAP response:
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns0="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/" xmlns:ns1="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/" xmlns:ns2="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<env:Body>
<env:Fault>
<faultcode>env:Server</faultcode>
<faultstring>Internal Server Error (circular reference detected while serializing: com.edmunds.vehicle.definition.Make)</faultstring>
</env:Fault>
</env:Body>
</env:Envelope>
Here is my WSDL:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<definitions
name="VehicleService"
targetNamespace="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/"
xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:tns="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/"
xmlns:mime="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/mime/"
xmlns:soap12="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap12/"
xmlns:tns0="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
xmlns:tns1="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal"
>
<types>
<schema elementFormDefault="qualified" targetNamespace="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:ns1="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal"
xmlns:soap11-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:tns="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/"
xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<import namespace="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/"/>
<import namespace="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal"/>
<complexType name="Make">
<sequence>
<element name="manufacturer" nillable="true" type="tns:Manufacturer"/>
<element name="models" nillable="true" type="ns1:set"/>
<element name="name" nillable="true" type="string"/>
<element name="id" nillable="true" type="long"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
<complexType name="Manufacturer">
<sequence>
<element name="makes" nillable="true" type="ns1:set"/>
<element name="name" nillable="true" type="string"/>
<element name="id" nillable="true" type="long"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</schema>
<schema elementFormDefault="qualified" targetNamespace="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap11-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
xmlns:tns="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal" xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<import namespace="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/"/>
<import namespace="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/"/>
<complexType name="set">
<complexContent>
<extension base="tns:collection">
<sequence/>
</extension>
</complexContent>
</complexType>
<complexType name="collection">
<sequence>
<element maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0" name="item" type="anyType"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</schema>
<schema elementFormDefault="qualified" targetNamespace="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:ns1="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/"
xmlns:soap11-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:tns="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com/"
xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<import namespace="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal"/>
<import namespace="http://definition.vehicle.edmunds.com/"/>
<element name="createMakeElement">
<complexType>
<sequence>
<element name="String_1" nillable="true" type="string"/>
<element name="String_2" nillable="true" type="string"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</element>
<element name="createMakeResponseElement">
<complexType>
<sequence/>
</complexType>
</element>
<element name="findMakeElement">
<complexType>
<sequence>
<element name="Long_1" nillable="true" type="long"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</element>
<element name="findMakeResponseElement">
<complexType>
<sequence>
<element name="result" nillable="true" type="ns1:Make"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</element>
</schema>
</types>
<message name="RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_createMake">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:createMakeElement"/>
</message>
<message name="RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_createMakeResponse">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:createMakeResponseElement"/>
</message>
<message name="RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_findMake">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:findMakeElement"/>
</message>
<message name="RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_findMakeResponse">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:findMakeResponseElement"/>
</message>
<portType name="RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS">
<operation name="createMake">
<input message="tns:RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_createMake"/>
<output message="tns:RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_createMakeResponse"/>
</operation>
<operation name="findMake">
<input message="tns:RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_findMake"/>
<output message="tns:RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS_findMakeResponse"/>
</operation>
</portType>
<binding name="HttpSoap11Binding" type="tns:RemoteTestVehicleServiceWS">
<soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
<operation name="createMake">
<soap:operation soapAction="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com//createMake"/>
<input>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</output>
</operation>
<operation name="findMake">
<soap:operation soapAction="http://ws.matchbox.edmunds.com//findMake"/>
<input>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</output>
</operation>
</binding>
<service name="VehicleService">
<port name="HttpSoap11" binding="tns:HttpSoap11Binding">
<soap:address location="REPLACE_WITH_ACTUAL_URL"/>
</port>
</service>
</definitions>

Answer 1

Graph and Circular dependencies cannot be model with document-literal message format with POJO development style. You will need to invent your own model to break the cycle and uses a mechanism similar to href, as with RPC-encoded message format.
All the best,
-Eric