XMLWeb Services use XML messages for communication between services and service clients. The higher level JAX-WS APIs are designed to hide the details of converting between Java method invocations and the corresponding XML messages, but in some cases operating at the XML message level is desirable. The Dispatch interface provides support for this mode of interaction.

Dispatch supports two usage modes, identified by the constants javax.xml.ws.Service.Mode.MESSAGE and javax.xml.ws.Service.Mode.PAYLOAD respectively:

Message In this mode, client applications work directly with protocol-specific message structures. E.g., when used with a SOAP protocol binding, a client application would work directly with a SOAP message.

Message Payload In this mode, client applications work with the payload of messages rather than the messages themselves. E.g., when used with a SOAP protocol binding, a client application would work with the contents of the SOAP Body rather than the SOAP message as a whole.

Dispatch is a low level API that requires clients to construct messages or message payloads as XML and requires an intimate knowledge of the desired message or payload structure. Dispatch is a generic class that supports input and output of messages or message payloads of any type.

Service service = Service.create(wsdlURL, serviceName);
Dispatch dispatch = service.createDispatch(portName, StreamSource.class, Mode.PAYLOAD);
  
String payload = "<ns1:ping xmlns:ns1='http://oneway.samples.jaxws.ws.test.jboss.org/'/>";
dispatch.invokeOneWay(new StreamSource(new StringReader(payload)));
  
payload = "<ns1:feedback xmlns:ns1='http://oneway.samples.jaxws.ws.test.jboss.org/'/>";
Source retObj = (Source)dispatch.invoke(new StreamSource(new StringReader(payload)));