How to use JAX-WS 2.2.6 with JDK 1.6

JDK 1.6 comes with spec + implementation of JAX-WS 2.1. If we add all libs of JAX-WS 2.2.6 in our project classpath, the JDK still prefers it own JAXWS API i.e. version 2.1. It will cause jar conflicts or MethodNotFoundError etc.

To use JAX-WS 2.2.6 or later with JDK 1.6, we must force JDK to load spec+impl ver. 2.2.6. It is done by endorsing new library. There are two ways to endorse JDK to use our provided libraries instead of its own.

1. From JAX-WS 2.2.6 downloaded bundle. Put only jaxws-api.jar and jaxb-api.jar to JDK1.6/jre/lib/endorsed directory.
2. Set "java.endorsed.dirs" environment variable, it should point to directory than must contain jars to be endorsed. e.g. java.endorsed.dirs=d:\endorsedlibs, where endorsedlibs directory contains two jar files mentioned in step 1. 

We must not put all JAX-WS 2.2.6 jar files into endorsed directory. Only specifying two API jars (the specification) is enough. At runtime, the right implementation would be loaded from your project class path. Also note that, we don't need to put jaxws-api.jar and jaxb-api.jar into your project classpath. As it will cause duplication of jar.

Another important point is, the JAX-WS 2.2.6 used JAXB 2.2. If an older JAXB is found in your classpath, it will cause issues (JDK 6 comes with JAXB 2.0). Make sure there is no copy of jaxb-api.jar older than version 2.2. In my case, our webservice module was dependent on 'core' module, which was using jaxb-api.jar version 2.1, it wasted much time to identify the issues.