@webservice inheritance java

Question

I am trying to build a java ee webservice that has a common base class, but the child classes are the actual @webservice classes (and expose the parent class methods as @webmethod's)

Like this:

public abstract class Parent {
 @WebMethod
 public void doSomething(){//...does stuff}
}

@WebService
public class Child extends Parent {}

I've tried (and have failed):
- annotating the parent class as a webservice as well
- making sure all parent methods are annotated with @WebMethod

Is this possible, if so, how?

Answer 1

Annotations don't inherit on methods like that, so it isn't technically possible. The subclass will have to override, call super and have the webmethod annotation.

Another option (probably the better option) is to put the annotations on an interface, and use the endpointInterface method of the @WebService annotation to reference the methods, and have the superclass implement that interface (just to make everything clear).