Spring WS: Why is Spring WS returning WebServiceTransportException instead of a SoapFaultException

I have the problem when calling my webservice, that Spring WS is returning just a WebServiceTransportException: Internal Server Error instead of the expected SoapFaultException. When I trigger the call in SOAPUI I get the soap fault.

The WebServiceTransportException surpresses also the output of the response, so I don't see in the logs what the problem was.

I use Spring WS in a spring boot application with Configuration classes.

public class SoapClientConfig {

private static Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SoapClientConfig.class);

private static final int DEFAULT_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MILLISECONDS = 60000;
private static final int DEFAULT_READ_TIMEOUT_MILLISECONDS = 60000;
private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_ROUTE = 2;

public static final int CONNECTION_REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 30000;

@Value("${soap.client.proxy.host}")
protected String proxyHost;
@Value("${soap.client.proxy.port}")
protected String proxyPort;
@Value("${soap.client.max.connections}")
private int maxConnections;

public Jaxb2Marshaller createMarshaller(String packageName) throws Exception {
    Jaxb2Marshaller jaxb2Marshaller = new Jaxb2Marshaller();
    jaxb2Marshaller.setContextPath(packageName);
    jaxb2Marshaller.afterPropertiesSet();
    return jaxb2Marshaller;
}

public WebServiceTemplate createWebServiceTemplate(Jaxb2Marshaller marshaller, ClientInterceptor securityInterceptor, WebServiceMessageSender messageSender) {
    WebServiceTemplate webServiceTemplate = new WebServiceTemplate();
    webServiceTemplate.setMarshaller(marshaller);
    webServiceTemplate.setUnmarshaller(marshaller);
    webServiceTemplate.setMessageSender(messageSender);
    if(securityInterceptor != null) {
        webServiceTemplate.setInterceptors((ClientInterceptor[]) Arrays.asList(securityInterceptor, createLoggingInterceptor()).toArray());
    } else {
        webServiceTemplate.setInterceptors((ClientInterceptor[]) Arrays.asList(createLoggingInterceptor()).toArray());
    }
    webServiceTemplate.setCheckConnectionForFault(false);
    webServiceTemplate.afterPropertiesSet();
    return webServiceTemplate;
}

private ClientInterceptor createLoggingInterceptor() {
    return new SoapLoggingInterceptor();
}

public Wss4jSecurityInterceptor createSecurityInterceptor(String username, String password) throws Exception {
    Wss4jSecurityInterceptor wss4jSecurityInterceptor = new Wss4jSecurityInterceptor();
    wss4jSecurityInterceptor.setSecurementUsername(username);
    wss4jSecurityInterceptor.setSecurementPassword(password);
    wss4jSecurityInterceptor.setSecurementActions("UsernameToken");
    wss4jSecurityInterceptor.setSecurementPasswordType("PasswordText");
    wss4jSecurityInterceptor.afterPropertiesSet();
    return wss4jSecurityInterceptor;
}

public HttpComponentsMessageSender createMessageSender() {
    return new HttpComponentsMessageSender(createHttpClient());
}

private HttpClient createHttpClient() {
    RequestConfig.Builder configBuilder = RequestConfig.custom()
            .setConnectTimeout(DEFAULT_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MILLISECONDS)
            .setSocketTimeout(DEFAULT_READ_TIMEOUT_MILLISECONDS)
            .setConnectionRequestTimeout(CONNECTION_REQUEST_TIMEOUT);
    addProxySettings(configBuilder);

    HttpClientBuilder clientBuilder = HttpClients.custom().setDefaultRequestConfig(configBuilder.build());
    addInterceptor(clientBuilder);
    addConnectionManager(clientBuilder);

    return clientBuilder.build();
}

private void addProxySettings(RequestConfig.Builder configBuilder) {
    if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(proxyHost)) {
        configBuilder.setProxy(new HttpHost(proxyHost, Integer.valueOf(proxyPort)));
    }
}

private void addInterceptor(HttpClientBuilder clientBuilder) {
    clientBuilder.addInterceptorFirst(new HttpComponentsMessageSender.RemoveSoapHeadersInterceptor());
}

private void addConnectionManager(HttpClientBuilder clientBuilder) {
    if (maxConnections > DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_ROUTE) {
        PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager cm = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager();
        cm.setMaxTotal(maxConnections);
        cm.setDefaultMaxPerRoute(maxConnections);
        clientBuilder.setConnectionManager(cm);
    }
}

When the request is correct everything works fine. But when the request contains errors I don't get the reason as the soap fault. Only the WebServiceTransportException.

Caused by: org.springframework.ws.client.WebServiceTransportException: Internal Server Error [500]
    at org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate.handleError(WebServiceTemplate.java:699)
    at org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate.doSendAndReceive(WebServiceTemplate.java:609)
    at org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate.sendAndReceive(WebServiceTemplate.java:555)
    at org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(WebServiceTemplate.java:390)
    at org.springframework.ws.client.core.WebServiceTemplate.marshalSendAndReceive(WebServiceTemplate.java:378)

Setting

webServiceTemplate.setCheckConnectionForFault(true);

did the trick, instead of setting it to false like in the config class above.

Thanks Reddy for the hint in the right direction. I also missed to implement the handleFault method, so I couldn't see the response in the log. For all who want to see an example for an LoggingInterceptor:

public class SoapLoggingInterceptor implements ClientInterceptor {

private static Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SoapLoggingInterceptor.class);

@Override
public boolean handleRequest(MessageContext messageContext) throws WebServiceClientException {
    ByteArrayTransportOutputStream os = new ByteArrayTransportOutputStream();
    try {
        messageContext.getRequest().writeTo(os);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new WebServiceIOException(e.getMessage(), e);
    }
    String request = new String(os.toByteArray()).replaceAll("\n", "");
    log.info("Soap request\n----------------------------\n" + request + "\n----------------------------\n");
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean handleResponse(MessageContext messageContext) throws WebServiceClientException {
    logMessageContext(messageContext);
    return true;
}

@Override
public boolean handleFault(MessageContext messageContext) throws WebServiceClientException {
    logMessageContext(messageContext);
    return true;
}

private void logMessageContext(MessageContext messageContext) {
    ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    try {
        messageContext.getResponse().writeTo(os);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new WebServiceIOException(e.getMessage(), e);
    }
    String response = new String(os.toByteArray());
    log.info("Soap response\n----------------------------\n" + response + "\n----------------------------\n");
}

@Override
public void afterCompletion(MessageContext messageContext, Exception e) throws WebServiceClientException {

}

class ByteArrayTransportOutputStream extends TransportOutputStream {

    private ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream;

    @Override
    public void addHeader(String name, String value) throws IOException {
        createOutputStream();
        String header = name + ": " + value + "\n";
        outputStream.write(header.getBytes());
    }

    public byte[] toByteArray() {
        return outputStream.toByteArray();
    }

    @Override
    protected OutputStream createOutputStream() throws IOException {
        if (outputStream == null) {
            outputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        }
        return outputStream;
    }
}
}