Resetting Webservices

February 15, 2006 · 7 Comment s

From time to time, I have problems consuming webservices via ColdFusion. Usually these problems have to do with changes in the webservice's code or configuration or corruption of the stub objects for the webservice on the calling ColdFusion server. To get around this: I wrap all foreign webservices calls in a <cftry> <cfcatch>; in the catch I reset the webservice; and retry the original webservice call.

To do this call the following code:

UPDATE: Sean Corfield schooled me a bit, but it's hard to see how elegant his code is in my comments, so I've reproduced it up here:

Don't forget that the above code is not thread-safe unless you add 'var' declarations for both factory and RpcService:

&lt;cfset var factory = createobject("java", "coldfusion.server. ServiceFactory")&gt;
&lt;cfset var RpcService = factory.XmlRpcService&gt;
&lt;cfset RpcService.refreshWebService(arguments.wsdl)&gt;

(you don't need "#..#" there)

Of course you could do the whole thing in one line and be thread-safe like this:

<cfset createObject("java", "coldfusion.server.ServiceFactory").XmlRpcService.refreshWebService(arguments.wsdl) />

Tags: Web Development · ColdFusion

7 response s so far ↓

1 Sean Corfield // Feb 16, 2006 at 1:44 AM

Don't forget that the above code is not thread-safe unless you add 'var' declarations for both factory and RpcService:

cfset var factory = createobject("java", "coldfusion.server. ServiceFactory")
cfset var RpcService = factory.XmlRpcService
cfset RpcService. refreshWebService (arguments.wsdl)

(you don't need "#..#" there)

Of course you could do the whole thing in one line and be thread-safe like this:

cfset createObject("java", "coldfusion.server. ServiceFactory"). XmlRpcService. refreshWebService (arguments.wsdl)
2 Sean Corfield // Feb 16, 2006 at 1:47 AM

Oops, that kinda messed up the formatting :)
3 Terrence Ryan // Feb 16, 2006 at 3:18 PM

I added Sean's comments to the extended entry portion of the post. Sorry about that, Sean, I haven't hacked MovableType enough for it to show code properly in comments.
4 cfJeff // Feb 16, 2006 at 4:53 PM

nice work. I happened to run into this very problem the other day.
5 Rich Rein // Feb 17, 2006 at 10:41 AM

So essentially, you would have the following:

<cftry>

<cfcatch type="any">
<cfset reset_webservice(wsdl_URL) />

</cfcatch>
</cftry>

where your web service call would happen a maximum of two times before erroring out?
6 Rich Rein // Feb 17, 2006 at 10:42 AM

Oops, code was gone from my previous:

cftry
call webservice
cfcatch type="any"
reset_webservice(wsdl_url)
call webservice again
/cfcatch
/cftry

Also, would this be useful for noticing a change in a local webservice and reloading it, rather than having to restart the CF service?
7 Terrence Ryan // Feb 17, 2006 at 10:46 AM

That's exactly the way I do it. You could also write the catch to exacly match the conditions that cause the error (something about Stub objects usually.)

As for this as an alternative to restartings: Absolutely. It's the equivalent and reloading the webservice in the cfide/administrator console.

Blog