Testing web service results in no response, but HTTP Error 500

Question

Hi All,
I've already solved my problem, but I wanted to share my results. It took two days of pain, so you could imagine how wonderful I felt when it was solved. :)
Problem: I am exposing PL/SQL procedures as web services, using JDeveloper 10.1.3. I noticed that when I expose procedures that return complex types (like records), it caused all of the web service calls to die silently. I couldn't see any other errors except Apache's HTTP 500 error. But when I ran the web service locally using JDeveloper's OC4J engine, I didn't receive any errors. Everything worked. I looked at the opmn/logs/* dir, and still no signs of the real error. So I set out to learn where I could view more logs, and I eventually found the error inside $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/MyConatiner/log/MyContainer*/oc4j/log.xml, after I increased the verbosity.
Solution: I found the "NoClassFound" error after I fiddled with j2ee-logging.xml. The funny part is, the error did not show up in the ERROR or INTERNAL_ERROR module types. Some of the wrapper Java classes that were generated to deal with complex types (records) and even arrays, were not being included in the EAR/WAR file for deployment! That's why when I ran the web service locally using JDeveloper, there were no errors (since the classes were present). Now, before I deploy I always check what is being deployed... :)
Here's what I learned through the process. Hope it's helpful!
keywords: http 500 error empty test response reply web service deploy complex data types arrays logs pl/sql procedures functions
Debugging
There are several places where logging occurs on Oracle Application Server 10.1.3.
This is not a complete list, but it covers the main areas. Let's assume our OC4J
container is called MyContainer:
OPMN
    * tail -f $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/logs/*MyContainer*
    * To adjust the verbosity, use the Enterprise Manager web interface: click on
      the container, then on the Administration -> Logger Configuration. Now you can
      set the logging level for different components.
Apache
    * tail -f $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs/*log
    * The file names depend on the ErrorLog? and CustomLog? directives in
       httpd.conf. You can adjust the verbosity by changing the LogLevel
       Apache directive.
J2EE
    * tail -f $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/MyContainer/log/MyContainer*/oc4j/log.xml
    * You can adjust the verbosity by editing
       $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/MyContainer/config/j2ee-logging.xml. Look for the
       <logger> element, and set its 'level' attribute to 'TRACE:32' for the most
       information.
    * From experience, these logs are the best. :-)
Oracle
    * tail -f $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs/oracle/log.xml
    * To enable and configure this logging system, add the following to your httpd.conf:
      OraLogMode oracle
      OraLogSeverity TRACE:32
      OraLogDir ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs/oracle
    * More info: http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B25221_04/web.1013/b25211/servlog.htm

Answer 1

Thanks for sharing your tips on this forum, as it will be useful for other users, that run into this issue.
Feedback like this will also help us improve error reporting in the next release, as missing class files in the packaged application is a common issue when developers are moving from the embeded oc4j instance packaged with JDewveloper to standalone instances.
-Eric