Axis2 Artifact Validator

The Axis2 Artifact Validator allows you to validate the archive files or configuration files of the Apache Axis2 services (.aar files) or modules (.mar files). Since an Apache Axis2 Web service is packaged as a file with the .aar extension, and a Web service module is packaged with a .mar extension, the validators for services and modules are referred to as the AAR Validator and MAR Validator respectively.

Validating an Axis2 Artifact

Validating a service or a module before it is deployed is useful because it assures the validity of the service.

Figure 1: Validating an Axis2 Service Artifact

We can use two methods to validate a service. We can either provide an archive file (.aar file) or a service file (services.xml), or a module descriptor (module.xml file).

  1. First lets consider the scenario of validating an AAR or MAR file. Click on the Browse on the "Select an AAR" box to search your file system for the .aar file which represents the service archive you want to validate. Once you have selected it, click on the 'Validate AAR' button to validate the services.xml inside it.
  2. Next, lets consider the other option, namely, directly pointing to a services.xml or module.xml file to validate. Click on the Browse button in the "Select a services.xml" box to search your file system for the services.xml file which you want to validate. Once you have selected it, click on "Validate services.xml" button to validate the service descriptor.
  3. In both of the above methods, when the validation process has completed, you will be taken to the results page. This page will display the validation results in tabular form.

In the navigator, under Tools, click Service Validator. The Service Archive Validator page appears.

  1. Under Select an AAR (Service Archive), click Browse and select the service archive you want to validate.
  2. Click Validate AAR. This validates the service.xml you have selected. In an AAR validation, the services.xml file inside the archive is extracted and validated.
  1. Under Select a Service.xml, click Browse and select the service.xml file you want to validate.
  2. Click Validate Service.xml.
Once the validation process is complete, the results will be displayed on the Service Archive Validation Report page.

In the navigator, under Tools, click Module Validator. The Module Archive Validator page appears.

  1. Under Select an AAR (Service Archive), click Browse and select the module archive you want to validate.
  2. Click Validate MAR. This validates the module archive you have selected. In an AAR validation,the module.xml file inside the archive is extracted and validated.
  1. Under Select a Module.xml, click Browse and select the module.xml file you want to validate.
  2. Click Validate Module.xml.
Once the validation process is complete, the results will be displayed on the Service Archive Validation Report page.

Validation Results

In the validation process (services.xml validation), the tool parses the services.xml against a schema and looks for any invalidities. If any are found, they are presented under Warnings and Information, on the Service Archive Validation Report.

Figure 2: Tabular form of validation results