Apache CXF (http://cxf.apache.org) is an open source services framework for developing services using JAX-WS and JAX-RS (including other APIs). There are numerous benefits of using the Apache CXF framework for Web service development. CXF supports both JAX-WS and JAX-RS, which are popular APIs for implementing XML-based and RESTful Web services efficiently. CXF supports Spring integration and a variety of Web service specifications including WS-Addressing, WS-Policy, WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-Security. It also comes with a business-friendly Apache license.
WSO2 supports Apache CXF as the framework for deployment and management of JAX-WS / JAX-RS Web services. This capability is enabled by the following feature in the WSO2 feature repository:
Name: WSO2 Carbon - JAX-WS/JAX-RS Webapp Management Feature
Identifier: org.wso2.carbon.jaxws.webapp.mgt.feature.group
This feature is bundled in WSO2 Application Server by default. Therefore, WSO2 Application Server now has capability to host CXF-based Web applications in built. If the product you are using does not have this feature by default, you can install it by following the instructions given in section Feature Management.
WSO2 Application Server had the ability to host CXF-based Applications in previous releases too just like any other web application. But with this integration, users get more flexibility, and the ability to utilize features of Carbon platform within CXF applications. This feature enables CXF users to directly deploy their Web applications in a running Carbon instance in a few easy steps, without having to provide any CXF libraries since they are already provided by the WSO2 Carbon OSGi environment itself. The user has to only concentrate on the business logic of their applications while the Carbon platform takes care of deployment. In addition to the significant ease in hosting and managing, CXF-based applications deployed in a Carbon instance also automatically inherit all the underlying capabilities of the platform. Some of them are as follows:
- Ability to use the Carbon user store through CarbonContext.
- Ability to use WSO2 Registry APIs through CarbonContext.
- Fine-grained authorization through WSO2 Identity Server features.
- All the benefits inherited from OSGi.
- User-friendly Management Console for Web application management.
- Hot-deployment and hot-update for your CXF-based Web applications.