<bean id="webAnnotations" class="org.codehaus.xfire.annotations.jsr181.Jsr181WebAnnotations"/>

<bean id="handlerMapping" class="org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping">
<property name="typeMappingRegistry" ref="xfire.typeMappingRegistry"/>
<property name="xfire" ref="xfire"/>
<property name="webAnnotations" ref="webAnnotations"/>
<property name="urlPrefix" value="/ws/"/>
</bean>

and I'm getting the NullPointerException:

Rejected bean 'org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping' since it has no WebService annotation
Rejected bean 'multipartResolver' since it has no WebService annotation
Rejected bean 'authorizationInterceptor' since it has no WebService annotation
...
Error creating bean with name 'handlerMapping' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext-webServices.xml]: Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException: null
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.codehaus.xfire.annotations.jsr181.Jsr181WebAnnotations.hasWebServiceAnnotation(Jsr181WebAnnotations.java:27)
at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping.initApplicationContext(Jsr181HandlerMapping.java:64)

If we peek into the org.codehaus.xfire.annotations.jsr181.Jsr181WebAnnotations.hasWebServiceAnnotation(...) at line 27
we will see the following:
return clazz.isAnnotationPresent(WebService.class);

I persume that the clazz instance for abstract beans is null.

sap-servlet.xml
<bean parent="midasSOAPInterface">
<property name="fsRegister"><ref local="fsRegister"/></property>
</bean>

2005-11-29 11:45:21,213 ERROR [org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet] - <Context initialization failed>
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanIsAbstractException: Error creating bean with name 'midasSOAPInterface': Bean definition is abstract
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.checkMergedBeanDefinition(AbstractBeanFactory.java:759)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:213)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:147)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:555)
at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping.processBeans(Jsr181HandlerMapping.java:91)
at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping.initApplicationContext(Jsr181HandlerMapping.java:54)

Abstract bean in applicationContext HAS annotations,
but is realy used in ???-servlet.xml with customizing
property depends on child context.

Maybe this help.

2005-12-02 09:24:56,768 DEBUG [org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping] - <Rejected bean 'xfire.messageServiceFactory' since it has no WebService annotation>
2005-12-02 09:24:56,768 DEBUG [org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping] - <Rejected bean 'xfire.messageBindingProvider' since it has no WebService annotation>
2005-12-02 09:24:56,768 DEBUG [org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping] - <Rejected bean 'customEditorConfigurer' since it has no WebService annotation>
2005-12-02 09:24:56,768 ERROR [org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet] - <Context initialization failed>
org.springframework.beans.factory.FactoryBeanNotInitializedException: Error creating bean with name 'commons-attributes': FactoryBean returned null object: probably not fully initialized (maybe due to circular bean reference)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getObjectForSharedInstance(AbstractBeanFactory.java:819)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:191)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:147)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:555)
at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping.processBeans(Jsr181HandlerMapping.java:72)
at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.remoting.Jsr181HandlerMapping.initApplicationContext(Jsr181HandlerMapping.java:54)
at org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport.setApplicationContext(ApplicationObjectSupport.java:79)
at org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationContextAwareProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(ApplicationContextAwareProcessor.java:84)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:248)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:362)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:226)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:147)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:275)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:320)
at org.springframework.web.context.support.AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.java:134)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:305)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:250)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:219)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:112)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:211)

Simply put getBean(name) in try - catch and skip it all.

String[] names = applicationContext.getBeanDefinitionNames();
for(String name : names) {
try {
Object obj = applicationContext.getBean(name);
FsService anno = obj.getClass().getAnnotation(FsService.class);
if (anno==null) { logger.debug("Rejected bean '"+name+"' since it has no FsService annotation"); }else{
logger.info("Registering '"anno.name()"' from "+obj.getClass().getName());
if (anno.alias().length()>0) { logger.info("Registering '"+anno.alias()+"' from "+obj.getClass().getName()); }
registerMethodInFellowhip(obj,anno.name(),anno.alias());
}
}catch(Exception e){ logger.debug("Skip bean "+name+" reason "+e.getMessage()); }
}