JAX-WS = When Apache CXF is installed it "steals" default JDK JAX-WS implementation, how to solve?

Apache CXF (cxf-rt-frontend-jaxws-*.jar to be precise) registers itself as a JAX-WS provider in the JVM. Inside the aforementioned JAR there is a file named: /META-INF/services/javax.xml.ws.spi.Provider with the following contents:

org.apache.cxf.jaxws.spi.ProviderImpl

If you now look at javax.xml.ws.spi.FactoryFinder#find method you will discover that JDK searches the CLASSPATH for the presence of javax.xml.ws.spi.Provider file and falls back to default Sun implementation if not available. So you have two options to force fallback:

• either remove cxf-rt-frontend-jaxws-*.jar from CLASSPATH

• or override javax.xml.ws.spi.Provider file provided by CXF to point to fallback location

The second option is actually a bit easier. Simply create:

/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/javax.xml.ws.spi.Provider

file (assuming you are using Maven) with the following contents:

org.apache.cxf.jaxws.spi.ProviderImpl

That's it, tested with javax.xml.ws.Endpoint#publish.

For the default implementation put:

com.sun.xml.internal.ws.spi.ProviderImpl

inside /src/main/resources/META-INF/services/javax.xml.ws.spi.Provider