Apache Axis2

What do you like best?

New Architecture on Axis2 is more flexible, efficient, and configurable than the previous version.

Axis2 supports asynchronous Web services

Hot deployment feature - the ability to deploy Web services and handlers while the system is up and running

Axis2 consumes low memory, a design feature

Supports component-oriented deployment

Axis2 supports the Web Service Description Language, that allows to easily build stubs to access remote services

What do you dislike?

A large community isn't using Apache Axis2, therefore it is harder to get support if you are stuck somewhere

Lack of documentation and resources (books) available on the topic

Axis2 is more like a fully SOA, it won't be suitable for lightweight requirements

There are a number of major areas where users can get into trouble when using Axis2, hence precise study is required before using it

Recommendations to others considering the product:

It is a great framework if you need to SOAP oriented web services, There could be a lot of new features as well that I haven't tried. Please give it a try

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

SOAP Web services implementation

Integration of web services interfaces to web applications

Generating implementation classes for both the server and client using WSDL

Utilize or creating services that take the advantages of WS-Security

Send and receive SOAP messages with attachments

Create a Web service out of a plain Java class

Easily retrieve the WSDL for a service