Cisco AXL for developers Java requirements

[Muhammad H]

Quick question when developing applications based on AXL api, The official document of cisco AXL says to use "Java 6". This version of java is outdated. My question is can we still do the AXL applications under Latest Java version which is "Java 8". ? You can see the AXL cisco details below:

https://developer.cisco.com/docs/axl/#!javajax-ws-quickstart/before-you-begin

Before You Begin
To complete this exercise, you will need access to the following tools.

Eclipse
Access to a Cisco Unified Communications Manager installation
Admin username and password for Cisco Unified Communications Manager
The name of a device registered with Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Java 6

Thanks in advance

[Elliot Dierksen]

What kind of application are you trying to develop, and on what platform? If the application you plan to development is in Java, then that certainly forces you in that direction. If not, I would suggest Python with the Zeep libraries. Those certainly run on Linux/Unix and Windows.

[npetrele]

That approach to using Java with AXL via wsimport is outdated. You can use Java 8 with AXL if you code SOAP calls normally instead of importing the WSDL into Java classes. It might even work with wsimport and Java 8, but I don't recommend that approach, anyway.

[dstaudt]

That JAX-WS sample is very old/obsolete, and should probably be removed/updated.

This sample project is more up-to-date and may be helpful: https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/axl-java-samples

[Muhammad H]

Thanks to all for sharing your advices, I am new to AXL and my application will mostly query CUCM / CUC databases. I will try DSTAUDT suggested project and share any questions here. I will be glad if cisco updates its documents

[Muhammad H]

I quickly checked :  https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/axl-java-samples

It refers to OPENJDK, I am limited to Oracle JDK due to our work environment, does it support oracle JDK also?

[dstaudt]

It should work with Oracle JDK.

[Muhammad H]

I know wsimport is no longer included in Java 8, you indicated "You can use Java 8 with AXL if you code SOAP calls normally instead of importing the WSDL into Java classes", do please provide some details/steps how to do that ?

[dstaudt]

I think the suggestion is to treat AXL as an HTTP/XML API, and code to it by sending XML via HTTP requests using a HTTP-level Java library.  The XML body can be created by simple string manipulation, via a XML DOM library (e.g. Xerces), a SOAP object library (e.g. Jakarta which provides jax-ws for Java >8), etc. - i.e. other than relying on consuming the WSDL to create middleware, just write to HTTP/XML directly.

[npetrele]

LOL -- it has been too many years, and I can't even remember what I had for breakfast. I did a deep dive on my drive to see if I could find my past work, but didn't find anything. However, there are docs and good examples online if you google it. 

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19340-01/820-6767/aeqgc/index.html

There are examples at this link. It's a start and one answer reminds me of how I coded. Check out the 2020 or 2021 response at this link, and make sure you look at the example for BASIC authentication. 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15948927/working-soap-client-example

The last example on that page looks very simple, since it uses curl. I didn't use curl, but if I had to do it again, I might do it that way.

[Muhammad H]

Thankfull to everyone sharing your knowledge here