Can you tell the BEST way how to test & use Web Services in Eclipse ?
I had little experience with web services, that is, I used an Apache Axis plugin that generated the client stub.
I do not need to write my own web services right now, only use existing ones. I have Eclipse JEE, I can download any plugin. What would you suggest?
Your JEE eclipse already include WTP (Web Tool Platform), so you shouldn't download another plugin.
All you need now is to follow one of those tutorials
WTP:
The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) project extends the Eclipse platform with tools for developing Web and Java EE applications
It includes a web services section with 2 components:
Add the WSDL file to the root of an Eclipse project, right-click on it, select "Web Services" and "Generate client", set the cursor to "Assemble" and Eclipse will generate the Java code that will allow you to communicate with the Web Service.
I believe that the easiest way to test web services with Eclipse is the Axis2 plug-in, which is bundled in the JEE edition. Here is an article about it. It focuses on services and not clients, but it is even easier if you already have a running service and want to create a client.
Take a look at Eclipse Swordfish project.
From it's home page:
The goal of the Swordfish project is to provide an extensible SOA framework based on the proven Eclipse Equinox runtime technology. The framework is designed to be complemented by additional open source components such as a service registry, a messaging system, a process engine etc. to form a comprehensive open source SOA runtime environment based on both established and emerging open standards.
To test web services, the best tool is IMHO soapUI which is available as an eclipse plugin and is superior by far to any other tool I've used.
To use web services, it's worth noting that Eclipse has now a JAX-WS Tools Project (in the Web Tools Incubator) which is using the Apache CXF implementation (please, let Axis 2 die).
To install this project, point your Eclipse update site manager to The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) Project update site - http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/updates. When you access the update site, you should see the CXF Web Services (Incubator) feature available in the listing:
Once installed and configured (Window > Preferences... > Web Services > CXF 2.x Preferences), you will be able to use the CXF runtime to test web services (and / or to create a CXF Web Services Project, see image below even if this is not your first goal).
You will find some video clips showing you how to create and deploy Bottom-Up and Top-Down Web services using JAX-WS Tools here.