JBossWS Galleon Feature Pack

By Jim Ma | April 18, 2023

The WildFly Galleon project is designed to allow users to install, uninstall, and patch products with a high degree of customization. By defining an XML, CLI, or Maven plugin, users can slim down the WildFly server and select the subsystems they want to install to run their application. For example, if a user’s application only requires JAX-RS, JPA, and Servlets and does not need EJB or JMS, the Galleon tool can help install a customized version of WildFly or EAP that only contains JAX-RS, JPA, Undertow, and other required dependent subsystems. Behind the WildFly Galleon technology, a feature pack provides the unit of WildFly that can be installed or uninstalled using Galleon tools. A feature pack is zipped and deployed to the Maven repository, and the Galleon tool can consume the feature pack as user-defined to install these units. In this post, we will discuss the new JBossWS CXF feature pack in the upcoming 6.3.0 release and how we can use this feature pack to install the new JBossWS CXF version to a WildFly server.

JBossWS CXF Feature Pack

The JBossWS CXF feature pack contains all JBossWS packages to install in a WildFly server. All JBossWS related JBoss modules will be created or updated. With this JBossWS feature pack, the JBossWS version can be updated to the version in this feature pack. The JBossWS feature pack depends on the wildfly-ee-galleon-pack’s latest version. When the JBossWS-CXF feature pack is installed, the wildfly-ee-galleon-pack will be installed before the JBossWS CXF feature pack.

Install JBossWS-CXF Feature Pack With CLI

Galleon provides a CLI tool to install and customize the WildFly installation. Simply download the latest version of Galleon 5.1.0.Final, unzip it, and the Galleon CLI tool is ready for use. Then, we can install the JBossWS CXF feature pack with this command:

path/to/galleon-5.1.0.Final/bin/galleon.sh  install org.jboss.ws.cxf:jbossws-cxf-feature-pack:6.3.1-SNAPSHOT --dir=path/to/installation

The galleon.sh install can be run with --layers flag to define the subsystems you want to install. For more details, please check Galleon guide.

Please note that Galleon requires Java 11 for runtime, and you should make sure that JDK11 or a higher version is set up properly.

Install JBossWS CXF Feature Pack with Maven

Another way to install the JBossWS-CXF feature pack is by using Maven. The provision goal in wildfly-maven-plugin installs the WildFly server in the Maven build. Here is an example to install the JBossWS CXF feature pack and provide only the features and packages included in the in cloud-server and webservices layers:

        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.wildfly.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>wildfly-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>4.1.0.Beta5</version>
                <configuration>

                    <feature-packs>
                        <feature-pack>
                            <location>org.wildfly:wildfly-galleon-pack:27.0.1.Final</location>
                        </feature-pack>
                        <feature-pack>
                            <location>org.jboss.ws.cxf:jbossws-cxf-feature-pack:6.2.1-SNAPSHOT</location>
                            <inherit-packages>true</inherit-packages>
                        </feature-pack>
                    </feature-packs>
                    <layers>
                        <layer>cloud-server</layer>
                        <layer>webservices</layer>
                    </layers>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>provision</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>

The wildfly-maven-plugin’s provision goal offers a lot of flexibility to Maven projects for testing with the WFLY server and updating specific units within it. In the JBossWS project, this plugin is currently being utilized to build a customized version of the WildFly server. This new server is then used to execute all tests with the latest JBossWS CXF version installed, ensuring a reliable and up-to-date testing environment.

Summary

Galleon is a good tool for reducing the size of the WildFly server distribution. When install with the jbossws-cxf-feature pack, it simplifies the process of replacing and updating the JBossWS unit in WildFly. If you’re looking to remove specific subsystems or units from your WildFly distribution and install a new version of the WildFly unit, it’s best to avoid doing it manually. Instead, make use of Galleon or the wildfly-maven-plugin to ensure an efficient process.