Problems installing Axis with WLS 8.1

Question

I'm having problems installing Apache Axis with WLS 8.1.
I'm totally new to WLS, so this may be at the heart of the problem.
I install Axis as per the installation instructions.
These are the steps I followed:
1. Installed the axis directory to
C:\bea\weblogic81\samples\domains\examples\applications\axis2. Added xml-apis.jar and xercesImpl.jar to the AXISCLASSPATH ( the complete AXISCLASSPATH is
C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\wsdl4j.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\axis-ant.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\commons-discovery.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\commons-logging.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\jaxrpc.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\log4j.properties;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\log4j-1.2.8.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\saaj.jar;C:\axis-1_2RC2\lib\axis.jar;C:\javasoft\javamail-1.3.2\mail.jar;C:\javasoft\javamail-1.3.2\lib\smtp.jar;C:\javasoft\javamail-1.3.2\lib\mailapi.jar;C:\javasoft\javamail-1.3.2\lib\pop3.jar;C:\javasoft\javamail-1.3.2\lib\imap.jar;C:\javasoft\jaf-1.0.2\activation.jar;C:\javasoft\Xerces\xerces-2_5_0\xercesImpl.jar;C:\javasoft\Xerces\xerces-2_5_0\xml-apis.jar)3.Added weblogic.xml file to C:\bea\weblogic81\samples\domains\examples\applications\axis\WEB-INF\weblogic.xmlas per instructions with <prefer-web-inf-classes>true</prefer-web-inf-classes> 4. Started the examples server.
5. I then tried to validate the installation as per intructions using <a href="http://localhost:7001/axis"></a>
Everything looks OK with the Axis start page displayed.
6. I then tried happyaxis.jsp . All needed components are present with saaj.jar being picked up from :
Found SAAJ API (javax.xml.soap.SOAPMessage) at C:\bea\weblogic81\samples\domains\examples\examplesServer\.wlnotdelete\extract\examplesServer__appsdir_axis_dir_axis\jarfiles\WEB-INF\lib\saaj.jar7. I'm missing optional component xmlsec.jar
8. Now the trouble starts!!!
pretty much anything I try now comes back with:
AXIS error
Sorry, something seems to have gone wrong... here are the details:
Exception - java.lang.NullPointerExceptionI get this if I try:
<a href="http://localhost:8080/axis/services/Version?method=getVersion"></a>
or
<a href="http://localhost:7001/axis/services/AdminService?wsdl"></a>
or
<a href="http://localhost:7001/axis/services/Version?wsdl"></a>
So, what's going wrong? I cant think what to do next. Please help! I need this to work fairly urgently.
Nigel
PS. here's the NP exception in detail
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at weblogic.xml.jaxp.ChainingEntityResolver.popEntityResolver(ChainingEn
tityResolver.java:61)
        at weblogic.xml.jaxp.RegistryDocumentBuilder.setEntityResolver(RegistryD
ocumentBuilder.java:168)
        at org.apache.axis.utils.XMLUtils.releaseDocumentBuilder(XMLUtils.java:2
35)
        at org.apache.axis.utils.XMLUtils.newDocument(XMLUtils.java:312)
        at org.apache.axis.utils.XMLUtils.StringToElement(XMLUtils.java:485)
        at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.addFaultDetail(AxisFault.java:654)
        at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.addHostname(AxisFault.java:888)
        at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.addHostnameIfNeeded(AxisFault.java:877)
        at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.initFromException(AxisFault.java:280)
        at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.<init>(AxisFault.java:181)
        at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.makeFault(AxisFault.java:101)
        at org.apache.axis.server.AxisServer.generateWSDL(AxisServer.java:487)
        at org.apache.axis.transport.http.QSWSDLHandler.invoke(QSWSDLHandler.jav
a:62)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at org.apache.axis.transport.http.AxisServlet.processQuery(AxisServlet.j
ava:1132)
        at org.apache.axis.transport.http.AxisServlet.doGet(AxisServlet.java:233
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:740)
        at org.apache.axis.transport.http.AxisServletBase.service(AxisServletBas
e.java:301)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl$ServletInvocationAction.run
(ServletStubImpl.java:1006)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.invokeServlet(ServletStubIm
pl.java:419)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.invokeServlet(ServletStubIm
pl.java:315)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationActio
n.run(WebAppServletContext.java:6718)
        at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(Authenticate
dSubject.java:321)
        at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:
121)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.invokeServlet(WebAppSe
rvletContext.java:3764)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.execute(ServletRequestIm
pl.java:2644)
        at weblogic.kernel.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:219)
        at weblogic.kernel.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)

Answer 1

I'm doing exactly the same thing (adding the xerces jars to my web-inf/lib), but happyaxis.jsp is saying the jar I'm using is invalid as follows:
Error: Invalid version of SAAJ API found in D:\bea\weblogic81\server\lib\webservices.jar. Make sure that Axis' saaj.jar precedes D:\bea\weblogic81\server\lib\webservices.jar in CLASSPATH.
Axis will not work.
Maybe this worked in a previous release/SP? I'm using 8.1SP3. I've read some other post saying you cannot override stuff in the weblogic.jar, so I've tried to add the jars to the pre_classpath, which resolves the issue but I get a soap fault related to this thread. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Lou
My weblogic.xml looks as follows:
<weblogic-web-app>
<jsp-descriptor>
<!-- Comment the jspServlet param out to go back to weblogic's jspc -->
<jsp-param>
<param-name>jspServlet</param-name>
<param-value>weblogic.servlet.WlwJSPServlet</param-value>
</jsp-param>
<jsp-param>
<param-name>debug</param-name>
<param-value>true</param-value>
</jsp-param>
</jsp-descriptor>
<container-descriptor>
<prefer-web-inf-classes>true</prefer-web-inf-classes>
</container-descriptor>
<url-match-map>
weblogic.servlet.utils.SimpleApacheURLMatchMap
</url-match-map>
</weblogic-web-app>