Possible Bug - Web Service Request Not Correct

Question

Hi,
I am running ApEx 2.2 and think I may have come across a bug when referencing a web service that has been created using JDeveloper.
I have created my WSDL in JDev that looks like the following:
<definitions
name="MyHelloWorldService"
targetNamespace="http://helloworldserver/"
xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:tns="http://helloworldserver/"
xmlns:soap12="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap12/"
xmlns:mime="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/mime/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
>
<types>
<schema xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" targetNamespace="http://helloworldserver/"
elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:tns="http://helloworldserver/" xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:soap11-enc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<element name="getCountElement">
<complexType>
<sequence/>
</complexType>
</element>
<element name="getCountResponseElement">
<complexType>
<sequence>
<element name="result" type="int"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</element>
<element name="sayHelloElement">
<complexType>
<sequence>
<element name="name" type="string" nillable="true"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</element>
<element name="sayHelloResponseElement">
<complexType>
<sequence>
<element name="result" type="string" nillable="true"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
</element>
</schema>
</types>
<message name="IHelloWorld_getCount">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:getCountElement"/>
</message>
<message name="IHelloWorld_getCountResponse">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:getCountResponseElement"/>
</message>
<message name="IHelloWorld_sayHello">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:sayHelloElement"/>
</message>
<message name="IHelloWorld_sayHelloResponse">
<part name="parameters" element="tns:sayHelloResponseElement"/>
</message>
<portType name="MyHelloWorldService">
<operation name="getCount">
<input message="tns:IHelloWorld_getCount"/>
<output message="tns:IHelloWorld_getCountResponse"/>
</operation>
<operation name="sayHello">
<input message="tns:IHelloWorld_sayHello"/>
<output message="tns:IHelloWorld_sayHelloResponse"/>
</operation>
</portType>
<binding name="MyHelloWorldServiceSoapHttp" type="tns:MyHelloWorldService">
<soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
<operation name="getCount">
<soap:operation soapAction="http://helloworldserver//getCount"/>
<input>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</output>
</operation>
<operation name="sayHello">
<soap:operation soapAction="http://helloworldserver//sayHello"/>
<input>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</output>
</operation>
</binding>
<service name="MyHelloWorldService">
<port name="MyHelloWorldServiceSoapHttpPort" binding="tns:MyHelloWorldServiceSoapHttp">
<soap:address location="http://cjbrown-lap:8888/HelloWorld-HelloWorldServer-context-root/MyHelloWorldServiceSoapHttpPort"/>
</port>
</service>
</definitions>
When referencing this in ApEx it can see the methods getCount and sayHello, and it can also see all the input and output parameters. The problem comes when I test the web service.
The request generated by ApEx is the following for the sayHello method:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><SOAP-ENV:Envelope
xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema">
<SOAP-ENV:Body><namesp1:sayHello xmlns:namesp1="http://helloworldserver/"><namesp1:name xsi:type="xsd:string"></namesp1:name></namesp1:sayHello></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
This returns the following message from the webservice:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns0="http://helloworldserver/"><env:Body><env:Fault><faultcode>env:Client</faultcode><faultstring>Caught exception while handling request: unexpected element name: expected={http://helloworldserver/}sayHelloElement, actual={http://helloworldserver/}sayHello</faultstring></env:Fault></env:Body></env:Envelope>
The correct request should in fact be:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><SOAP-ENV:Envelope
xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema">
<SOAP-ENV:Body><namesp1:sayHelloElement xmlns:namesp1="http://helloworldserver/"><namesp1:name xsi:type="xsd:string">Chris</namesp1:name></namesp1:sayHelloElement></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
This will return the expected message:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns0="http://helloworldserver/"><env:Body><ns0:sayHelloResponseElement><ns0:result>Hello Chris</ns0:result></ns0:sayHelloResponseElement></env:Body></env:Envelope>
What ApEx seems to be doing is using the name of the method, rather than what is being detailed in the WSDL as the expected input envelope. It is also not showing the input parameters as an input box in the test instead is shows "Report returned no rows".
I have managed to get around this issue in a less than ideal way be modifying the NAME column in the WWV_FLOW_WS_OPERATIONS table to sayHelloElement instead of sayHello, and the TYPE_IS_XSD column in the WWV_FLOW_WS_PARAMETERS table to Y instead of N, in the FLOWS_020200 schema.
It now works fine, but why what could have caused it to not be correct in the first place? The answer to this is very important to me as I am working on a way to call XML Publisher seemlessly, without using a URL link, from ApEx, and then emailing the output document to the user. I don't want to have to modify the underlying tables each time I add a new web service reference in ApEx.
Any comments, views, assistance is welcome here.
Many Thank in Advance
Cj

Answer 1

Tony:
Thanks for reporting the issue. There was a change in the session pop-up page to include reporting on the new xmltype column in collections. Unfortunately the wrong function is being called on the xmltype column to display its contents. This will be fixed in an upcoming release.
Application Express 4.0 Web service support makes use of this new xmltype column in a collection. Therefore if you call a web service that returns a large XML document, and you click the session toolbar, you will receive the error.
Regards,
Jason