Which framework is better CXF or Spring-WS?

Question

I am in the process of researching/comparing CXF and Spring-WS for web services? I need to function both as a provider and a consumer of WS. In a nutshell, I have been told that Spring-WS is more configurable, but CXF is easier to get up and running. This question is subjective, but will help direct me in my research.

• What experience do you have with either of these frameworks?
• Have you run into any pitfalls with either framework?
• Have you found any useful features provided by either that is possibly not provided by the other?

Answer 1

I think the biggest difference is Spring-WS is only 'contract-first' whilst I believe CXF is normally 'contract-last'.

http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/sites/1.5/reference/html/why-contract-first.html

Contract-last starts with Java code, so it is usually easier to get started with.

However, the WSDL it creates tends to be more fragile.

Answer 2

We have an experience with CXF and it's predecessor XFire and I can recommend it as solid, quick (WS creating and executing) and reliable framework.

Regarding the issues that you can met with CXF see my post here.

And I agree with toolkit, that the biggest difference between frameworks are ideologically: what is the first code (i.e. interface) or contract (i.e. wsdl). See some details here, here and here.

Answer 3

CXF does not, in any way, prevent you from starting with a contract (WSDL). I used both of these products to build a web service.

In CXF, I used Maven and the Maven plugin, calling the wsimport goal to generate the SEI (interface) which I then implemented. After implementing the interface to contain the actual service logic and configuring my bean implementation beans.xml, I then let Maven package it into a war file for deployment. The entire exercise could not have been easier.

I don't think Spring-WS offers any advantages that outweigh the lack of JAX-WS. CXF already lets you use Spring to wire up your beans and also has a full implementation of JAX-WS as well.

Answer 4

About Apache CXF:

• CXF supports several standards including SOAP, the WSI Basic Profile, WSDL, WS-Addressing, WS-Policy, WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-Security, WS-SecurityPolicy, and WS-SecureConversation.
• Apache CXF offers both contract-last (starting with Java) and Contract-first (starting with the WSDL) approaches.
• Apache CXF implements JAX-WS and JAX-RS.

About Spring WS:

• Spring WS offers "only" contract-first, starting from an XSD Schema.
• Spring WS supports SOAP, WS-Security, WS-Addressing.

So, at the end, I see Spring WS as a minimal web services framework but consider that it doesn't (in my opinion) have any advantages over Apache CXF (which integrates extremely well with Spring). Between both, I'd pick up Apache CXF.

Answer 5

Please take a look at a related post at : http://justcompiled.blogspot.com/2010/09/building-web-service-with-spring-ws.html