SOAP Proxy

SOAP Access to WCS

SOAP access to services provided by EOxServer is possible if the functionality is installed by the service provider. The protocol is SOAP 1.2 over HTTP.

EOxServer responds to the following WCS-EO requests via its SOAP service interface:

  • DescribeCoverage
  • DescribeEOCoverageSet
  • GetCapabilities
  • GetCoverage

To access the EOxServer by means of SOAP requests, you need to obtain the access ULR from the service provider. For machine readable configuration the SOAP service exposes the WSDL configuration file: given a service address of ‘http://example.org/eo_wcs‘ the corresponding WSDL file may be downloaded at the URL ‘http://example.org/eo_wcs?wsdl‘.

Installation

A quick-intall quide is provided below. For a full installation guide see the INSTALL file in the source tree.

Quick installation guide for EOxServer on CentOS

0. Prerequisites:

1. Basic install:

The following standard installation sets up soap_proxy for an installed eoxserver service accessible at http://127.0.0.1/eoxserver/ows

Caution: if upgrading an existing installation of soap_proxy, please be sure to make a backup of the directory /usr/share/axis2c_eo/services/soapProxy. The eo_soap_proxy-1.0.1-1 package does not correctly preserve this directory duing upgrading.

Via the repository:

sudo yum install axis2c_eo eo_soap_proxy
sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart

or the packages:

sudo rpm -i axis2c_eo-1.6.0-3.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -i eo_soap_proxy-1.0.1-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart

2. Test:

To test open a webbrowser to the page:

http://<your_server>/sp_eowcs?wsdl

You should see the wsdl.

Further testing may be done via soapui. See the file soap_proxy/test/README.txt in the source tree.

3. Add another service:

To add another service to the basic installation, perform the following steps as root:

By way of example let us say our new soap_proxy service shall be available at http://example.org/sp_foo, and the corresponding backend eoxserver is accessible at http://127.0.0.1/eoxs_foo

First, in the directory /usr/local/share/axis2c/services recursively copy the subdirectory soapProxy to soapFoo:

cp -r soapProxy soapFoo
cd soapFoo

In soapFoo rename libsoapProxy.so and soapProxy.wsdl:

mv libsoapProxy.so libsoapFoo.so
mv soapProxy.wsdl soapFoo.wsdl

Note that if selinux is enabled you may need adjust the object type of libsoapFoo.so.

edit soapFoo.wsdl - at the bottom of the file chage soap:address location to the new endpoint:

<soap:address location="http://example.org/sp_foo"/>

edit services.xml - change ServiceClass, BackendURL, and SOAPOperationsURL:

<parameter name="ServiceClass" locked="xsd:false">soapFoo</parameter>
<parameter name="BackendURL">http://127.0.0.1/eoxs_foo/ows</parameter>
<parameter name="SOAPOperationsURL">http://example.org/sp_foo</parameter>

Optionally, you may consider updating the <description>.

Edit the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/030_axis2c.conf: In the block <IfModule mod_proxy.c>, add ‘ProxyPass’ and ‘ProxyPassReverse’ lines corresponding to your new service:

ProxyPass         /sp_foo  http://127.0.0.1/sp_axis/services/soapFoo
ProxyPassReverse  /sp_foo  http://127.0.0.1/sp_axis/services/soapFoo

Old installation guide without rpms

0. Prerequisites:

The following is required before you can proceed with installing soap_proxy:

  • mapserver installed & configured.
  • Apache httpd server(httpd2 on some systems) installed and running
  • eoxserver is optional

1. Old Non-rpm installation

This is suitable for general installation e.g. if you are not using eoxerver but wish to use mapserver direcly.

Warning: some of the configuration details are out of date, but the changes are not structural.

Also see the INSTALL file in the source tree.

Download from http://ws.apache.org/axis2/c/download.cgi

Make a directory for the code:

cd someplace
mkdir axis2c
setenv AXIS2C_HOME /path/to/someplace/axis2c

Follow the instructions in ‘doc’ to compile, and use something like the following configure line to get mod_axis2 configured for compiling at the same time:

./configure --with-apache2="/usr/include/apache2" \
  --with-apr="/usr/include/apr-1" --prefix=${AXIS2C_HOME}

Execute the standard sequence:

make
make install

Copy lib/libmod_axis2.so.0.6.0 to <apache2 modules directory> as mod_axis2.so.

Edit the file ${AXIS2C_HOME}/axis2.xml and ensure that the parameter enableMTOM has the value true.

Check that the following directory exits, if not create it:
${AXIS2C_HOME}/services

2. Deploy axis2 via your webserver

Configure mod_axis2 in the apache server config file. On Suse Linux one might edit the file /etc/apache2/default-server.conf.

Set up a proxy:

<IfModule mod_proxy.c>
  ProxyRequests Off
  ProxyPass         /sp_wcs   http://127.0.0.1/o3s_axis/services/soapProxy
  ProxyPassReverse  /sp_wcs   http://127.0.0.1/o3s_axis/services/soapProxy
  ...
  <Proxy *>
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    ...
  </Proxy>
</IfModule>

and deploy axis2:

LoadModule axis2_module  /usr/lib64/apache2/mod_axis2.so
Axis2RepoPath /path/to/AXIS2C_HOME
Axis2LogFile /tmp/ax2logs
Axis2MaxLogFileSize 204800
Axis2LogLevel info
<Location /o3s_axis>
    SetHandler axis2_module
</Location>

3. Verify the deployment of axis2

Resart the webserver (httpd2) and open the following page:

http://127.0.0.1/o3s_axis/services

You should get a page that displays the text “Deployed Services” and is otherwise blank.

4. Configure and Compile Soap Proxy.

Change your working directory to the service directory in the soap_proxy source code:

cd <...>/soap_proxy/service

In soapProxy.wsdl set <soap:address location=.../>. Copy TEMLATE_services.xml to services.xml. In services.xml set BackendURL to the address of eoxserver.

Now change to the src directory:

cd src

In your environment or in the Makefile set AXIS2C_HOME appropriately, and execute:

make inst

Restart you httpd server and check that http://127.0.0.1/o3s_axis/services shows the soapProxy service offering the four EO-WCS operations.

Further testing may be done via soapui. See the file soap_proxy/test/README.txt in the source tree.