IllegalArgumentException does not produce Web Service Fault

Question

Folks,
I'm deploying an EJB 3.0 annotated to provide Web Services for Weblogic 10.3. One of the parameters to the EJB contains is a BigDecimal Value. When this parameter is created, we check to make sure it meets certain criteria. If it fails we throw an IllegalArgumentException. This Exception does not get propagated back to the client (a soap client) as a fault.The marshalling code just seems to ignore the exception.
*1) Here's the code:*
private void checkNum2( BigDecimal value ) throws IllegalArgumentException
if ( value.scale() > 0 )
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"Property ImportCalcCalculator.Num2 cannot be more than 0 fractional digits");
*2) Here is the stack when the code is about to throw the fault:*
SCalculatorImport$ImportCalcCalculator.checkNum2(BigDecimal) line: 607     
SCalculatorImport$ImportCalcCalculator.setNum2(BigDecimal) line: 597     
SCalculatorImport$ImportCalcCalculator$JaxbAccessorM_getNum2_setNum2_java_math_BigDecimal.set(Object, Object) line: 56     
TransducedAccessor$CompositeTransducedAccessorImpl<BeanT,ValueT>.parse(BeanT, CharSequence) line: 241     
LeafPropertyLoader.text(UnmarshallingContext$State, CharSequence) line: 61     
UnmarshallingContext.text(CharSequence) line: 462     
InterningXmlVisitor.text(CharSequence) line: 89     
StAXStreamConnector.processText(boolean) line: 367     
StAXStreamConnector.handleEndElement() line: 245     
StAXStreamConnector.bridge() line: 214     
UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal0(XMLStreamReader, JaxBeanInfo) line: 358     
BridgeImpl<T>.unmarshal(Unmarshaller, XMLStreamReader) line: 120     
BridgeImpl<T>(Bridge<T>).unmarshal(XMLStreamReader, AttachmentUnmarshaller) line: 233     
EndpointArgumentsBuilder$DocLit.readRequest(Message, Object[]) line: 517     
EndpointMethodHandler.invoke(Packet) line: 243     
SEIInvokerTube.processRequest(Packet) line: 93     
Fiber.__doRun(Tube) line: 598     
Fiber._doRun(Tube) line: 557     
Fiber.doRun(Tube) line: 542     
Fiber.runSync(Tube, Packet) line: 439     
WSEndpointImpl$2.process(Packet, WebServiceContextDelegate, TransportBackChannel) line: 243     
HttpAdapter$HttpToolkit.handle(WSHTTPConnection) line: 444     
EJBDeployInfo$WLSEjbServletAdapterList$1(HttpAdapter).handle(WSHTTPConnection) line: 244     
EJBDeployInfo$WLSEjbServletAdapterList$1(ServletAdapter).handle(ServletContext, HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 134     
HttpServletAdapter$AuthorizedInvoke.run() line: 272     
HttpServletAdapter.post(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 185     
JAXWSEjbServlet(JAXWSServlet).doPost(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 180     
JAXWSEjbServlet(HttpServlet).service(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 727     
JAXWSEjbServlet(JAXWSServlet).service(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) line: 64     
JAXWSEjbServlet(HttpServlet).service(ServletRequest, ServletResponse) line: 820     
StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run() line: 227     
StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(ServletRequest, HttpServletRequest, ServletRequestImpl, ServletResponse, HttpServletResponse, Servlet) line: 125     
ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletRequest, ServletResponse, FilterChainImpl) line: 292     
ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletRequest, ServletResponse) line: 175     
WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run() line: 3498     
AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AbstractSubject, PrivilegedAction) line: 321     
SecurityManager.runAs(AuthenticatedSubject, AuthenticatedSubject, PrivilegedAction) line: not available     
WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, boolean) line: 2180     
WebAppServletContext.execute(ServletRequestImpl, ServletResponseImpl) line: 2086     
ServletRequestImpl.run() line: 1406     
ExecuteThread.execute(Runnable) line: 201     
ExecuteThread.run() line: 173     
Regards,
Robert

Answer 1

Hi,
simply throw SOAPFaultException, that's all.
What I recommend is following :
- ejb method throws IllegalArgumentException
- ws method - catch block converts exception to SOAPFaultException and throws it
- client receives fault, e.g. .NET client receives fault, it works.
Here is method converting Throwable to SOAPFaultException
     protected SOAPFaultException convertToSOAPException(final Throwable t)
     Detail detail = null;
     try
     SOAPFactory soapFactory = SOAPFactory.newInstance();
     detail = soapFactory.createDetail();
     catch (SOAPException e)
          Log.getLogger(this).error(e);
     QName faultCode = null;
     String faultString = t.getMessage();
     String faultActor = this.getClass().getName();
     if( AppProperties.getProperty("soap_exception_include_stack_trace", false) == true )
               CharArrayWriter caw = new CharArrayWriter();
               PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(caw);
               t.printStackTrace(pw);
          faultString = caw.toString();
     SOAPFaultException sfe = new SOAPFaultException(faultCode, faultString, faultActor, detail);
     Log.getLogger(this).error(sfe);
     return sfe;
Hope it helps
Miro N.