How to return List or Array from Web Service without using ADF?

Question

All,
I would like to know how to do this before I use ADF. Sounds like a simple thing to do - common even - but I haven't found a solution in existing postings. My attempts have failed though I'm not sure exactly why.
I have created a declarative WS that takes a single parameter and tries to return a List<Employees> resultset. My Sample Java Client works just fine. When I change the result type from List to String[], for example, it also works fine.
What am I doing wrong??
Thanks
package wizard;
(imports removed for readability)
@WebService(name = "MyWebService1", serviceName = "MyWebService1", portName = "MyWebService1SoapHttpPort")
@Deployment(restSupport = true)
public class HelloWorld {
List<Employees> employees = null;
public HelloWorld() {
public List<Employees> sayHello (String s) {
try {
final Context context = getInitialContext();
ATOABPFacade aTOABPFacade = (ATOABPFacade)context.lookup("ATOABPFacade");
employees = aTOABPFacade.queryEmployeesFindByName(s);
return employees;
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
return employees;
private static Context getInitialContext() throws NamingException {
return new InitialContext();
Trace:
Ready message received from Oc4jNotifier.
Embedded OC4J Server startup time: 24063 ms.
Target URL -- http://localhost:8988/JPA-Wizard-context-root/mywebservice1soaphttpport
Feb 18, 2008 7:42:49 PM com.evermind.server.ServerBase log
WARNING: JPA-Wizard-webapp: Error preloading servlet
javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException
     at oracle.j2ee.ws.server.provider.ProviderServlet.init(ProviderServlet.java:186)
     at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:241)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.loadServlet(HttpApplication.java:2674)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.findServlet(HttpApplication.java:5162)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.findServlet(HttpApplication.java:5085)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.initPreloadServlets(HttpApplication.java:5275)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.initDynamic(HttpApplication.java:1357)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.init(HttpApplication.java:873)
     at com.evermind.server.http.HttpApplication.<init>(HttpApplication.java:699)

Answer 1

Gi,
not sure what you are doing there, but you can build the J2EE WebService from your working POJO, and create a Web Service proxy class from the WSDL description (of the deployed or local WSDL file). Then, using the proxy class, you can access the output of the WebService.
Frank