How to avoid the need to specify the WSDL location in a CXF or JAX-WS generated webservice client?

I finally figured out the right answer to this question today.

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
    <artifactId>cxf-codegen-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>${cxf.version}</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>generate-sources</id>
            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
            <configuration> 
                <sourceRoot>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/cxf</sourceRoot>
                <wsdlOptions>
                    <wsdlOption>
                        <wsdl>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/wsdl/FooService.wsdl</wsdl>
                        <wsdlLocation>classpath:wsdl/FooService.wsdl</wsdlLocation>
                    </wsdlOption>
                </wsdlOptions>
            </configuration>
            <goals>
                <goal>wsdl2java</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Notice that I have prefixed the value in wsdlLocation with classpath:. This tells the plugin that the wsdl will be on the classpath instead of an absolute path. Then it will generate code similar to this:

@WebServiceClient(name = "FooService", 
                  wsdlLocation = "classpath:wsdl/FooService.wsdl",
                  targetNamespace = "http://org/example/foo") 
public class Foo_Service extends Service {

    public final static URL WSDL_LOCATION;

    public final static QName SERVICE = new QName("http://org/example/foo", "Foo");
    public final static QName FooSOAPOverHTTP = new QName("http://org/example/foo", "Foo_SOAPOverHTTP");
    static {
        URL url = Foo_Service.class.getClassLoader().getResource("wsdl/FooService.wsdl");
        if (url == null) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(Foo_Service.class.getName())
                .log(java.util.logging.Level.INFO, 
                     "Can not initialize the default wsdl from {0}", "classpath:wsdl/FooService.wsdl");
        }       
        WSDL_LOCATION = url;
    }

Note that this only works with version 2.4.1 or newer of the cxf-codegen-plugin.

We use

wsdlLocation = "WEB-INF/wsdl/WSDL.wsdl"

In other words, use a path relative to the classpath.

I believe the WSDL may be needed at runtime for validation of messages during marshal/unmarshal.

For those using org.jvnet.jax-ws-commons:jaxws-maven-plugin to generate a client from WSDL at build-time:

• Place the WSDL somewhere in your src/main/resources
• Do not prefix the wsdlLocation with classpath:
• Do prefix the wsdlLocation with /

Example:

• WSDL is stored in /src/main/resources/foo/bar.wsdl
• Configure jaxws-maven-plugin with <wsdlDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/resources/foo</wsdlDirectory> and <wsdlLocation>/foo/bar.wsdl</wsdlLocation>