An example exception handler for JAX-WS without code generation

JaxWsExceptionCatcher.java

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationHandler;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.lang.reflect.Proxy;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import javax.xml.soap.DetailEntry;
import javax.xml.soap.Node;
import javax.xml.soap.SOAPException;
import javax.xml.ws.Binding;
import javax.xml.ws.BindingProvider;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.Handler;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPHandler;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.soap.SOAPMessageContext;

public class JaxWsExceptionCatcher {

  private static final class MyExceptionHandler<T> implements
      InvocationHandler {
    private final T port;

    private MyExceptionHandler(T port) {
      this.port = port;
    }

    public Object invoke(Object proxy, Method method, Object[] args)
        throws Throwable {
      try {
        return method.invoke(port, args);
      } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
        Throwable bre = e.getTargetException().getCause();
        if (bre != null && bre instanceof MyRuntimeException) {
          throw bre.getCause();
        }
        throw e;
      }
    }
  }

  private static class MyRuntimeException extends RuntimeException {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = -2143724572440079147L;

    private MyRuntimeException(MyException cause) {
      super(cause);
    }
  }

  private static class MyFaultHandler implements
      SOAPHandler<SOAPMessageContext> {

    private final String namespace;

    public MyFaultHandler(String namespace) {
      this.namespace = namespace;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean handleMessage(SOAPMessageContext context) {
      return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean handleFault(SOAPMessageContext context) {
      try {
        DetailEntry detailEntry = (DetailEntry) context.getMessage()
            .getSOAPBody().getFault().getDetail()
            .getDetailEntries().next();
        if (detailEntry.getNamespaceURI().equals(namespace)
            && detailEntry.getLocalName().equals("MyException")) {
          String code = ((Node) detailEntry.getChildElements(
              new QName("code")).next()).getTextContent();
          String message = ((Node) detailEntry.getChildElements(
              new QName("message")).next()).getTextContent();
          if (code != null && message != null) {
            throw new MyRuntimeException(new MyException(code,
                message));
          }
        }
        return true;
      } catch (NullPointerException e) {
        // Soap fault is not in the format we expected
        return true;
      } catch (SOAPException e) {
        return true;
      }
    }

    @Override
    public void close(MessageContext context) {

    }

    @Override
    public Set<QName> getHeaders() {
      return null;
    }

  }

  public final static <T> T catchOn(final T port, String namespace) {
    Binding binding = ((BindingProvider) port).getBinding();
    List<Handler> handlerChain = binding.getHandlerChain();
    handlerChain.add(new MyFaultHandler(namespace));
    binding.setHandlerChain(handlerChain);

    Object pi = Proxy.newProxyInstance(port.getClass().getClassLoader(),
        port.getClass().getInterfaces(),
        new MyExceptionHandler<T>(port));
    return (T) pi;
  }
}

See the post for some explanation on using this