I've been trying to configure the overrideTypesList in my services.xml file as documented here: http://xfire.codehaus.org/XML+Configuration <service> ... define your normal configuration... <properties> <property key="writeXsiType">true</property> <property key="overrideTypesList"> <list xmlns=""> <value>com.acme.Employee</value> </list> </property> </properties> </service> When I try to load the wsdl for me service, I get the following exception from XFire: org.codehaus.xfire.XFireRuntimeException: Couldn't load provider.. Nested exception is java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.String java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.String at org.codehaus.xfire.aegis.AegisBindingProvider.initializeMessage(AegisBindingProvider.java:82) at org.codehaus.xfire.service.binding.AbstractBindingProvider.initialize(AbstractBindingProvider.java:30) at org.codehaus.xfire.service.binding.ObjectServiceFactory.create(ObjectServiceFactory.java:433) at org.codehaus.xfire.annotations.AnnotationServiceFactory.create(AnnotationServiceFactory.java:240) at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.ServiceBean.afterPropertiesSet(ServiceBean.java:164) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1059) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:363) 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.codehaus.xfire.spring.XFireConfigLoader.getXFireApplicationContext(XFireConfigLoader.java:103) at org.codehaus.xfire.spring.XFireConfigLoader.loadContext(XFireConfigLoader.java:39) at org.codehaus.xfire.transport.http.XFireConfigurableServlet.loadConfig(XFireConfigurableServlet.java:75) at org.codehaus.xfire.transport.http.XFireConfigurableServlet.createXFire(XFireConfigurableServlet.java:51) at org.codehaus.xfire.transport.http.XFireServlet.init(XFireServlet.java:45) at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:211) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1105) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.allocate(StandardWrapper.java:757) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:130) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148) at org.apache.jk.server.JkCoyoteHandler.invoke(JkCoyoteHandler.java:199) at org.apache.jk.common.HandlerRequest.invoke(HandlerRequest.java:282) at org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket.invoke(ChannelSocket.java:754) at org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket.processConnection(ChannelSocket.java:684) at org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket$SocketConnection.runIt(ChannelSocket.java:876) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595) It appears that the Aegis code is correctly looking for a List, but for some reason, a String is being returned. I was able to work around this by using the wordier Spring syntax.