@Documented @Retention(java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) @Target({java.lang.annotation.ElementType.METHOD})
public abstract @interface Action

The Action annotation allows explicit association of a WS-Addressing Action message addressing property with input, output, and fault messages of the mapped WSDL operation.

This annotation can be specified on each method of a service endpoint interface. For such a method, the mapped operation in the generated WSDL's wsam:Action attribute on the WSDL input, output and fault messages of the WSDL operation is based upon which attributes of the Action annotation have been specified. For the exact computation of wsam:Action values for the messages, refer to the algorithm in the JAX-WS specification.

Example 1: Specify explicit values for Action message addressing property for input and output messages.

 @WebService(targetNamespace="http://example.com/numbers")
 public class AddNumbersImpl {
     @Action(
         input="http://example.com/inputAction",
         output="http://example.com/outputAction")
     public int addNumbers(int number1, int number2) {
         return number1 + number2;
     }
 }
 

The generated WSDL looks like:

   <definitions targetNamespace="http://example.com/numbers" ...>
     ...
     <portType name="AddNumbersPortType">
       <operation name="AddNumbers">
         <input message="tns:AddNumbersInput" name="foo"
           wsam:Action="http://example.com/inputAction"/>
         <output message="tns:AddNumbersOutput" name="bar"
           wsam:Action="http://example.com/outputAction"/>
       </operation>
     </portType>
     ...
   </definitions>
 

Example 2: Specify explicit value for Action message addressing property for only the input message. The wsam:Action values for the WSDL output message are computed using the algorithm in the JAX-WS specification.

 @WebService(targetNamespace="http://example.com/numbers")
 public class AddNumbersImpl {
     @Action(input="http://example.com/inputAction")
     public int addNumbers(int number1, int number2) {
         return number1 + number2;
     }
 }
 

The generated WSDL looks like:

   <definitions targetNamespace="http://example.com/numbers" ...>
     ...
     <portType name="AddNumbersPortType">
       <operation name="AddNumbers">
         <input message="tns:AddNumbersInput" name="foo"
           wsam:Action="http://example.com/inputAction" />
         <output message="tns:AddNumbersOutput" name="bar"
           wsam:Action="http://example.com/numbers/AddNumbersPortType/AddNumbersResponse"/>
       </operation>
     </portType>
     ...
   </definitions>
 

It is legitimate to specify an explicit value for Action message addressing property for output message only. In this case, wsam:Action value for the WSDL input message is computed using the algorithm in the JAX-WS specification.

Example 3: See FaultAction annotation for an example of how to specify an explicit value for Action message addressing property for the fault message.

extends Annotation

See also:
FaultAction

Since:  JAX-WS 2.1